Hollywood can be a brutally exploitative place where newcomers to the business endure humiliation, long-hours, and menial tasks early in their careers. This is all in service to eventually combing the ranks to become a studio head or thereabouts. Career progression in the film business is a hybrid strategy of meticulous planning and working for those high up in the food chain while keeping any transgressions and missteps as discrete as possible.

From creator and showrunner Kathleen Robertson, Swimming with Sharks is an addictive, six-part limited series that takes its viewers on a twisted journey through the dark side of what it means to be a cutthroat Hollywood executive – and an equally cutthroat aspiring intern. Robertson carved her career in the business as an actress, and more recently, sat behind the keyboard as a writer.

Sharks is also the name of a 1994 film by George Huang which covered similar subject matter; the key difference was that junior did not triumph in the end. Robertson’s reworking of the story made the the intern just as ambitious as her boss.

Robertson’s story centers on Joyce Holt (played by Diane Kruger), CEO of a major Hollywood studio, and Lou Simms (Kiernan Shipka), the fresh-faced new girl in town who has just landed her dream job interning in Joyce’s office. Lou is just as obsessed with Joyce as Joyce is with herself; and as they develop an unexpected relationship, the power dynamic soon begins to shift from senior to junior. Also starring Donald Sutherland, Thomas Dekker, Finn Jones and Gerardo Celasco, Swimming with Sharks is a show that, while over-the-top, still feels like it could be scarily accurate. This is a dramatic tightrope Kathleen Robertson walks with precision. Every scene remains within the realms of possibility.

Kathleen Robertson

The story touches on a number of big, timely topics, such as toxic and abusive work environments, the challenges women face trying to balance a career with having a child, mental health issues, and the racism, sexism and manipulation prevalent in old-school Hollywood.

But the show is far from “preachy” and turning her story into any kind of teachable moment was the farthest thing from Kathleen Robertson’s intention while writing Swimming with Sharks. Having been in the industry for over 30 years as an actor, she knew what story she wanted to tell and it had nothing to do with conveying a message.

“I really made a conscious choice when I was writing this that I didn’t want to think about those things,” she said. “I think that one of the dangers that you can get into as a writer is to think about how people are going to receive something or how something is going to be perceived or what kind of statement you’re trying to make. I really feel like that’s when – for me, anyway, as a writer – I get into danger. I’m certainly not looking to teach or make big statements with anything that I do. I can’t approach it that way – I have to approach it from a purely creative place of ‘where am I interested’, ‘where am I going’, and ‘what am I drawn to’. 

“I think ultimately that’s the stuff I always respond to also as a viewer,” she continued. “I hate when I feel like I’m trying to be force-fed a lesson or commentary on where we’re at as a society. It’s just not my vibe. So I really wanted to just center on these two characters. I wanted to tell this weird, unconventional love story between these two women who, on the surface, appear to be opposites; but really, they have more in common than they have uncommon. I really tried to be – for lack of a better word – a bit punk rock in the way that I approached it. I’m just going to go where I want to go and if people think it’s cool and they like it, that’s great! And if they don’t, then that’s ok too. So that was how I approached it.”

Worrying about how an audience – and perhaps even more stressfully, a producer – will respond to one’s script can be a common concern for writers. So I asked Robertson if just writing for the love of the craft and the story she wants to tell is as freeing an experience as it sounds.

“Yes, and I feel like it’s similar with acting as well,” she said. “I think that with anything that’s a creative endeavor, you just have to stay true to your own inner voice and what you’re drawn to. And as hard as it is sometimes, you just have to block out all the noise. You have to say ‘Ok, I understand that you really want me to do a commentary about MeToo – but that’s not what I’m interested in right now, that’s not what I want to do’. Or ‘I understand that you want me to comment on the toxic work environment and male/female dynamic – great, but that’s not what this show is’. 

“It’s been an interesting process for me for sure, and I think that it’s probably why I’ve had success as a writer. I haven’t really allowed myself to think about what’s hot right now or what’s going to sell or what do people want or what’s in or what’s out. I just put my blinders on and I focus on the stuff that I’m into. And hope that other people will connect as well.”

All of that said, does she think that the industry was more receptive to her story now than it might have been, even just five years ago?

“I think so, yeah. I think that we are definitely at a great place for women. As much as there are a million things we could sit and dissect and talk about… we do have a lot of work to do and there is a lot more that needs to happen.”

Lou Simms (Kieran Shipka) Photo by Sophia Economou/ Roku Channel

“But I started in the industry when I was ten years old and when I look at what it was to be a young woman starting out in this industry then versus what it is for a young woman now…it’s night and day. For the better. What I witnessed and went through as a young actor… that stuff would never happen now. It just would never be allowed, thankfully. I think there is a lot of positive now amongst some of the more obvious challenges.”