Author Stephanie Wood on adapting her memoir, Fake, to screen

What was it like adapting your memoir for screen/did you have a part in this? 

After my book was released in mid-2019, I signed over the ‘option’ to Imogen Banks, then head of drama at Endemol Shine Banks, her own division of the production company Endemol Shine.

An option grants a producer the rights to a book for a period to develop it and ­explore whether they can attract or ‘attach’ key talent and draw funding to the project; the producer gives the author a small payment for each year they hold the ­option and, if it goes into production, a larger one-off amount based on the number and length of ­episodes.

My literary agent counselled me not to get my hopes up – many books are optioned, but few make it to film or television.

From that point, I was largely kept at arm’s length from the production, aside from one day in 2022 when I joined a writers’ room to answer a barrage of questions from the series screenwriters about my experience. I did get the chance to read the first scripts in 2023. I made a few comments on them, some of which were taken in, although not all.

What was the experience like working on set alongside Australian stars including Asher Keddie and David Wenham?

I spent two days on set in late 2023, watching the filming. I only briefly met Asher and David. I was filmed in a cameo role as an extra. I played an anonymous office worker in a scene where Joe (David Wenham’s character) meets a delegation of business people from China. I was barely a blur in the background. Later, I learned that, in the editing process, the scene was dropped, abandoned on the cutting-room floor!

Was it difficult re-watching your experiences play out in film?

It has been a very strange experience. I have been so insanely busy over the past few months that I don’t think I’ve yet had time to process it. Telling my story in a book was one thing but to have it on a national streaming service and for it to be discussed at water coolers around the country . . . hmm . . .  that’s something else altogether.

A TV series can’t ever capture the complexities and nuance that a book can, and I worked so hard to build complexity and nuance into my book. Since the series was released, I’ve occasionally glanced at comment sections on articles about the series where people pass judgment. Sometimes, I’ve wanted to shout, ‘Read the book!!!!’.

While writing FAKE, did you ever imagine you’d one day be on set, watching it become a series?

No. But before I wrote the book, I familiarised myself with screenplay structure. Staying within the boundaries of truth, I then developed a structure for the book that included stages and turning points to build dramatic tension.

I was conscious while writing to depict vivid, almost filmic scenes (without overdoing the adjectives!).

Your memoir explores relationships built on lies and deception, what advice do you have for creating healthy relationships?

Hold on to yourself at all costs, and do not let anyone treat you poorly.

If a relationship starts to feature multiple excuses, cancellations or contradictory or extravagant/unlikely stories to explain poor or strange behaviour, don’t hang around.

One cancellation or let-down, okay. Two, get ready to walk away. Three, run.

Also, don’t pay attention to what people say, for example in text messages (the person might be lying in bed with someone else while simultaneously sending loving text messages to multiple other people . . . I have heard of this happening over and over again!). Pay attention to what people do, their actions, what they show you – not what they tell you!