As an actor, she is best known for her role as Jen Collins Short in the CBS sitcom Life In Pieces, but Zoe Lister-Jones is also a filmmaker whose 2017 comedy-drama Band Aid, which she wrote and directed, and starring in.
The all-female crewed project received tremendous reviews and signaled a gesture towards a strong movement of female empowerment that has continued to gather pace. Lister-Jones has since co-written and directed The Craft: Legacy and How It Ends and now lands in A Good Person, written, produced, and directed by Zach Graff.
STRIPLV: You're always so busy. Do you ever give yourself enough time for your personal life? LISTER-JONES: I do try, but I think it's just the way things fall. You will have dry periods as an actor and busy periods. It's about coping with the busy periods and trying to keep your cool and keep yourself busy when you don't have so much on. It is nice to be busy, but it's also nice to kick back and have a break. I was working on Life in Pieces for a good length of time. I then went straight from filming that to The Craft, then How It Ends, and had a bit of a break before the theater work I did on Slanted! Enchanted!. It's a hard schedule, but it's my passion. STRIPLV: How good was it to move back into film after such a long dedication to TV, from Whitney and Life in Pieces, with over one hundred episodes in total and many seasons? LISTER-JONES: At the heart of it, you're just acting, and that's the easy part. Of course, the methods and the mechanisms are different, and there is a bit of a mental shift you have to undertake. Film gives you much more time, and there is a whole new layer of perfection that is expected of every scene. There's no real race against time, and you have to be better at being slower and perhaps even more methodical. I wouldn't say it's better or worse; it's just different. STRIPLV: You've credited the producer Alix Madigan with telling you that you should go into directing. LISTER-JONES: I suppose I had thought about going into directing and writing, and maybe it was just the fact that I didn't know exactly where to begin or how to go about it. This industry is so packed with so many people doing things all the time and great people everywhere. You'll get the chance to meet superb individuals, and sometimes; you will be able to sit down and have a chat with them, and Alix gave me such a huge shot of confidence with that endorsement, and, yeah, it just went from there. STRIPLV: Regarding your directing and the fact you resumed straight-up actor person in A Good Person, what's the benefit of stepping back from the big chair and leaving that for someone else? Do you feel you act better? LISTER-JONES: I think there are two sides to it. When you're not directing, you will, of course, focus more fully on your character and the things they need to do, but you do so in a kind of isolation where the rest of the production is going on around you, and you put absolute and implicit trust in the way you are being told to take on a script, a scene, a character. When you are directing, you are across all characters, so the context of who you are and the back story of other characters and other scenes is in your mind at every turn. It's a more complete way of going about drama, as you know specifically where you fit in that jigsaw. So in one respect, you might think you're a better actor for knowing exactly where you fit in that jigsaw; but at the same time, you're putting the rest of the jigsaw together, and that can be exhausting. I guess what I'm saying is there are positives and negatives. STRIPLV: Now you've got the experience of doing it and have a few credits under your belt, would you feel equipped to pass on that experience to someone else? LISTER-JONES: 100%. There's absolutely no doubt about that. I am definitely the type of person who would love to be able to spot someone, to let them know that they can do whatever they want in their lives. I have actually spent time with writing groups and tried to pass on knowledge to people involved in that. It's not a defined art. Writers are very self-aware and self-preserving, and I wouldn't dare taint someone's product, someone's creation. However, in terms of direction, of being realistic, and in styling for film or TV, certainly I feel I have something to offer. The use of an all-female crew for Band Aid was a big thing for me. It's not a slight against men. It was just an expression of wanting to do my bit to keep ensuring we are leveling up an industry that can be lazy with its choices. I think people are coming around to realizing that proactive change sometimes means controversial change. You are not trying to offend one portion of society; you're just trying to represent the other better. STRIPLV: You've said that hitting 40 was a seminal moment. Are you inclined to look at other types of creativity, such as music or art? LISTER-JONES: I've always been happy with the projects I've worked on, the things I've written and directed, my performances… everything. And even the ones that I look back on and wince are in the past – I think certainly it's true that the older you become, the more you can look back and forgive yourself for some of the truly terrifying mistakes you've made, be that in fashion or anything else, right?! As for doing something other than acting, honestly, I don't feel the need to prove myself in another area. I think it's easy to be greedy and assume people are interested in all these other aspects of who you are what you can do. In acting, I'm not a perfectionist, but at the same time, I'm not embarrassed by anything I've put out. I always feel like I can do better, but I wouldn't want to change what I've done in the past. STRIPLV: People have described you as a fashion icon. LISTER-JONES: Well, that's a nice one. The truth is I fly by the seat of my pants. I mean, the pants are cool, obviously, hence the comment, but I wouldn't say I've got the most accomplished tastes. STRIPLV: Surely you have designers and brands coming to you asking you to wear this and that? LISTER-JONES: I do, and you've decorated my point perfectly, thank you. I mean, absolutely, they are the ones who have a better appreciation of what works, and yes, when I'm wearing something that's been given to me, I do feel a thousand dollars; but that can't happen every day of the week, so on other occasions I actually have to use my own judgment, and that's when things can go awry, I guess!
The Life In Pieces actress's writing credits
ONE Co-dependence is a Four-Letter Word This one-woman, 10-character show Lister-Jones wrote and performed in 2004, where she portrays many outrageous characters on topics such as loss, sex, and love.
TWO Breaking Upwards This 2009 romantic comedy she co-wrote with Peter Duchan and her partner Daryl Wein about real-life twentysomethings. It was a 'sweat equity' independent film and produced on a modest budget of $15,000.
THREE Lola Versus Another written in partnership with Wein, who also directed the movie, starring Greta Gerwig (Lola), Lister-Jones, Bill Pullman, Joel Kinnaman, and Debra Winger, about the main character and her battle to revive herself after being dumped before marriage.
FOUR Consumed Lister-Jones and Wein stepped away from comedy for the first time in their writing and into the world of political thrillers. The Brooklyn actor plays the main character Sophie, a waitress thrust into the world of science, politics, and sinister activity.
FIVE Band Aid Band Aid was Lister-Jones' directorial debut, and as well as writing and starring in the comedy-drama, she co-wrote original songs with Kyle Forester from the band Crystal Stilts. It also had an all-female crew, other than the male actors in the cast.