The Screenwriting Life with Meg LeFauve and Lorien McKenna 287 | Oscar Nominees Joachim Trier And Eskil Vogt On Doing It Your Way
Feb 26, 2026
Eskil Vogt, Norwegian writer-director known for The Worst Person in the World, and Joachim Trier, Oscar-nominated director of the Oslo Trilogy, share their long partnership and how they start with character and theme instead of plot. They talk craft over templates, balancing director control with collaboration, vulnerability in writing, shaping ideas into shared vision, and surprising casting discoveries.
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How A Teen Friendship Became A Lifelong Collaboration
- Joachim and Eskil met in their late teens and organically evolved from friends and short-film collaborators into a long-term director–writer partnership.
- They helped on each other's early shorts (storyboards, assisting on set) and kept collaborating through film school friction until writing together became their default process.
Use Friendship To Survive Creative Crises
- Their collaboration balances crises and high-energy waves, using honesty and long friendship to weather arguments and preserve creative momentum.
- They accept fights as part of the process, vent, then find third-way solutions and always reconcile to keep the partnership productive.
Write A Strong Foundation Then Let Collaborators Change It
- They ground films in deep groundwork and then stay open to collaborators' contributions during production and editing.
- Eskil contributes strongly in later stages, offering outside perspective when Joachim is more identified with the material.