‘It cost $200,000 to secure our film rights’
Lesley Paterson, the ex-triathlete nominated at tonight’s Oscars, speaks to John Wright
Lesley Paterson, 42, is an athlete, screenwriter and film producer who found fame in 2011 winning her first of three Triathlon World Championships. She co-wrote the screenplay for a 2022 remake of All Quiet on the Western Front, which won seven Baftas and is nominated for nine Oscars at tonight’s Academy Awards. Today she lives in Los Angeles with husband and business partner Simon Marshall.
HOW DID YOUR CHILDHOOD INFLUENCE YOUR ATTITUDE TO MONEY?
I grew up in Stirling, Scotland. My parents didn’t have money to begin with but got better off as I got older, always making sure we had security and were responsible with money.
My father was a surveyor for Scottish Power and my mum had a successful catering business, then a small hotel called the Old Manor. Taking risks to follow a dream was embedded in me. They liked us having Saturday jobs – I worked in a hair salon at the age of 13. When we owned the hotel we all chipped in, washing dishes or waiting tables. The attitude was always one of working hard.
WHAT WERE YOUR FIRST JOBS AS AN ADULT?
I went to university and started as an athlete very young, aspiring to be professional. I had lottery funding and did an admin job for the British Triathlon Association. Then I moved to California with my husband who got a job as a psychology professor at San Diego State University. I studied and did various jobs including selling theatre tickets and waiting tables.
Realising I had skills as a coach, at 27, to support my professional athletic endeavours, I started my own business, Braveheart Coaching. As my athletic career took off and I started to win races, the business got bigger. Then my husband, no longer happy in academia, went full-time on the business.
ARE YOU A SAVER OR A SPENDER?
A spender. Because I’ve struggled with chronic lyme disease throughout my athletic career, I spend a lot on doctors, health and wellness and food. We also spend on coming home to see family.
DO YOU USE CASH OR CARDS?
We use credit cards so we can get air miles. It’s a [Chase] Sapphire card we use mainly, which gives us credits for various things. We pay it off every month and have saved $30,000 (£25,000) using them over the years.
HAVE YOU INVESTED IN PROPERTY?
We have a house in San Diego we bought for $375,000 in 2011. Now it’s worth close to $900,000. We rent that out and we rent in Los Angeles, as we
can’t afford to buy a property until we get more films off the ground.
HAVE YOU STRUGGLED ON BILLS?
Yes. Covid was particularly bad for us because our coaching business relies on people using their extra funds. It’s a luxury to have a triathlon coach.
DOES MONEY MAKE YOU HAPPY?
Experiences make me happy. The security of money makes me feel relieved and allows me to pursue things.
HAVE YOU DONE TV ADVERTS?
For one of my running sponsors I pretended I was running to beat the speed of sound. It was all special effects with a big speaker behind me. It was part of my endorsement deal, which paid $15,000 a year. I’ve had eight sponsors at any one time and received $100,000-$150,000 a year.
HAVE YOU BEEN RIPPED OFF?
When you’re an actor in LA – I did some acting in my 20s – you’re offered big promotions like, we’ll sign you up for an agency. Come and have pictures taken, if you pay us a ton of money. I’ve done that. It was $500 but that’s a lot when you don’t have anything.
WHAT’S THE HARDEST LESSON YOU’VE LEARNT ABOUT BUSINESS?
It’s OK to lose, would be the best lesson. You waste time on smaller things instead of being dynamic in thinking more long-term and being OK with the risk. Often I’ll take more coaching clients as we worry about monthly bills, whereas if I’d spent my time building a bigger career I’d be better off.
WAS IT EXPENSIVE SECURING FILM RIGHTS?
For All Quiet on the Western Front, for 16 years we put $10,000-$15,000 a year into optioning the rights of the novel. So with lawyers’ fees, it was $200,000 my husband and I invested.
HOW DID YOU FINANCE IT?
We’d use my race earnings. For one particular race [the Costa Rica XTERRA triathlon in 2015] the option was due and we didn’t have the money. So I went out to race and the day before it I broke my shoulder and ended up racing – the swim, the bicycle, the run – with one arm. And I won it and took $6,500.
DO YOU EARN MONEY FROM BOX OFFICE SALES?
We don’t because it’s Netflix. In the future that would maybe be something we could negotiate because we didn’t know much at the time. The landscape seems to be changing; next time if it was Netflix again we could maybe have bonus structures in our contract – if you win an Oscar you get an extra $50,000.
HOW VARIED IS YOUR WORK NOW?
Our coaching business is still going. We’ve got another coach that’s going to run it for us now we’ve moved into film.
Our production company is called Brave Art Productions. The book my husband and I wrote together (The Brave Athlete: Calm the F--- Down and Rise to the Occasion) was published in 2017 and sold 100,000 copies. We’ve probably made $100,000 from it across the years. It’s based on brain training: my husband would train their minds; I would train their bodies.
It’s widely applicable and we’ve done a lot of public speaking in the business sector and with actors, special forces and top chief executives.
With our upcoming films we are always looking to partner with people. For our next we’re still putting together some finance and are keen to get help with that.
WHAT DO YOU CHARGE FOR A TALK?
Around $10,000. If I get an Oscar I can put my prices up.