Winnie Jong prides herself on delivering strong performances & finding magic in scripts

The Firecracker Department

Winnie Jong (Law & Order Toronto, Jane) may now be recognized as a director, but her journey started behind the scenes as a script supervisor. Growing up across the street from a movie theatre, she fell in love with cinema, watching Federico Fellini films and dreaming of directing her own someday. In her chat with Naomi, Winnie recalls how she initially saw script supervising as a detour but soon realized it was anything but. Being in the middle of all the creative conversations gave her invaluable insight and set the foundation for her directing career. Making the jump to directing wasn’t easy, but it pushed her to try something new every day. At first, she searched for the “magic” script to direct but eventually let go of that idea, learning that any script could be magical with the right vision. Now, Winnie prides herself on running sets where there’s room to explore emotionally charged scenes, giving herself and her actors the time to dig deep. She’s discovered she can consistently pull powerful performances from her cast, which she counts as one of her biggest accomplishments. As she continues to grow her career, Winnie stays motivated by the same dream that inspired her as a kid: creating her own Fellini-esque films. With every project, she gets closer to making that dream a reality.