Oscar-nominated Emma Donoghue wrote Room screenplay before book came out

Academy Award-nominated novelist Emma Donoghue, who is up for best adapted screenplay for her book Room, has no time for jet lag after arriving in Los Angeles from France.

"It's a ceaseless round of parties," the Irish-Canadianauthor jokingly describes Oscar week in Hollywood.

She's had breakfastwith Toronto Mayor John Tory (in town to promote his city's film business),lunch with her Irish compatriots and has also attended a women in Hollywood event.

But the writer has a knack for planning ahead.

Even beforeDonoghue'sbestsellingnovel about a mother and child held captive for years was published, she had already started crafting ascreenplay for it.

• Oscar-nominated Room required painstaking precision from cast and crew

Donoghuebelieved thestorylent itself well to a film version.

"I thoughtit might as well be me, why not?" she said.

"There's a real traditionof women being very successfulwithin fiction, and then when it comes to the public world of film, often male scriptwriters will do that job of adapting."

Brie Larson, who is nominated for best actress for her role in Room, has already won a Golden Globe, Critics' Choice Award and Screen ActorsGuild Award for her portrayal of a woman trying to protect her young son at all costs.

Emma Donoghue tells CBC's Zulekha Nathoo what she's learned from screenwriting

9 years ago

Duration 1:01

The Irish-Canadian Oscar-nominated author describes what she will apply to her next film-writing project

"It's lovely to see a film about a woman and a child taken so seriously, because there has been thistendencyto see the white man as the one who can represent all of humanity and not anybody else," she said, noting theimportance ofthe current discussions about diversity in Hollywood.

Donoghuesaidher Oscar nomination has definitely changed her life, but not in the ways you might think. She doesn't get mobbed on the street, but people who have read the book or seen the film and recognize her tall stature and red hair certainly tell her how the story has touched them.

"Because of that amazing Oscar seal of approval, it's now opening in India andPhilippines," she said. "We didn't try to woo that huge audience in making the film soto see thatwe still managed to get a really worldwide audience without those compromises, it's just wonderful."

Donoghue iscurrently working on adapting her novelFrog Musicinto a screenplay, but admits the red carpet glitz ofHollywoodis a world she's happy to visit, but not linger in.

"I've been asked questions I've never been asked before like, 'Who are you wearing?'I find a lot of it quite funny and absurd," she laughed."I can't take the questions seriouslyat all."