Monroe native making name in Hollywood

It might not seem like Monroe and Hollywood would have a whole lot in common, but thanks to Monroe native Blye Pagon Faust, the city has earned a place of honor and distinction — along with a seat at this year’s Academy Awards.

The movie is called “Spotlight,” and as one of the film’s producers, the 1993 Monroe High School graduate has found herself in the spotlight. The film, which stars Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber and Stanley Tucci, has won numerous awards, including best picture, best acting ensemble and best original screenplay at the 2016 Critics Choice Awards, along with best feature at the 2015 Gotham Awards.

On Saturday, Jan. 30, “Spotlight’s” all-star cast won outstanding performance by a cast in a motion picture at the 2016 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, and in February, it’s off to the Academy. “Spotlight” is nominated for six Academy Awards, including best picture, best director, best supporting actor, best supporting actress, best film editing and best screenplay.

“It’s kind of crazy. It’s been surreal, but obviously incredibly exciting and thrilling,” Faust said.

“Spotlight” tells the true story of Boston Globe investigative journalists who broke a major story about widespread sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church. The story was reported by the Globe Spotlight Team, an investigatory unit tasked with generating uncompromising stories about challenging topics. The initial piece, published on Jan. 6, 2002, documented hundreds of cases of sexual abuse at the hands Boston priest John Geoghan.

The story revealed evidence proving the church was aware of the Geoghan’s sexual deviancy, and engaged in a massive cover-up that went on for years. After it was published, the story mushroomed, essentially becoming a full-time job for Spotlight reporters. Spotlight reporter Sacha Pfeiffer estimated the team wrote at least 600 stories on the Catholic Church sex scandal during 2002. 

In 2003, the Globe Spotlight Team won a Pulitzer Prize for its efforts.  

Faust and her partner, Nicole Rocklin, stumbled across the story shortly before founding their production company, Rocklin/Faust, in 2009. They were working on a different project when an author told them about the Globe Spotlight Team and gave them an overview of what had occurred. When they expressed an interest in learning more, he put them in touch with Spotlight reporters.

“We spoke to them and were just completely blown away and floored by their story, and thought it would make an extraordinary film — and a very important one,” Faust said. “So we flew to Boston in early 2009.”

As film producers, Faust and Rocklin oversee all aspects of creating a film, from the concept stage to the finished product. A producer is responsible for finding the story, acquiring the rights to the story and then locating script writers, directors and investors. The producer has input during script development, is there throughout shooting and editing and is responsible for marketing the movie prior to its release.

It’s like being the CEO or the coach of a project, Faust said.

With Spotlight, there was no book documenting the events, so they worked directly with Spotlight reporters to build the story from scratch.

“There wasn’t a book or an article or anything like that, so we just got the rights directly from them to tell their story and started putting it together from there,” Faust said.

They recruited writer and director Tom McCarthy, who co-wrote the movie with Josh Singer. McCarthy and Singer spent more than a year and a half developing the script, a process that included extensive research and numerous interviews with key players. Faust and Rocklin worked with two other producers on the project, Steve Golin and Michael Sugar of Anonymous Content.

The movie was initially slated for production through DreamWorks Studios but fell through, so they teamed up with Open Road Films.

Then it was time for casting.

“Mark Ruffalo was the first one to come onboard, and then once he came onboard, then the rest followed. He’s a real talent magnet,” Faust said. “Once he was signed on, that was incentive for a lot of other actors, like Michael Keaton and Rachel McAdams and others, to follow suit.”

The movie came out in November 2015, and has been winning awards and earning accolades ever since.

Faust lives with her husband, Aaron, and two young children in Marin County, California, in north San Francisco. In addition to Rocklin/Faust, she operates an interior design business founded in 2014 called ByBlye Interiors. ByBlye is based in the Bay Area, and Faust commutes to Los Angeles for her work in film and television production.

“I get to do both right now, which is kind of an abundance of riches,” Faust said.

Faust was raised in Monroe with her three siblings, Garrett, Alex and Alyssa. Her parents, Bonnie and Garry Pagon, still live in Monroe, and Faust enjoys traveling back to her hometown for visits. She attended school in the Monroe School District, and has nothing but fond memories of her hometown.

She excelled academically, said former Monroe mayor and longtime Monroe School District educator Donnetta Walser. Faust attended Walser’s honors classes while at Monroe Junior High.

“She was an amazing student,” Walser said. “I was always curious to see what she would do.”

Based on her performance in school, Walser was not at all surprised to hear of Faust’s success in both the movie industry and with her interior design business.

“Not only was she smart, she had this creative spark,” Walser said. “She could do anything.”

Faust was athletically inclined and participated in multiple sports growing up, including softball, basketball, soccer and tennis. After high school she set off for Santa Clara University, where she made the basketball team. She majored in English and took several theater classes, graduating in 1997 with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

Then it was time for new adventures.  Faust was interested in finding her passion, she said, which meant jumping in with both feet and trying different things.

“After I graduated from Santa Clara, I literally packed up my car and drove south and found an apartment in Westwood near UCLA, and spent a year acting,” Faust said. “You just kind of jump into the fray and figure it out as you go.”

She got plugged into the network at the Peter Stark Producing Program at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, and began acting in short films created by the students who attended the program. In addition to the graduate-level short films, she acted in independent projects and did some commercial work.

“That’s the crazy thing about Hollywood — is there’s no set path,” Faust said. “It’s about going out and sort of finding your own way.”

She applied for law school during that year, and was accepted into the UCLA School of Law. She graduated with a law degree in 2001 and became a litigator, specializing in entertainment law. She practiced in the Los Angeles area for two different law firms before deciding to shift careers and go into producing.

“I figured out that I loved entertainment,” Faust said. “But I didn’t love being an actor and I didn’t love being a lawyer.”

With the success of Spotlight, Faust has decided to dedicate renewed focus on her production work at Rocklin/Faust. She and Rocklin have numerous other projects in the pipeline, which is requisite of production work. The industry can be unpredictable, and things can change overnight, Faust said, so it’s best to not have too much reliance on any one project.

All told, it took them seven years to make Spotlight.

“It sounds like a really long time, but in Hollywood that’s actually not,” Faust said.    

Faust is looking forward to attending the Academy Awards ceremony, which takes place Sunday, Feb. 28, in Beverly Hills.

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Faust said.

Faust isn’t the only one of her siblings to have found success. Her sister, Alyssa Pitts, is an accomplished dressage rider and Gran Prix trainer; her brother, Garrett, is the president and co-founder of a defense contracting company in Virginia; and her youngest brother, Alex, is in business with her husband, Aaron.

For more information about Spotlight, visit spotlightthefilm.com.