Nancy Breaux is “a second set of eyes” for the director. As a script supervisor on movie and television sets, her job is to maintain continuity—to know the script and details more than almost anyone on set. She calls it simultaneously one of the hardest and most rewarding film jobs.
“You’re constantly playing a game of eye spy all day long to make sure there are no mistakes visually happening on camera, continuity-wise,” she says.
When the Donaldsonville native graduated from LSU in 1985, she started her career as on-camera talent as a lifestyle host on Good Morning Texas. Soon, she transitioned to the production side of entertainment, studying at the Art Institute of Dallas. While working in Texas, she found herself serving as script supervisor for multiple smaller projects before moving back to Louisiana and committing to script supervising full time, with the Fox series Breakout Kings being a notable milestone in her career.
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Since returning to Baton Rouge with her camera operator husband, her name has appeared as script supervisor on about 50 productions over the past decade, including Apple TV+’s Golden Globe-nominated miniseries Black Bird starring Taron Edgerton, as well as the Paramount+ series Mayor of Kingstown starring Hawkeye actor Jeremy Renner. Breaux has also directed her own flick, Aspire to Land, which filmed in Lafayette.
WHAT SHE DOES
[As a script supervisor, Nancy Breaux acts as a liaison and note-taker between departments on set, ensuring continuity.]
Acting as a liaison between various departments on a film set, script supervisors like Breaux are in charge of ensuring costumes and makeup align with the production’s continuity, as well as understanding camera lingo to maintain a cohesive feel to the entire production.
Script supervisors, she explains, are also responsible for what goes on the clapboard before the director yells “action,“ compiling notes for editors to help put the disparate elements of filmmaking into a cohesive whole.
“It’s a lot of trying to talk in a way that brings community and brings a positive outcome without a major crisis happening,” Breaux says.
Over the past decade, she says she has earned the respect of the directors and industry, so much so that she feels she is part of the creative process alongside the director and the director of photography. At her current level she is allowed to “rethink critically” many of the decisions made on set, becoming a problem solver.
She’s also dedicated to training the next generation of script supervisors, teaching classes with Baton Rouge’s NOVAC office.
“We’ve got to nurture our state,” she says.
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This article was originally published in the February 2023 issue of 225 magazine.