Who is Lesley Paterson? The life of the champion triathlete turned screenwriter tipped for Oscar glory
The remake of World War One epic All Quiet on the Western Front is the frontrunner for every film accolade this year.
The German-language Netflix movie has received nine Oscar nominations and 14 Bafta nods, and centres on the German experience of the war, as retold in the 1929 book by Erich Maria Remarque.
The film stars Felix Kammerer, Albrecht Schuch, Daniel Brühl, Sebastian Hülk, Aaron Hilmer, Edin Hasanovic, and Devid Striesow.
However, how the film came to be made is also a fascinating story and involves the dedication of world-champion triathlete Lesley Paterson.
Who is Lesley Paterson?
The 42-year-old from Stirling, Scotland, is a previous five-time world champion triathlete, an achievement that gave her the right “dedication” to thrive in cut-throat Hollywood.
In January, she told BBC News: “The dedication that comes from doing sport to that level, the obsession that you need, that fire in the belly.
“You don’t get as good as I did in sport and sustain it across so many years without really loving the process.”
Paterson feels she was able to take this and apply it to her work on the adaption for the remake of the 1930 film directed by Lewis Milestone, which has been nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, and came out on the streaming service last October.
Paterson’s early life
Like many, Paterson’s appetite for sport was born during her school days when she was the only girl, aged seven, to play on the boys’ rugby team due to there being no female equivalent at Stirling Rugby Club.
Of her time, she said to the Daily Record in 2012: “The boys either wanted to tackle me extra hard or were too scared to come near.”
At 14, Paterson was deemed too old to continue roughing it with the boys, which led to her interest in fell running, at the encouragement of her father, Alistar. Eventually, she took part in triathlons at the Stirling Triathlon Club, an institution Mr Paterson established.
Triathlon career
When Paterson was 16, she was already part of both the Scottish and British triathlon squads.
In 1997, she snagged victory in the Scottish Junior Championship, and came 15th in the World Junior Triathlon Championships in 1999. The following year, Paterson earned a silver medal at the World Junior Duathlon Championships, a race with no swimming section, something she admitted struggling with, telling Triathlon Magazine in 2012 that she found it a “harrowing experience”.
After her failed ambitions to reach the Olympics and the Commonwealth Games, a time in her life she dubbed her “lowest moments”, Paterson stepped away from the sport.
Paterson’s move to the US
During her hiatus, Paterson read for an undergraduate degree in English and drama at Loughborough University before relocating to the California city of San Diego with her husband, Simon Marshall, a psychologist who got a job there in 2003.
“I wanted to leave triathlon behind. Everyone knew I’d failed, “ Patterson said of her move to the Sunshine State. “No one knew me in San Diego, so it was a chance to reinvent myself.”
While out there, she did a master’s degree in theatre and began working as an actress in professional and student plays and films, and only ran as a hobby.
However, in 2007, Paterson returned to the world of professional sports at the Scottish Triathlon Championships with no expectation of winning - but did exactly that.
Building on that success, between 2008 and 2018, Paterson took part in many XTERRA Triathlon World Championships, where she won three gold medals and four silver medals, and ITU Cross World Championships, winning two gold medals and one silver.
Then Paterson moved into coaching under the name of Braveheart Coaching, in November 2011, a venture she labelled as incredibly “rewarding” but difficult because of how much you “give”.
Paterson, with Marshall, then wrote the Brave Athlete, a manual to help aspiring sportsmen and women calm their post-race jitters, in 2017.
Paterson’s writing career
After graduating with her MA in theatre, Paterson teamed up with her writing partner, Ian Stokell, to purchase the rights to the novel All Quiet on the Western Front, by Remarque and beloved by Paterson since she studied it at high school, roughly 16 years previously.
Recently, Paterson explained why the story appealed to her and why it was important to give it the updated cinematic treatment. The film is directed by Edward Berger after Deep Impact director Mimi Leder was reportedly attached to it in 2011, saying the German perspective made it a unique “anti-war film”.
“We loved the fact that it was about the German side, because we don’t often see that,” Paterson told STV News.
“We see Germany as the enemy, and this story is about the fact that there is no hero. War is not an adventure, it’s a classic anti-war film.
“All of those things combined made us very passionate about wanting to retell this story.”
Using her sports winnings to finance the project via their production company, Sliding Down Rainbows Entertainment Inc, often meant competing in dire conditions, like with a broken shoulder.
She said: “Every year, we would have to maintain the option for the novel, which was several thousand dollars.
“Often, I would use my race earnings to help with that,” Patterson continued. “A few years ago, the rights were coming up and we didn’t have the money and I was heading out to Costa Rica to race and I needed to win that to pay the option.
“The day before the race, I broke my shoulder by falling off my bike and so I ended up racing with one arm.
“I still managed to win, so it was definitely one of those strange ordeals that get you there in the end.”
Paterson has also served as executive story producer on Cosmic Radio (2007) and is in pre-production on Ulysses Coyote.
