vanity project Prince of Tides."It was like screenwriting boot camp," says Johnson.

"Barbra is extremely intense and extremely hands-on. She made me write in a room at her house and supervised every page I wrote. She made me rewrite scenes five or six times in one day. We fought a lot, but it was not a combative relationship."

Johnson received an Oscar nomination for her screenplay of Prince of Tides.

After these rather traumatic experiences, Johnson reached nirvana writing the screenplay for Jean-Jacques Annaud's Seven Years in Tibet, which opens Oct. 8.

"Jean-Jacques literally nurtured me and the screenplay, and what was even more astonishing was that when we finally sent it to Brad Pitt, he didn't ask for a single rewrite."