Paterson’s debut film, All Quiet on the Western Front, is up for nine Academy Awards. It could not have been made without her earnings as an athlete – and the drive that made her swim a mile with a broken shoulder
In 2011, Lesley Paterson was interviewed in Scotland’s Daily Record after becoming the off-road triathlon world champion. The headline crowed: “I beat my demons to be world champ … now I want an Oscar.” It was hard to know whether Paterson was rash, brash or simply delusional. The athlete had no track record in film. By then, she had spent five years trying and failing to remake the first world war epic All Quiet on the Western Front. It felt like a grand folly. Even her loved ones thought it was a pipe dream.
This week, Paterson is up for the best adapted screenplay Bafta for All Quiet, alongside her co-writer Ian Stokell and director Edward Berger. On 13 March, she will attend the Academy Awards, where she hopes to win her Oscar for best adapted screenplay. In total, the film has been nominated for nine Oscars.
