interview Jennifer Jason Leigh
chatted with Nathaniel R on December 17th, 2007 on the phone

 

I require your patience and forgiveness. I really do. When one speaks to an actor of the caliber of Jennifer Jason Leigh, a woman long respected for rather shocking actorly dives into grueling often tortured women (think Tralala in Last Exit to Brooklyn or the disintegrating Sadie in Georgia), one should probably begin with solemn acknowledgement of their skill with the craft. But when I spoke with the one and only Jennifer Jason Leigh I actually kicked things off with a sitcom aside. "So, um Jennifer. How did you feel about Jack McFarland taking your name in vain on Will & Grace all those years. (He had such a thing for the three name actresses)?"

I don't know what possessed me. I'm really not this geeky and socially awkward in real life. Thankfully, Jennifer chuckled -- presumably for my embarrassed benefit --providing the laugh track needed and went with the question. She informed me that she heard about it second hand, later saw a couple of episodes and assumed it was meant with love. "A good thing, right?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

Jennifer Jason Leigh then... Jennifer Jason Leigh now

Trying to save face, I quickly moved into professional interviewer mode and we took a trip back to the 80s and her rise to fame. I asked her about those heady days, particularly in the late 80s and early 90s when critics were regularly found cracking open thesauri to find new ways to top each other in their genuflection to the three-named girl. A critical darling she most decidedly was... and is, I should add, now that she's back in the spotlight for Margot at the Wedding.

Confronted with my curiosity about her breakthrough years, she didn't elaborate much beyond "It was a good time for me. I got to do really exciting stuff" but there was gratitude in her voice and no pretense whatsoever that she doesn't read reviews, god bless. Don't you hate when actors pretend that? I found her down to earth throughout the interview and altogether lacking in airs. She acknowledged that it's great to read kind words about your work.

Jennifer Jason Leigh inspired heated critical devotion and public lust in equal measure as far back as Fast Time at Ridgemont High (1982, pictured) but she has never been the sort of star actress about whom the public knew too much. She was never a tabloid fixture, always an actor first, star second. I was curious to know, then, if she had experienced in this time of junkies and whores any confusion from others about where her characters ended and where she began? She admitted that it had come up romantically at the time ... "sometimes you would go on a date and you could tell that someone was expecting you to be very dramatic or very high strong or wild... all these things that I'm not at all." So she is not her characters at all? "I'd much rather play those things than be those things" she added. Terrific answer... especially when you stop to consider the things she'd be if she were the things she played.

When asked how she had chosen her roles, Jennifer rattled through her answer to a question she'd obviously been asked a million times. But she humored me anyway. For her it's not an intellectual approach so much as a "do I connect to the character?" decision. She hastened to add that "the director will come into play too. I might not see it in the page but if I like the person..." When it comes to roles she's turned down she added with honest amusement "I've made mistakes... [long pause in which I swear I did not ask but in which time Jennifer Jason Leigh read my nosey mind] I won't tell you what they are." Defeated before I'd begun I tried anyway, asking for one tiny morsel, one secret could-have-been because I have no shame. She said "I just can't do it. I would really come off like a..." her voice trailing off more in thought than annoyance I think, for she then gave a measured response about loving certain movies that she didn't think would be right for her and wishing she had made them -- at the same time fully aware that they would have been different if she had and she often respected what the other actress had done.

We talked about the directors she had worked with in the past. For those unfamiliar with her filmography, a JJL viewing frenzy is rewarding. She's worked with Altman and Cronenberg multiple times. She co-starred in the underrated Jane Campion film In the Cut. When it comes to the men and women behind the camera, she's been lucky and/or rewarded for her devotion to the craft. Because of her close association with Cronenberg I asked her what she thought of his recent celebrated two-fer, A History of Violence and Eastern Promises. An instant "I love his movies" was the reply but she added "He's a sweetheart of a guy". She proceeded to paint a family man portrait quite unlike the man that the sick and twisted filmography might conjure in your mind's eye. Her affection was clear. So, too is the parallel. Jennifer Jason Leigh isn't a junkie whore and David Cronenberg (probably) doesn't have extra orifices in his body or an exploding head.

four famous roles: Tralala (Last Exit to Brooklyn), Hedy (Single White Female),
Dorothy Parker (Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle) and Sadie (Georgia)

When I found out that I'd get the chance to meet with Jennifer, I was most curious to ask her why she hadn't directed since The Anniversary Party (2001), her intimate and casually compelling debut behind the camera that also starred Alan Cumming who co-wrote and co-directed. She said that she really did want to but she was adamant that it be for something she wrote herself. She continued "It takes a long time. I wrote something but by the time I finished it I didn't like it" Writers will understand.

I was also curious how much she had stolen from her stable of admiring directors or whether her approach to directing was more intuitive. She said she did try to repeat the good experiences she'd had with directors, Robert Altman as the prime example. His model of working -- lots of dinners and lounging about -- she emulated. She wanted her set to be a similarly communal place. "I wanted it to be a great experience for the cast. I wanted it to be fun for them." She added that dinners and casual time spent together on set in which you're both working, doing informal read throughs, while visiting really help with the performances. You don't have to pretend as much history once you've built it on set.

This was a natural segueway to Margot at the Wedding and working with Nicole Kidman...

 

Next Page
Nicole Kidman, the "willingness to believe" and those Oscar snubs

 

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