Earlier... 05/04/06 Thanks a lot to Derek for passing me the following info, knowing it will be the first on a coming string of accolades: "Abigail's Party," Mike Leigh's hilarious tale of a desperate celebration, has received eight Lucille Lortel nominations, more than any other show. Among its nominations for best of the current off-Broadway season were nods for revival and for lead actress, Jennifer Jason Leigh. How's that for starters? Earlier... 26/03/06 According to Vogue news, Marc Jacobs has reportedly booked actress Jennifer Jason Leigh and make-up artist Dick Page to star in the ads for his forthcoming mainline collection. Great news since JJL does this kind of work magnificently as shown in the Neiman Marcus catalogue from years back. Keep an eye on all fashion, the ads will pop everywhere pretty soon!   Earlier... 07/03/06 Thanks to John for pointing me to the following article! It's from  today's Variety, so likely to disappear in the next hours: Par unit will paint it Black Thesp joins Kidman, Leigh in Baumbach pic  By MICHAEL FLEMING Jack Black has joined Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh in Noah Baumbach untitled film for John Lesher's Paramount Classics. Scott Rudin is producing. Black will play the husband of a young woman who is visited at her upstate home by her sister and 12-year-old nephew. Baumbach's script originally was titled "Nicole in the Country," until that became too literal when Kidman committed. Pic begins lensing April 2 on Long Island. Lesher made Baumbach's follow-up to "The Squid and the Whale" one of his first major projects when he left his post as an Endeavor agent to run Par Classics. Since arriving, Lesher also has set production starts for "There Will Be Blood," an adaptation of the Upton Sinclair novel "Oil!" with Paul Thomas Anderson to direct and Daniel Day-Lewis to star, and "No Country for Old Men," a Joel and Ethan Coen adaptation of the Cormac McCarthy novel to star Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem. Rudin is producing both projects, and Lesher partnered in each with Miramax's Daniel Battsek. Lesher's is the sole studio on the Baumbach film. Coming off "King Kong," Black just completed the Nancy Meyers-directed "The Holiday," which Col opens Dec. 8. Next out is "Nacho Libre" on June 2, followed by "Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny," which New Line releases Nov. 17.  Earlier... 01/03/06 Old to publishing time, new to the site. Naoshi sent me a link to a BBC interview with JJL, both video and text (as always, text below, in case of dead link). Enjoy!: BBCInterview Tom Brook: "What is it that makes you take on parts in dark movies playing intense characters?" Jennifer Jason Leigh: "I think they're usually just better-written characters and they're fun to play and they give you more to do, so it just makes the acting richer. For me it's just more interesting, that's why." Tom Brook: "You have worked as a director and you have a good track record as an actress so what do you want to do with your career right now, is there a particular direction that you want to go in?"  Jennifer Jason Leigh: "I want to do more writing and directing, that I love doing so I definitely want to do that, but I want to keep acting as well." Tom Brook: "You have stayed away from very mainstream Holllywood films - is that by design?" Jennifer Jason Leigh: "It's just by the fact that a lot of those scripts, I just don't find appealing. I don't find them interesting." Tom Brook: "You do seem very down to earth, but when you are working on a film do you find that you get starstruck?"  Jennifer Jason Leigh: "Not so much once you're working on it. When I first met Paul Newman I could barely look at him, but after a couple of days, he's so easy and sweet that you forget about it. But yeah, I think when I meet someone that I have always admired I get a little timid for a while. I was very timid with Robert Altman for a long, long time, but now, less so. " Tom Brook: "What is it that gives you a measure of how you're doing in professional terms? Do you make sure you get strong feedback, because I can imagine there are people who might surround you and tell you how wonderful you are the whole time?" Jennifer Jason Leigh: "Oh yes. I have some good critics, I have some strong critics, and also I'm a pretty strong critic. I don't tend to favour myself. I know when I'm good and I know when I'm not good. I might be a lttle hard on myself." Earlier... 25/02/06 JJL ends her run on the off-Broadway production of Abigail's party after the March 11 performance and will be replaced by actress Gayton Scott. Reason? The movie with husband Noah Baumbach is well on the tracks and aiming for a fall release. Recently there was a casting session for kids to appear in the yet-untitled picture, so apparently this is actually Leigh's next project to hit the screens.  Earlier... 29/01/06 By The Hollywood Reporter: Par unit has latest from Baumbach By Borys Kit and Anne Thompson Noah Baumbach is reteaming with Scott Rudin for an untitled drama-comedy and is lining up Nicole Kidman and Jennifer Jason Leigh to star. The movie, which Baumbach is writing and directing as his follow-up to "The Squid and the Whale" will be distributed by Paramount's specialty film division, which is being run by new head John Lesher. Although details are being kept under wraps, the film will be another multigenerational story that takes place over a weekend and follows a mom and her son who visit the mom's sister. Kidman and Leigh are in talks to play the sisters; no deals are signed. Baumbach's "Whale" of a movie has garnered six Independent Spirit Award noms, including directing and screenplay mentions for Baumbach. The film also received three Golden Globe nominations, including one for best motion picture musical or comedy. UTA-repped Baumbach worked with Rudin on "The Life of Aquatic With Steve Zissou," which he co-wrote with Wes Anderson. The movie is the second Rudin is doing for Par's as-yet-unnamed division despite having shifted his operation from Paramount to the Walt Disney Co.'s Miramax. Last week he set up "There Will Be Blood," with Paul Thomas Anderson directing and Daniel Day-Lewis starring. Kidman, repped by CAA, recently wrapped shooting Warner Bros. Pictures' "The Visiting" for Oliver Hirschbiegel. Leigh, who is married to Baumbach, is repped by UTA and Untitled. Her credits include "The Machinist," "In the Cut" and Todd Solondz's "Palindromes." For the record: It's three the charm? JJL and Kidman have tried to work together before on the screen (twice!). First time was for the infamous Eyes wide shut, where JJL's part was recast with Marie Richardson. Second time, in the magnificent In the cut, where Kidman's role was played by Meg Ryan. (Yeah, they were playing sisters too!). However they worked together, Leigh as the star and Kidman as the executive producer. This is something Noah and Jen should do right now. The world needs another Cassavetes-Rowlands cinema couple...  Last but not least, the following is the article on JJL published in "In New York" magazine. Thanks to Naoshi for that and also for the great new photographs: Life of the party By Brian Scott Lipton Photographed by Matthew Jordan Smith   She made her mark playing lurid roles –a prostitute in Last exit to Brooklyn (1989), a psycho roommate-from-hell in Single White Female (1992), a phone-sex operator in Short Cuts (1993), and a pill-popping reporter in Dolores Claiborne (1995)- but brown-eyed, blonde leading lady Jennifer Jason Leigh is  filled with innocence and glee as she talks bout her childhood memories of the holiday season. “When I was a kid, I loved that song ‘The little-drummer boy’ so my sister gave me a record. I was so happy it made me cry,” she recalls. “And after the movie Born free came out, I was so crazy about it that my mother bought me a big stuffed lion for Christmas, which I named Born Free, even tough the lion in the movie was really named Elsa.”             Now 43, Leigh still loves Christmas presents-both giving and receiving. But gifts are just a small part of an elaborate tradition in her family-which includes her mom, actress-screenwriter Barbara Turner; stepfather, director Reza Badiyi; half-sister, actress Mina Badie; and new husband, film director Noah Baumbach. “During the holidays, we have a gift-wrapping competition. There’s no prize, but we can take two or three weeks just to wrap one gift,” she chuckles. “One year, I made all this little boxes-inspired by the artist Joseph Cornell-to put on top of the boxes. My mom once stuffed all the gifts inside antique pillows. And my sister did a whole theme with AstroTurf, that included a gate inside of a bow. It’s really insane.”             Leigh’s gift packages may be less elaborate this season, as the city apartment in which she and Baumbach live is much smaller than their West Coast home. “I have an entire room for wrapping there; here, the space is a lot more compressed,” she says. More importantly, Leigh will have considerably less time on her hands, since she’s now starring Off-Broadway in the New Group’s production of Abigail’s party, written by the Oscar-winning writer/director Mike Leigh (no relation).                       First performed in England in 1977, the play is set in a lower-middle-class English home in the mid-1970’s. Beverly, a domineering, tart-tongued woman (played by Leigh) and her husband Lawrence throw a small cocktail party for their neighbors, but the gathering doesn’t quite go as planned.             On the surface, the play seems like little more than chit-chat, but Leigh says it’s deceptively deep. “One of the things I love about the play is that it’s so keenly observed and so real,” she says. “You think the characters are saying these banal, random things, but you don’t realize the massive implication of every word until the end. It took a little while for me to step away from the horrible things my character does and to see her point of view. She’s a frustrated, lonely person-married to a husband she barely sees-who just sits around all day with her thoughts. This party is her chance to be funny and get attention, which is what she really craves”.             Leigh herself has been getting attention ever since she began her acting career at age nine, in a non-speaking role in Death of a stranger (1973), directed by her stepfather.             Born February 5, 1962, Jennifer Lee (sic) Morrow was the second child of Turner and actor Vic Morrow. Her parents divorced when she was two years old and, in 1982, her father died during a helicopter accident during the filming of Twilight Zone: the Movie (1983). As a teenager, she worked steadily in made-for-TV movies, dropping out of high school shortly before graduation to pursue her career. She made her jump to big-screen stardom playing a sex-starved virgin in Fast times at Ridgemont High (1982), where she met her best friend Phoebe Cates (whose 14-year-old son, Owen Kline, stars in her husband latest film, The Squid and the Whale).                      Over the next two decades, Leigh appeared in 40 films, including Miami Blues (1990), Backdraft (1991), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994), The Road to Perdition (2002), and In the Cut (2003).             Despite consistently getting rave reviews, she remains remarkably unimpressed with her accomplishments. “If I catch one of my movies while I’m flipping channels, I might watch for two or three minutes, but you know, I’ve seen them already,” she says. The one exception is Georgia (1995), which was written by her mother. In that movie, she played a drug-addicted aspiring singer, a character reportedly based on older sister Carrie Morrow, who kicked a heroin habit and is now a drug counselor living in Minnesota. “I guess it’s the one film I’d want to put in a time capsule,” she admits.   Despite the fact that she often plays unsavory neurotics, she is not, she insists, a lunatic. “People have so many ill-conceived ideas about me based on the parts that I play. When I was single, guys came out of the woodwork to date me, and I found out very quickly that they were expecting some kind of whirlwind, dramatic, crazy person. That’s just not me.”             In reality, Leigh is low-key, down-to-earth, and likes to spend quiet time with her hubby. “We both love to walk around the city, especially at holiday time. Of course, Noah walks everywhere, even in Los Angeles,” she notes. “Our favorite part of town is the East Village. It has really great food, especially some of the Italian restaurants. And there are wonderful little shops” where she’s sure to buy Christmas presents for everyone on her list. “I love finding things that someone mentioned once, maybe even a long time ago,” she says. What should gift givers buy her? “I don’t like asking for specific presents. I think it takes the fun out of it,” she says. “But I do collect old Polaroid cameras. It started when I was little-my stepfather had one, and we used to spend a lot of time sitting for photos. I like the instant gratification of a Polaroid. And I especially love the way photographers communicate without words.”     Earlier... 08/01/06 Biggest news to report: Jennifer Jason Leigh has dropped out of Funny farm! Cause? Unknown, but I'm guessing the extended performance of Abigail's party has a part of the blame. Anyway, I have the production notes of Funny farm which describe the whole thing and JJL's name's nowhere to be found as reported previously on IMBD. Oh well, this project is dead. Another one she supposedly signed to do was 1 & 9 with my fellow citizen Alfredo De Villa. This project is also a no no and her part will now be filled with Heather Graham. That leaves only America to expect this year... don't get me started on the list of the announced projects that nobody talks about anymore...  Earlier... 01/01/06 Abigail's party is extending it's run till April 8th 2006. More chance to check it out if you haven't done so. Earlier... 07/12/05 Has anyone else noticed that JJL is no longer a goofy gal in interviews and has become an outspoken voice of the banalities of Hollywood life? Anyway, here is the link to the "New York" magazine feature and the text, since the mag is apparently published weekly and may be subject of quick link removal:  http://www.newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/arts/theater/15247/ Theater Lone Star Jennifer Jason Leigh plays an extroverted striver in Abigail’s Party. Now, that’s a stretch. By Boris Kachka (Photo credit: Rennio Maifredi)   Jennifer Jason Leigh is relishing a rare day off from rehearsals for the revival of Mike Leigh’s Abigail’s Party. She whirls expectantly into Blue Tree, the offbeat boutique that her best friend, Phoebe Cates, just opened on Madison Avenue. “Is Phoebus here yet?” she calls out in her trademark nasal drawl. “Jenny!” shouts her former co-star from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, plopping herself down among the vintage pendants and $107 Harley Davidson T-shirts. “Who knew retail was so exhausting?” The two compare notes on a pair of shoes Leigh calls “genius.” In short order, Leigh has picked out a couple of sock monkeys and a vintage painting of two cowboys (baby-shower gifts) and a card that, Cates jokes, was created by handicapped craftspeople. Leigh laughs and then remembers there’s a reporter in the room. “Great, you’re gonna write that I laughed about the lady in the wheelchair.” It’s when she realizes there’s an audience, that she isn’t just among friends, that Leigh’s guard goes up. Work is the same way: Rehearsals are the fun part, and the idea of spectators filing in is, she confesses, “a little off-putting.” But in live theater, of course, that’s a fear you have to face—or maybe you don’t. “You cannot alter your performance based on audience reaction,” she says. “Audiences respond like a sea, you know. A sea of cattle, or—a herd. So if it’s a loud audience, you’re gonna be loud. They’ve done studies on it. It’s the same thing as that girl on the bridge who was murdered, and everybody just watched her murder. No one dialed on their fucking cell phone.” It might seem odd that a veteran of 60 movies, born into Hollywood, so obsessed with acting that she quit high school six weeks before graduation to pursue it, would chafe at attention—let alone cast herself as the victim of indifferent onlookers. Yet throughout her career, Leigh has cultivated an outsider’s ambivalence, lingering on the fringes of the red carpet. “This play is costing me a bloody fortune,” she says. “But what am I really missing out on? It really feels crappy when you’re doing shit work.” The daughter of actor Vic Morrow and screenwriter Barbara Turner, she changed her name from Jennifer Leigh Morrow (taking her new middle name from family friend Jason Robards) to prove she could make her own name. From the very beginning, Leigh gravitated toward dark and/or slatternly roles, playing an anorexic in the 1981 TV movie The Best Little Girl in the World and a blind deaf-mute in the cheesy thriller Eyes of a Stranger. Even after her breakthrough as a deflowered virgin in Fast Times, she appeared in Flesh and Blood, a Paul Verhoeven entertainment in which she was stripped and gang-raped by a cult of medieval mercenaries. But Leigh’s intense (and intensely researched) performances quickly brought her more challenging and varied work, playing everything from Dorothy Parker to a duped, corseted heiress in Washington Square. She names her role in Georgia, as a strung-out, awful singer envious of her celebrity sister, as her all-time favorite. Leigh went down to 89 pounds for the role. She made herself look even worse as the gang-raped hooker Tralala in Last Exit to Brooklyn. But she’s not interested in just any victim role. She read early on for the lead in Pretty Woman and was later asked by the Guardian why it didn’t work out. “[The director] actually said something so hysterical to me about the character,” she told the newspaper. “He said: ‘She’s only been doing this a few weeks, so it’s still a lot of fun for her.’ Yeah, it’s a lot of fun getting into a car with a 68-year-old and giving him a blow job. Really exciting.” It’s her fidelity to her characters that convinced Mike Leigh she was right for his revival in the part of Beverly, a clueless, lethally obnoxious English suburban hostess. “She is an extraordinary character actor,” director Leigh says, “and it doesn’t mean what it means in Hollywood, which is just people put out to grass playing small parts. She is bullshit-proof. She’s got a real strong sense of the real world and of real people and the pain of existing and all that stuff.” Today, over an egg-white omelette at the dowdy (for Madison Avenue) diner Jackson Hole, the fortysomething Leigh is candidly realistic about some of the choices she’s made. “I’ve overworked things or over-researched things. I think I’ve been too removed at times. If I had done some of the roles that I turned down stupidly, which ended up being awfully good movies—I just couldn’t see it at the time—I’d be in a position today where I had more opportunities. But, you know, the truth is there aren’t a lot of movies I want to go see.”   She isn’t too worried about Abigail’s Party, though. For one thing, she insists she has a lot in common with the social animal she plays. “This is a woman who puts on a record and she stares at the Lava lamp for hours. I’ve done that. I can vague out for hours on the couch. I’m not a pacer.” A fan of parlor games, Leigh rates herself an INFP on the Myers-Briggs personality test: introverted, intuitive, feeling, and perceptive. She says she’s found the perfect complement in Noah Baumbach, the Squid and the Whale auteur she married a few months ago. After saying she doesn’t discuss her personal life because “it’s just nothing I’m selling,” Leigh opens up anyway about what it’s like to be a high-school dropout partnered with a Brooklyn intellectual. “Yeah, he went to Vassar, blah blah blah,” she says. “Our brains are so different. With every single record, he can not only tell you who wrote the song but who played bass. Whereas I’m a person, someone asks me, ‘Who played your parents in blah blah?’ and I have no fucking idea. But we’re so well suited to each other, in our work especially. It feels so good to respect someone that I love as much as I do.” The two have discussed working together (she won’t give details), and Leigh, who co-wrote the Hollywood satire The Anniversary Party, also continues to write screenplays—though she recently shelved a project when a studio balked at the budget. Genuinely bi-coastal, she finds our city a bit of an energy drain. “If you don’t have a lot going on, New York can be overstimulating. It can make you want to zone out. If you’re sensitive or introverted, it can be hard.” Not that Hollywood is a picnic. You almost believe Leigh when she says the lack of even an Oscar nomination is no big deal and that “the event itself would probably be too much adrenaline for me. I love watching them in my sweats with my friends.” Or when she mocks other stars’ obsession with the prize, saying, “If you knew what actors did to get nominated, it would make you shit your pants.” Leigh’s choices may have kept her from becoming the sort of dimpled darling who charms the academy. But she’s learned to tout her maverick persona as a badge of courage. “I obviously struck a chord somewhere,” she says. “That’s better than being someone people don’t have strong feelings about. I have to look at it that way—I’m sort of the eternal optimist. Because otherwise it would be depressing.” Also, contactmusic.com has this strange stuff about her, whatever that is: JENNIFER JASON LEIGH URGED TO SMILE      Actress JENNIFER JASON LEIGH is often self-conscious about her facial expressions whenever she's out and about in public - because strangers always approach her and tell her to smile. The screen star believes that her dark and quirky roles in such movies as SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN and RUSH have something to do with the public perception that she's a moody person in real life. She says, "I think sometimes people have an assumption that I'm gonna be intense. When I'm walking down the street (strangers tell me to smile). "I smile if I'm in a conversation with somebody, or something amuses me. But when I'm walking down the street and I'm alone I'm not (smiling). I would find it weird if I saw people just walking down the street (smiling). I'd wonder what was wrong with them."    Earlier... 06/12/05 Due to big success, The New Group's Off-Broadway production of Abigail's Party has been extended. Originally set to close on January 7, 2006, it will now play through February 11th...  JJL is prominently profiled in the December issue of "In New York" magazine  and also in "New York" magazine with a piece by the name of "Lone star" (Don't confuse, (I did that already) they're actually two different magazines). If anyone wants to share the articles and pics since I live in Mexico and chances are 99.9% that I won't find the mag here, that'll be nice. UPDATE: the cover at your right of "In New York" mag, thanks to Naoshi for the heads up.   Earlier... 14/11/05 Jennifer Jason Leigh is set to join fellow actors Rupert Graves and Kathy Bates at the Vista Clara Resort and Spa in Galisteo, New Mexico after the Thanksgiving holidays as the director yells "Action!" on the upcoming flick Funny Farm. This serene sanctuary on 80 acres near Santa Fe, has been dubbed by The Travel Channel as "one of the world's greatest spas." So there you have it, just don't paparazzi! Earlier... 02/11/05 Lotta thanks to Naoshi for sending me the all so infamous article of JJL in Empire Magazine November 2005 issue. The title is "A beautiful mind; Jennifer Jason Leigh dishes a little dirt..." ...On improvising on Fleet Street flick Rag Tale."It was a huge leap of faith for all of us to junp into a film that was completely improvised. Luckily, Mary McGuckian, the director, is amazing with improvisation. It's scary but exciting and thrilling. No line could possibly sound awkward in your mind, seeing as you were coming up with it, and coming up with it in the moment. The script would just say who, what and where -the rest was up to us." ...On the state of UK tabloids. "The British tabloids seem particularly horrible to me.I think it appeals to the worst in all of us. It's so tantalising, but so despicable. There's always an agenda - its not about what's true, it's about what sells." "It amazes me that you can basically lie, as long as somewhere buried in the piece you admit it was a hoax."   ...On the difference between British and US actors."British actors have a good time; they enjoy acting, they have fun, they don't take themselves too seriously. "It's not all about the next movie. They're not on the phone all the time. "A lot of American actors are like that too, but a lot of them are so into the whole star machine, which is so fucking boring and tedious to be around. In any job, to be around anyone who takes themselves so seriously is really dull." ...On good roles for older women. "It's definitely harder than it is for men, as they get older. I try not to dwell on that. I'm lucky right now, as I have all these great roles happening. I think I'll always happen to find them, even if I have to write them myself!" ...On living in Hollywood. "I live between New York and LA. I grew up in Hollywood, so for me it's my hometown. I really like it. Palm trees, sun, green everywhere. Plus it's easy-going, low-key, relaxing. And private." Earlier... 07/10/05 In a recent interview to french actress Isabelle Huppert, she revealed that herself and Jennifer Jason Leigh are are tipped to star in  Susan Sontag's America directed by Jerzy Skolimowski in Poland. "I'm happy to be playing with Jennifer, Everybody says how much we have in common, we even look alike".  Harvey Keitel and Helen Mirren also star in the story of Maryna Zalezowska(Huppert), the leading Polish actress of the 1870s, who comes to California to open a utopian commune near Anaheim with Dennis Hopper playing an impresario who revives ger career in America when her dreams fail. The French/Polish/Spanish co-production is being produced by Paolo Branco's Gemini Films, which is also selling the title. P.S. The real name of Sontag's novel is "In America" but since recently there was a movie released with that title, the "In" had to go.... Earlier... 05/10/05 Ok, here's the homework: apparently JJL gave a recent interview to Empire Magazine (UK edition) about stuff she doesn't like (among other things)  that is making some people buggy. If you can find the interview and share, I'll be pretty grateful. Here're the "love the obvious" links of some quotes from that interview: ROAD TO PERDITION star JENNIFER JASON LEIGH has hit out at her American acting colleagues as "boring" and "tedious". The 43-year-old beauty believes British stars set a far better example to aspiring actors because they are not afraid to have a good time. She tells UK magazine Empire, "They (Brits) have fun, they don't take themselves too seriously. "It's not all about the next movie. They're not on the phone all the time. "A lot of American actors are like that too, but a lot of them are so into the whole star machine, which is so f**king boring and tedious to be around." http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/%jason%20leigh%20american%20actors%20take%20themselves%20too%20seriously http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/%jason%20leigh%20slams%20british%20press BACKDRAFT beauty JENNIFER JASON LEIGH has slammed the British press as bullies, who love to print lies.The 43-year-old actress feels victimised by hounding tabloid reporters and even a role in forthcoming London journalism film RAG TALE didn't help her appreciate the sensationalism of a newspaper office. The improvised romance, played out on London's notorious press house road Fleet Street, sees her star alongside A CLOCKWORK ORANGE cult actor MALCOLM McDOWELL. She tells British film magazine Empire, "The British tabloids seem particularly horrible to me.I think it appeals to the worst in all of us. It's so tantalising, but so despicable. There's always an agenda - its not about what's true, it's about what sells." "It amazes me that you can basically lie, as long as somewhere buried in the piece you admit it was a hoax." Wow... oh, and now the sweet: reporter Lisa Bernhard recently asked the newlyweds about the ceremony and stuff and here're their answers: At the “Squid” premiere in New York, Jennifer told me the wedding “was very private, very small, very low-key.” And the relationship looks to be very solid. “I rely on her,” Noah said. “She’s the first person I show any script to.” Earlier... 29/09/05 Once again, JJL makes a list of most underrated actresses, this one by MSN movies and with the title: Top 10 Underrated Actresses. Here's what they wrote about her: Seems like Jennifer Jason Leigh should be older than her 43 years, she's burned up the screen with so many soul-searing performances since she first surfaced in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Absolutely fearless, Leigh will go anywhere, over the top or over the line, to bring a role to bone-deep life. One moment, she's gamine, soft, trusting, perhaps even a little slow -- the next, a ravening piranha. She can do a Southern drawl, screwball comedy yakkety-yak, acid wit or a slut's slur. With a sweet tooth for damaged folk, misfits and outsiders, she's gotten deep under the skin of a baby-doll hooker ("Miami Blues," 1990); coke-addicted undercover cop ("Rush," 1991); identity vampire ("Single White Female," 1992); and a Janis Joplin sans talent ("Georgia," 1995). Leigh's unusually subtle and heartbreaking in "Washington Square" (1997):  Her American heiress blooms from klutzy self-abasement into confident, tender love, then withers away into bitterness. Sometimes Leigh signals every emotional synapse with excessive twitchiness. At her jittery worst, she makes you want to look away in embarrassment. But when this fierce actress gets it right, she's riveting.  Here's the link from where I snatched the pic on your right: http://movies.msn.com/beacon/editorial1.aspx?ptid=f558083d-177f-487c-b6a6-cdbd2146fb67 Earlier... 22/09/05 Thank you to all the people who sent me this information: TimesTalks Women's Series featuring Jennifer Jason Leigh / "A Life at Work, on Stage and Screen" Thursday, Nov 03, 2005 7:00 PM EST - Thursday, Nov 03, 2005 8:30 PM EST at Tishman Auditorium at The New School. The award-winning actress and writer/director talks about the challenges and rewards of the creative life, roles for women in Hollywood and her new work as filmmaker. $25.00. Interviewed by a New York Times journalist. Earlier... 13/09/05 Well, I had the hunch it would happen sooner or later. Apparently the time has come. Found this as a footnote to a picture of Noah and well, this is what it said: Samuel Goldwyn Films hosted a dinner at Prego for its upcoming release, "The Squid and the Whale," which is screening at the Toronto International Film Festival in the Special Presentations section. Baumbach, pictured here with Samuel Goldwyn Jr. at the dinner, told an attendee last night that he and actress Jennifer Jason Leigh were recently married. The Squid and the Whale" won both the directors award and screenwriting award at the Sundance Film Festival in January. The link is http://www.indiewire.com/ipop/2005/09/goldwyn_and_bau.html Congrats if it's true! To your right, another poster for Rag tale and also, a link to watch the trailer, in different formats: http://www.movieweb.com/movies/film.php?3451 Earlier... 08/08/05 And as a dream it is, it will be short... You may know that one of JJL's dreams has always been to work with Meryl Streep. Well, she's doing that exactly next month, but it won't be in a movie but in a theater play once in a lifetime opportunity. So, do smash your piggie bank and put your money for this exciting never seen before pairing! Actors Meryl Streep, Hope Davis, David Thewlis and Jennifer Jason Leigh will appear in two "sound plays" produced by Theater of the New Ear at UCLA Sept. 14-16 at 8:00 PM. Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman ("Being John Malkovich") is the author of Hope Leaves the Theater, while Anomalisa was written by newcomer Francis Fregoli. The two works will be performed like staged readings, with the actors holding scripts. An eight-piece band, Parabola, joins the actors onstage. Theater of the New Ear will open the UCLA Live season, with performances at Royce Hall. Tickets are $38-$60 and can be purchased (310) 825-2101 or at www.UCLALive.org Direct link to this event: http://www.uclalive.org/Event.asp?Event_ID=314 Earlier... 01/08/05 These two countries have been chosen to be the lucky ones to premiere Rag Tale. If you live or stay at any of these places, this month is the place to be: The 58th Locarno International Film Festival in Locarno, Switzerland has the very first premiere on Friday August 12th in the Piazza Grande The Edinburgh Festival does so at the UGC Cinema on Sunday August 21st and Tuesday August 23rd in Scotland Oh, and also a promise: Jennifer will be attending both festivals... and the title of the third movie of her with Mary McGuckian has been revealed: A classic Hollywood story. Earlier... 06/07/05 The correct name of the new movie of JJL with director Alfredo De Villa is 1&9. No more info, tough, just reading here and there it'll be made. On other news, John informs me that there is going to be a third movie of Jen with Mary McGuckian after Rag tale and Funny farm and it's the third part of an "amoral comedic satire trilogy" featuring the cast of the previous films going to Hollywood playing industry movers and shakers. Thanks for the tidbit. Earlier... 24/06/05 Leigh plays Leigh. Not quite right. She'll play Beverly. Let me explain. JJL is going back to the stage in the play Abigail's party written by Mike Leigh and the production will open next November in Theatre row, 410 west 42nd street, New York, NY. The stageplay concerns a dinner party gone awry and will be directed by Scott Elliott for The New Group (www.thenewgroup.org ) This play follows her string of theater hits: Proof, Cabaret, Picnic and Sunshine. Start saving your hard earned checks for the tickets now! Oh, and if you're more interested in the story, here's the link since it was made a 1977 movie directed, you guessed it, by Mike Leigh: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0075622/ Earlier... 14/06/05 Yes, I don't know that much, but the Hollywood Reporter has a note about a new movie called 1&9 with Jennifer and Victor Rasuk. The flick will be directed by "Washington Heights" mexican director Alfredo de Villa and described as: "an indie about complete alienation in the city". If you have any more info about this new project, it'll be greatly appreciated... Earlier... 06/06/05 Thanks to that whom prefers to remain unnamed for sending me this quick info: Becker Films International official website (http://203.147.187.87/bfi/films.asp) has a Rag tale poster which I also have now and it's announcing the trailer will hit the web soon, since the movie is looking for buyers in various markets, most recently Cannes.   Earlier... 17/05/05 It's been announced that Jennifer Jason Leigh is reuniting with her former Dolores Claiborne costar Kathy Bates and her latest costars from Rag Tale, Malcolm MacDowell, Rupert Graves, Lucy Davis and Ian Hart for once again director Mary McGuckian's Funny farm. Mmmh, what about Lymelife? Oh, and When we were modern? Hey, and Beautiful view? And... Ok, you've got the idea. The pic starts shooting in the fall in New Mexico and on just a little bit of history repeating, will feature no script and actors choosing their roles. The title of the movie refers to a patient's name for a celebrity drug and alcohol rehab clinic in remote country side New England. Let's begin to track this new project while still wondering: what about Fire princess? Earlier... 01/05/05 Thanks to all the lovely people at the imdb forums for this update. Oh, and to Naoshi for stating that my JJL photos were old and sending me the new picture of the month... All right, I knew that JJL was the only star in a photograph exhibition in the UK by the name of "Beneath the roses" by artist Gregory Crewdson. We were all searching for the photo and the answer is at your right, yeah, you can't see her since she's inside the green car, but there's also a pic below of the shoot by another photographer and there she is... Thanks to everybody involved in the search! I worked too for the update, he he, here's a new Times article on Jen, where she's named the female Johnny Depp: Jennifer Jason Leigh By Kevin Maher Jennifer Jason Leigh says it's great to be seen as the female Johnny Depp, but getting his money would also be nice SHE knows that she’s the obvious choice. In an archly provocative movie about child abuse, teenage pregnancy, botched abortions and the limits of spiritual salvation, it makes complete sense that Jennifer Jason Leigh, the queen of cinematic quirk, should play the adult incarnation of the film’s brutally harried pre-teen protagonist. "You see!" she says, imagining the reactions of the baffled moviegoer who sits through the film in question, Todd Solondz’s eerily compelling Palindromes, only to catch Leigh in the closing scenes, in tiny blue T-shirt with the word "cute" emblazoned in pink across her chest, "There’s Jennifer Jason Leigh! That’s what happens to f*****d-up children!" Leigh chuckles drily to herself, a brittle, breathy laugh straight out of Beavis and Butt-Head. The elfin actress of indeterminate age (more later), famed for her CV of leftfield hookers, junkies and deadbeats, and formally known as the "greatest risk-taking performer of her generation" (Robert Altman), is today in reflective mood. Curled up in a protective foetal crouch, in an oversized armchair in the antechamber of a swanky London eatery, she picks at a plate of tiny sandwiches and wonders aloud if her trademark oddball persona — the one that made her such an obvious choice for Palindromes — has actually worked against her in life. She says that although she enjoys doing Solondz movies, as well as recent dark psychodramas such as The Machinist and The Jacket, and "playing people who are on the edge", she would also like "mainstream success, and the chance to make some big bucks". She thinks about this statement for a moment, and then clarifies: "But in mainstream movies the woman’s role is mostly just to prove that the leading man is heterosexual. I’m not good at that, and I’m not interested in that." She is not mainstream material. Instead, she is the defiant flipside of the Hollywood screen siren, the shadowy "other" that haunts a hundred-year tradition of manufactured eye candy. In short, she is the anti-Meg Ryan — a fact that was duly underscored when she recently starred opposite Ryan (and blew her off the screen) in Jane Campion’s serial killer sex thriller, In the Cut. She is known for her strenuous Method approach to work, for her adoption of conspicuous screen accents, her torturous physical transformations (dropping down to 6st 4lb to play a junkie in Ulu Grosbard’s Georgia, for example), and her uncanny ability to destabilise an entire movie by the sheer strength of performance — see her screen-chewing Katharine Hepburn parody in The Hudsucker Proxy. In fact, if there’s an artistic precedent for how she works and what she does on screen it is surely to be found in the mirror-image angst and twitchy career path of that other ambitious oddball, Johnny Depp. But while Depp’s heavily flaunted eccentricities have been rewarded with blockbusting movie franchises and multimillion-dollar paydays, Leigh is seen by a male-dominated industry as wilfully difficult for refusing to conform to hollow female archetypes. "I like the comparison to Depp," she says, "because with him, the way he transforms himself from role to role, he’s just this miraculous changeling and people really get behind it. But with me, people sometimes have a problem." For Leigh, the problem started at an early age. She’s the younger of two daughters born to the Method character actor Vic Morrow, who was to die bizarrely in 1982, decapitated by a crashing helicopter on the set of Twilight Zone: the Movie, and the screenwriter Barbara Turner. Leigh made her feature debut at the age of 19, in the decidedly unorthodox 1981 thriller, Eyes of a Stranger, playing a blind, deaf and dumb abuse victim whose senses miraculously return after an attempted rape ("It’s very un-PC"). After that there was no going back. Some co-starring parts, including her sex-hungry virgin in Amy Heckerling’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High, were followed by a breakout turn as the masochistic prostitute in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1990). The role, a truly ferocious piece of screen acting, is full-tilt swagger, with Leigh leading from the hips, trading insults with the Brooklyn boys and recalling more than anything a Streetcar-era Brando. "It’s the walk," she explains,"I worked on the walk for weeks." She flirted briefly with the mainstream, producing a standard screen psycho for Single White Female and an uneasy girlfriend for Ron Howard’s Backdraft, although she was smart enough to declare of the latter movie that the fire had the best role. Then she retreated into the margins, continually refining and rejuvenating the unapologetic Jennifer Jason Leigh persona through a series of start- lingly individualistic screen heroines, including a vowel-perfect Dorothy Parker in Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle, a Jean Harlow-inspired gangster’s moll in Altman’s Kansas City, and a quasi-autobiographical fading starlet in her own directorial debut, The Anniversary Party. And all along the question begging to be answered, the fundamental riddle, is "Why?" Why not take the money and run? Why this obsession with the margins and with the eccentrics? She nods quickly, and begins a familiar defence. "I think it comes from being so . . ." Don’t say so normal. "I hate to break it to you." You say that the whole time. "I know." You say that you’re the most normal . . . "It’s not that I’m the most normal, it’s just that I don’t like a lot of drama in my life." She pauses, fixes a steely stare, and adds, from out of nowhere, "My older sister Carrie was insane." Insane, how? "She was a drug addict from a really young age, throwing temper tantrums, the works [she is now a drug counsellor and film producer]. So I grew up in reference to that, and I didn’t allow myself to act out as a child. I wanted to be a good girl. But then I found a way to do that in movies. And it became very freeing for me." She says, qualifying, that acting is a way to "become" Carrie, to understand her older sister, and to communicate her experience and thus the experience of all marginalised women. Which makes her refusal to engage with mainstream Hollywood all the more noble, and yet slightly tragic. And makes her role in Palindromes all the more poignant — for in some ways she is indeed what happens to f****d- up children. On a lighter note, she has just finished shooting a movie with Ian Hart called Rag Tale, about British tabloid news- papers. She’s heading off to Paris for two weeks with her boyfriend Noah Baumbach (who co-wrote The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou), and last night she was approached by a man who said that she had a pretty smile and she should use it more often. "I get that a lot. I look like I’m frowning, but I’m not. My face just does that." And as for her age? Well, "it’s just sooo obnoxious" (it’s also 43). She says she’s one of the few women in Hollywood to always be honest about her age, but now it’s getting out of hand. "Every review of Palindromes mentions my age. Why? They never say how old Julianne Moore is [44], or Uma Thurman [35], or Nicole Kidman [37], or, for that matter, Nicolas Cage [41]." In the meantime, she’ll have to keep taking it on the chin. "I think I live in this mythical world where doing the parts I do is not going to hurt me, and telling people my age is not going to hurt me. And it actually does. It’s a bit sick-making but, you know, I can’t change who I am." Palindromes is released on May 6 Earlier... 23/04/05 Newsday.com posted the following chat with JJL and a brand new pic for your perusal: Fast Chat Jennifer Jason Leigh Freelance writer Lewis Beale April 24, 2005 Jennifer Jason Leigh has been a chameleon-like presence in so many films it's not surprising that she's almost unrecognizable in person. Petite, blonde and attractive in a you-wouldn't-necessarily-look-twice-at-her-on-the-street sort of way, she's the definition of low-key stardom. Yet she has forged a career playing sex pots, dopers, the cool and the crazy. Now, in director Todd Solondz's "Palindromes," Jason Leigh is one of eight actresses playing the same part, that of a 13-year-old girl looking for love and stability. Freelance writer Lewis Beale caught up with the actress' actress in a Park Avenue hotel. This is a pretty small role for you, basically a cameo. Why did you choose it? Todd Solondz. He asked me to do it, and I was delighted, because I love his movies. How would you describe the character? She's a 13-year old girl who desperately wants to have a child, because in her mind she will be loved unconditionally, something she's not getting. She goes through so much, but she's untarnished by it. She remains an innocent, even though she's lived a full life by the time she comes home. You're 43 now and have been a noticeable presence since your 1982 breakthrough in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." Now that you've passed 40, have you noticed any difference in the roles you're being offered? I haven't played one kind of character, so maybe that's why I'm not feeling it so much. I haven't played so many parts of the girl next door. I've done more interesting, sort of challenging roles, they can't peg me as much. I haven't really noticed. I do get offered all kinds of different women. What seems really interesting about your career is that there hasn't been any plan to it. Is that right? Did you ever have a career plan? I didn't even plan not to have a plan. I'm so not a careerist, that I didn't plan not to have a plan that I don't have. I think I was working a lot, and just took it for granted, that it would always be there. I'm not that ambitious. If I had been more ambitious, I'd probably be in a better position than I'm in right now. It's not like I have my choice of the litter, and I wish I did, and that's probably because I wasn't clever enough, careerist enough. So what is it that turns you on about a role? It's usually not a cerebral process. Usually I'll read something and I'll think, this will be really exciting to play. Or I'll read a scene and just be carried away about it, and I'll think 'Wow, I'd love to get inside that.' If I have that feeling, then I want to do it. Yet in films like "Georgia," "Single White Female" and "Last Exit to Brooklyn" you do seem to gravitate to the more messed-up members of humanity. I'm more moved by people who are on the fringes of society. People you want to sort of label and not to have to look at too closely. There's something immediately moving to me about that. In our natural repulsion towards that, if you actually got close to that person, you would actually recognize something about yourself. It's the ability to communicate the person's existence or experience to someone and change their prejudice. That's exciting to me as an actress, the ability to do that. Tell me your worst day ever as an actress. A lot of times on a movie it will be the day I did this great scene that I loved, the one I got so excited about when I read the script, and I'll get home and just feel like 'Ahh! I can't believe it, it's such a lousy job. How much would it cost to reshoot? Do I have the money? I'm going to offer to pay to reshoot.' Sometimes that happens to me. And I'm more often wrong. You co-directed the 2001 film "The Anniversary Party" with your friend Alan Cumming. Any future directing plans? I've finished a screenplay and am raising money to do it. I loved that experience. As an actress, a lot of times you'll come into a scene and walk onto a set, and it won't be at all what you had in your mind. As a director, you get to make it your vision. It's all your point of view. If it hits or misses, it's because of the choices you make, but you get to have choices. It's really exciting. What would you do if you couldn't act? I would like to do art. Paint. I paint but not well. What's a favorite guilty pleasure? The TV series "Project Greenlight." There's something so kind of obscene about it. It's so disturbing. The whole concept is insane. You're hiring someone to direct a movie, then you're not giving them any power. You're crewing it for them, casting it, telling them constantly you don't believe in them. It's just so demoralizing and horrifying. You feel so guilty watching it because you get drawn into the stuff Earlier... 08/04/05 Well, to begin, there's a small pic of JJL in Easter sunday which will be showing at the Tribeca Film Festival in NYC, from April 19th to May 1st. Screening schedule are, prices included: Fri, Apr 22 / 8:00pm Regal Battery Park 4 $10.00 Mon, Apr 25 / 2:15pm Regal Battery Park 10 $10.00 Thu, Apr 28 / 9:45pm Regal Battery Park 9 $10.00 Thanks to Naoshi for the Tribeca information. And from me, this following little treat are JJL's comments about her preparation for Rag tale Found'em at contactmusic.com but, as found in the news section, may disappear pretty soon: Tabloid training for Jennifer Jason Leigh SINGLE WHITE FEMALE star JENNIFER JASON LEIGH has been enjoying a taste of British tabloid journalism as she prepares for a new movie role as a scandal-starter. The actress will play the deputy editor of a tabloid newspaper in new movie RAG TALE and she prepared for the role by attending premieres and parties with co-star IAN HART and mingling with the press. She says, "It's all about rag newspapers like THE SUN. Ian Hart plays a photographer so he went out with paparazzi guys and went to premieres and his friends would be going down the red carpet saying, 'Ian, what are you doing here!' "I don't read the tabloids and I haven't really been in them, so it was an interesting education to start reading them. They're just filled with lies and they can do it because somewhere buried deep in the article there's a thing that says, 'We made this up somehow, someway.' "But the headline and the photograph doesn't tell you that, so it's kind of creepy. The people that do it take it very seriously. It's not a joke, so you have to get into that headframe." Last, but no least, chud.com interviews Todd Solondz and JJL together about Palindromes, interview is mostly with him, but talks a lot about her, so here it is: INTERVIEW: TODD SOLONDZ & JENNIFER JASON LEIGH (PALINDROMES) 04.07.05 By Devin Faraci I saw Todd Solondz's latest film, Palindromes, at the New York Film Festival last year. It really divided the room - you could feel the anger coming off people (this is similar to the first time I saw Happiness, in a Manhattan theater. The movie had made the crowd so mad that arguments broke out in the lobby, and I expected fist fights). The film is about a 13 year old girl, Aviva, who really wants to get pregnant. She runs away from home and has a series of encounters, including a sexual affair with a trucker who happens to be a militant pro-lifer willing to kill an abortion doctor. And as if that wasn't enough, Solondz has cast a number of actresses in the role of Aviva - from little white girls to a fat black teen to Jennifer Jason Leigh - and he switches them up seemingly at will. This week a select group of journalists came to the Hotel Giraffe in Manhattan for the Palindromes press day. This press day gave me a chance to ask the best question I have ever been able to ask a famous person (see if you can spot it). The first round was director Solondz who was, for some reason, paired with Jennifer Jason Leigh. Because of the short time allotted, the nature of Solondz's answers (ie, lengthy) and the fact that we just had so much to ask this controversial director, Leigh sort of gets left out. But she was lovely and nice, if that counts for anything. Q: How did you guys get together on this film? Solondz: I think I just said, "Jennifer would you like to do this?" She said yes. Leigh: A very simple story! Q: What made you think of Jennifer? Solondz: Jennifer knows, I think, how I have been a great admirer of hers for many years, and how I have wanted to work with her for a long time. When you see this movie it operates – as we all know there’s kind of a radical conceit at the center, and I wanted someone special for the final Aviva that would appear in the film. As I said there’s a storybook, almost fairy tale quality to what goes on and to me there’s a kind of climax when you see Jennifer there at the end. We have an adult woman here, we don’t have a child. You see her face and it’s a face that’s lived a life emotionally. It’s rich. You see it etched in the face. This character, while she’s only 13 years old in a sense has emotionally lived a whole life. At the end of the movie when you see that face it’s as if she’s live a whole life in the literal sense yet of course she’s also 13 years old. Q: She is 13? The British press has made a big deal out of her being 12 years old. Do you see a line between those ages? Solondz: I don’t think that if she’s 13 everything’s OK! I haven’t heard this being very divided… She’s 13 but it’s never spelled out. Certainly she’s not a child in that she’s already developed, as an adolescent in that sense. We live in times of hysteria. There are in the US and certainly in the UK, a sort of hysteria with all the child abuse scandals that have been exposed. The church and so forth. And with good reason. It’s good that all this corruption is exposed. And yet there is another aspect to it which is troubling, the ways in which adults do in fact engage with children. You think of these organizations like Big Brothers of America where you would mentor some kid – you have to wonder. People don’t want to be associated! There’s a kind of suspicion. Look just last week they just arrested the head of the Boy Scouts. It’s just so predictable. There’s a kind of malaise, what have you, that I think is one of the unfortunate fallouts of all this scandal. It’s a strange thing that also shifts in meaning from culture to culture. I was just in Tokyo where there is not the same kind of attitude. There’s certainly no hysteria. It’s very different. It’s a place, in fact, where a 13 year old girl from a middle class family commonly, to get some extra money or Prada bags, will work as a paid escort for men. Now, I’m not advocating or trying to endorse, but I’m trying to point out how it has such a shifting meaning from culture to culture. It’s hard to even talk about any of this because it’s such a hot button, so to speak. In the movie I wanted to flip things, to come at things from a slightly different angle. So that in some sense Aviva was a predator and the guy was prey. She wanted to get pregnant from him, and in the process she fell in love with this guy. So at the end of the movie when Jennifer says – she knows that Mark Weiner has been falsely accused – she says, "[I know you didn’t do it] Because pedophiles love children." I think even writing it I was like, "Oh my God, what am I saying?" It’s like an advertisement for NAMBLA or something. But through her innocence there’s truth. From her consciousness, her experience, that is how she found love and that’s where the horror sets in. The adults who watch this who don’t see things with the kind of innocence that Jennifer’s character does but rather see sordidness and so forth, that she’s oblivious to. Q: Speaking of sordidness and the current hysterical environment: How do you direct a 13 year old girl in a scene where she's having anal sex with a trucker? Do you say to the parents, "This scene we’re going to have your daughter miming anal sex"? Solondz: I never put it in those terms. I was more discreet! But I was open. You have to be straightforward about all of this – it’s terribly serious. I have been dealing with delicate material with all of my movies that involve children to some degree. It’s always the same story: I see a number of kids and then the next step is to establish which kids have the acting ability and so forth, the quality I am looking for. Then I show the script to the parents and I lose some kids that way. But then there are other parents – many parents – who read the script and I have long, lengthy discussions with them about what I have in mind and what my intents are. I never try to persuade any child to be in my movies. They are in the movie because they very much want to be in this movie. The parents not only approve but they support the endeavor. They take a leap of faith and they have a certain pride and dignity in having their child’s presence in this movie. I don’t have children, but if I did have a child that was clamoring to act, I would much rather have my child act in one of my movies where I do think there is a certain pride or dignity that the children have in what they do. I would never permit my child to do a TV commercial for AT&T or The Gap or detergent – that’s where they’re being a shill for consumer goods. To me that’s an obscenity. But keep in mind, these parents are there every day that we’re filming. They’re not just there in the city, they’re there every day on the set. It’s just an open book. It has to be that way. It’s unacceptable otherwise. Q: Jennifer when you saw the complete film were you surprised that it was structured the way it was? Leigh: I had read the script, so I wasn’t surprised by turns in the story or things like that. I was really taken aback by the way it looked and how beautifully it played and how great these kids are, like the Mama Sunshine kids. The whole thing just blew me away. And the music too – the score’s just gorgeous. Every image is just perfect. I’ve always loved Todd’s movies, but here every image tells you so much but they’re so spare. So yeah, I was blown away by it. It’s so nice to make a movie and see it and be proud to be in it. That’s not always the case. Q: Can you talk a little bit about how you got into this character? You’re very believable as a 13 year old. Leigh: Oh good! When I was prepping for it I would get facials and think, I have to be 13! But you know, part of it is just believing you are that age again, part of which for me was physical. It’s about the newness of your body and how that feels and how that changes the way you walk, because there’s a lot of pride and an embarrassment as well. And I love the way she’s dressed in this film as well – you show off your body but there’s this impulse to hide your breasts as well by bringing up your shoulders. There’s this weird dichotomy that girls that age have. There’s no way around it because even if you’re a strutter, there are moments when you’re not completely comfortable in your skin. And also thinking of everything she had been through, but there’s something that’s like – "This is not my beautiful house," the Talking Heads song. Q: The movie begins with the funeral for Dawn [Weiner, the main character in Solondz's breakthrough film, Welcome to the Dollhouse]. Is that symbolic – you’re leaving something behind? Solondz: Yes. On a couple of levels – I wanted, in fact, Heather Matarrazzo to reprise Dawn Weiner and I wanted her to appear in this movie. I wanted her to appear in Storytelling. But she refused! I begged her! She just said she doesn’t want to play this character again. I just had to accept but she’s the only person I ever begged. In Storytelling I just had to rewrite the part. It was a way of freeing myself from the past, saying, OK, that was then. This is a line of demarcation, this is a very different kind of movie moving in a very different kind of direction. And this is a very different kind of character, as well. Q: You’ve written women characters that many women say feel very real. What is it that you draw on to bring this authenticity to your women, and to the younger characters as well? Solondz: I really don’t know. I’ve been writing since I’m reading, really. Your job as a writer is to – you imagine yourself in all sorts of different bodies. Jennifer has written also. It’s your job. She’s written male characters, you know. How do you imagine yourself being a man? In a sense you’re almost like an actor, getting under the skin of people unlike yourself but people at the same time that you can connect with, on some emotional level perhaps. Why it’s worked out that way – there’s no grand strategy or scheme to this. Q: You might just have your muse. Solondz: If I have one. I think the muse might be that you have to sit down and do it. Q: In the press notes you back off the idea of this film as an "issue" movie. Solondz: I should clarify. It would be disingenuous of me to say that the movie does not attack the shibboleths, some of the demonizations, some of the slogans that exist surrounding abortion. How could I? We live in a country, the only one in the world, where people shoot abortionists and bomb clinics. It doesn’t happen anywhere else. How could I not be responsive to that? Yet I would argue that, yes, it’s my most politically charged, morally complicated movie. Everything’s thrust into motion by this question of what do you do if your 13 year old daughter come home and not only does she have a baby, she wants to keep the baby? It’s an impossible dilemma and I think something of a lose/lose proposition. That said, the movie is on a fundamental level a very simple story of a young girl who imagines that becoming a mom will provide her a kind of unconditional love that she feels she’s not getting elsewhere. It’s a kind of quest that this young girl is on, and everything that we experience in this movie is filtered through her consciousness in some sense. For me that’s why I call it my most tender and for me most heartbreaking film. The saddest of all my comedies. I guess I don’t feel comfortable with it being described as an issue movie because it tends to imply that it’s a kind of dogmatic statement – pro-choice, or pro-life for that matter. I don’t have any interest in that. It’s rather about examining the moral dimensions and moral consequences regardless of which position you adhere to. Look, we all have our prejudices, our biases, and I tried as best I could to create a kind of balance between the secular liberal and the conservative Christian. If I were to err, I wanted to err in favor of the conservative Christian. Of course I’m not from that world. It’s all fraught with ambiguities here, but the hope is that – it’s easy enough, as Ellen Barkin’s character might check off, "Yes I’m anti-war, I’m pro-gay rights, I’m pro-gun control", it’s easy enough to check off the right box but it’s another thing when reality comes into play. Suddenly the great nightmare happens. Suddenly everything goes topsy turvy and out the window. The attempt here is to get the audience to see things from another angle and not just about the slogans. I mean, pro-choice, pro-life, these are all Orwellian terms. It’s all doublespeak. What does that imply, that one is anti-life and the other is anti-choice? The sides are irreconcilable and I accept that. I certainly would never try to change anyone’s position. I think if change were to happen it would have to happen in an oblique way. Michael Moore makes Fahrenheit 911 and I don’t know if it changed anyone’s mind. I don’t know if it in fact changed anyone’s mind if it changed them in the direction he intended. Those who were liberal saw themselves confirmed in their righteousness and those who were of a different political stripe might see him reading My Pet Goat and go, "Oh, he’s deliberating. He’s thoughtful." We are tied down by our prejudices in ways that we can’t be fully conscious of, so I suppose this is in some way a response to this. Q: Jennifer, many critics say that Todd’s films are cruel to the characters. Can you understand why people would make that judgement? Leigh: Not really. I don’t have that response to it all. I think that children are so beautifully portrayed and you feel so much for them. I think you’re completely won over by them, so I don’t think the films are sadistic in that way. What they go through you feel what they go through. There’s nothing disturbing or pornographic, even if the child is having sex themselves. The way the storytelling is that it’s beautiful and moving or funny or you’re being told a great story. Earlier... 01/04/05 Yes, I'm posting the news faster than a speeding bullet. Found this great page previewing Rag tale and we have a lot to learn about this JJL project... Check the page or read it below, whatever you do, it's as great as the incoming news! <http://www.preview-online.com/sp2005/feature_articles/rag/index.html> Hacks to grind It could hardly have been more of a contrast with her previous project, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, a $24-million period drama starring Robert De Niro which was shot on location in Spain. But now that Irish director Mary McGuckian is a week away from locking the first cut of her new film, Rag Tale, she knows she made the right decision. "It’s worked out even better than I could have hoped for," she says from the London cutting room where she has been working her way through 90 hours of HD digital material since just before Christmas. "I mean, I was really, really astonished. It looked great in theory, it’s just that we didn’t know how it would work in pactice. It was the most fun, fabulous thing to do and they were all great." ‘They’ are the cast of Rag Tale - a line-up which is every bit as impressive as the De Niro film, with Malcolm McDowell as Richard Morton, the publisher of a tabloid paper whimsically called The Rag; Rupert Graves as his editor, Eddy Taylor; and Jennifer Jason Leigh, as Mary Josephine (MJ), who is Morton’s wife and Eddy’s deputy - as well as being Eddy’s lover. For the moment, at any rate. Also in the cast are John Sessions, who plays The Rag’s political editor, Felix Sty; Simon Callow as ‘Fat Boy’, the features editor of The Rag who is addicted to freebies of any kind; and Ian Hart as Morph, the pap who is alleged to have come up with a certain famous toe-sucking photograph that altered the history of the British royal family, and who is addicted to absolutely anything he can sniff up his nose, put in his veins and drop down his throat. Just an ordinary bunch of hacks, in other words. "The idea came up in a conversation I had with Jim Sheridan about a week in the life of tabloids," esplains McGuckian. "And then I made up this process, which is about trying to make film work in a way that would be new and contemporary, and which would answer the question, ‘How do you get the best performance out of people?’ "You do something like The Bridge of San Luis Rey, which is really traditional," she explains. "You might get three set-ups a day, actors are hanging around, it’s hard to keep the performance level up with all the distractions of costume, design, whatever… And I just so wanted to do a film that was about the performances. It’s not that different, it just has a different emphasis. "When I originally came up with the idea two years ago, I don’t think we could have done it as easily as we’ve done it now, given all the developments in HD. So that was really the idea, and a tabloid newspaper seemed like a good environment in which to do it. We came up with a story with enough details and enough structure that the right kind of actors could improvise with." The approach, she explains, is quite different from the famous ‘develop the characters and find the story’ that director Mike Leigh uses on his films. "It’s almost the opposite. Mike has characters in search of a story, which I’m not putting down at all. But I went the opposite way round: start with a story, develop the characters to suit the story, then play the story." Using a number of journalists on different sides of the Atlantic as advisers - including Watergate legend Carl Bernstein - and giving each of her characters a ‘mentor’ who worked in a similar position on a real newspaper, McGuckian devised a story which suddenly acquired an almost surreal echo in the real world during the week in which we spoke. "The story is really very simple," she says. "There’s the chairman of a tabloid newspaper who has a bigger agenda: he decides he wants a knighthood, so he wants the paper to go pro-monarchy. He knows his wife is having an affair with the editor, so he puts some leverage on the editor to change the policy of the paper. "The editor’s a bit of a bull in a china shop and doesn’t want to be dictated to, so he goes overboard and starts a campaign of, ‘Bulldoze Buck Palace and Camilla for Queen’. Last week [before the announcement that Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles were finally to marry], that just seemed ludicrous; now it’s just a little bit funny. I think it’s a case of finger on the pulse but maybe too much on the pulse!" Rag Tale, which shot for a week in London then four weeks in Luxembourg in November and December 2004, is a co-prroduction between McGuckian’s Pembridge Pictures, UK outfit Scion Films, and Tom Reeve’s Luxembourg-based Carousel Picture Company. On the soundstage in Luxembourg, McGuckian was able to put into effect the plan that she had conceived for this actor-driven story film, constructing a 360-degree set of the newspaper office which could be lit from all angles, then using the specific qualities of HD to keep lighting time to an absolute minimum. "I took a very young DP who had a lot of digital experience," she says, "so he wasn’t constrained by the conventions that he needed 20 minutes to set up and another 45 minutes to light. It meant that we started shooting at the top of the day and we kept shooting all day. It was fantastic. The desire to be in a place where the 100% focus is on what the actors are doing really did happen. "We would place the scene before we shot it, but we wouldn’t rehearse it. Then we’d rehearse on camera on kind of obscured wide shots. And when we thought the scene was about to peak, we’d jump in and shoot it tight. We had this system where we had a first, a second and a third preferred version of each scene, each slate, each one of which was shot with three cameras. "Instead of doing a master and then jump in and cover it, we were doing masters for cover, and then jumping in and shooting the tights." The system was also designed to take advantage of the strengths and weaknesses of HD. "You don’t get great depth on digital," explains McGuckian, "but you can do fabulous things with foreground, and with electric light and fluorescent. It’s a very different look, but it’s very beautiful. I think Max Gottlieb, the production designer, called it ‘electric grunge film noir’, something ridiculous like that. But it certainly seemed to work." Had she modelled this appoach to shooting the film on the work of any other director, I wondered. "No idea," says McGuckian breezily. "We made it up." But she is too experienced a director not to be aware that, in the end, all the technology and the ingenious shooting methods are not what the audience notices: they see the performances, which are in turn a medium for the story. And while the performances are, of course, why McGuckian did all of this in the first place, the story - and what it has to say about the world of the British tabloid press - is certainly more than enough to hold an audience’s interest. "It’s not high comedy," she insists. "What we tried to do is get into the interior of a week in the life of a tabloid newspaper; the characters are very, very credible people. What actually happens in the story goes a bit out there, but it starts quite credibly." Being tabloid journalists, the characters in Rag Tale play by different rules; but, she insists, "they’re very real people. They are tabloid editors, and they go on the way they go on, but you kind of have to like them, the way they’ve been played.’ They are not, however, particularly likeable people, and McGuckian admits that "that was a big issue going into it. If you just look at the sheer story, what they do and how they behave, it’s not particularly attractive. It was important that these people became very believable and empathetic, and I think they’ve pulled that off." But if Rag Tale is not high comedy, it is not high farce, either: the issues the film deals with are important ones, and this is not a loving, tongue-in-check look at the world of hard-nosed journalism, in the style of, say, TV series Drop the Dead Donkey. The end result is probably closer to the only film about tabloid journalism made by a former tabloid journalist, Samuel Fuller’s 1954 classic Park Row. "I’m hoping the final message is devastating," concludes McGuckian: "that you can’t mess around with people’s lives." RAG TALE A Pembridge Pictures/ Scion Films/The Carousel Picture Company production Prod: Jeff Abberley, Mary McGuckian, Tom Reeve; Exec prod: Julia Blackman, Garrett McGuckian, Romain Schroeder; Dir/Scr: Mary McGuckian; Ph: Mark Wolf; Prod des: Max Gottlieb; Cost des: Uli Simon, Sally O’Sullivan; Ed: Kant Pan; Casting: Sharon Howard Field; Mus: Simon Climie, Nicky Shaw. With Simon Callow (Fat Boy), Lucy Davis (Debbs), Kerry Fox (Peach James Taylor), Rupert Graves (Eddy Taylor), Ian Hart (Morph), David Hayman (P3), Jennifer Jason Leigh (Mary Josephine ‘MJ’ Morton), Cal MacAninch (Mac), Malcolm McDowell (Richard Morton), Bill Paterson (Lucky Lloyd), John Sessions (Felix Sty), Sara Stockbridge (Sally May). International distribution: Becker Films International Earlier... 25/03/01 First, congratulations to Jennifer Jason Leigh on winning the Genie for Best supporting actress for her work in Childstar! She didn't attend but it was explained she was eligible for the prize because her director was Canadian. Moving on, Paper magazine has a new interview of THE actress and Palindromes website is up and worth checking out. Interview can be found on <http://papermag.com/cgi-bin/frameset/paperdaily.cgi?paperclips/05paperclips/jennifer_jason_leigh/> or below and the website at <http://www.wellspring.com/movies/movie.html?movie_id=62> Trouble bound- Perpetually distressed actress Jennifer Jason Leigh tackles more psychosis in 2005 By Annette Stark Jennifer Jason Leigh is known as a risk-taker in Hollywood, but she has absolutely no idea why. "It's not like I'm mountain climbing," the 42-year-old actress says about her long carener, which has featured numerous portrayals of the mentally disenfranchised: head cases, murderers, substance abusers, rape victims. "They all just feel like good, interesting parts." I'm talking with Leigh on the phone from Sundance, where she arrived two days ago to a manic schedule of non-stop interviews promoting her latest role as a psychiatrist in an institution for the criminally insane, who helps Adrien Brody's character in The Jacket, a new boilerplate psycho thriller by British indie director John Maybury that has critics groaning in their beer. But I loved it. "That part where Brody is stuck in the drawer in that straightjacket was awful," I say. Leigh laughs and says, "I love John Maybury a lot and thought this would be an interesting film, because he has this odd artistic sensibility. He's always looking for the underbelly, where the darkness lies. He's an ambiguous sort of guy with a wicked sense of humor." Still, there's little argument that The Jacket didn't belong at Sundance. With big distribution from Warner Independent Pictures already set up, stunning camera work and performances by a slew of huge stars (besides Leigh and Brody, the cast also includes Kiera Knightley and Kris Kristofferson), this was one of the many films cited as proof that the festival has gone soft. If Leigh noticed that aspect, she doesn't let on. "That's funny that they're calling Sundance 'Hollywood on Ice,'" she says. "Well, it's very icy here and a couple of people wiped out on the streets. But there are a lot of films [in the festival] that are very personal, where people scraped two million dollars together." Such as? "I'm brain-dead right now," says the actress, who once told director Ron Howard that the role she most wanted to play in Backdraft was the fire. ("I just though it was the coolest," she says.) "But a big proportion of films here will be by great filmmakers with their own voice." 2005 is going to be a big year for Leigh, the daughter of writer Barbara Turner and actor Vic Morrow (who was decapitated in a controversial helicopter accident in 1982 while filming Twilight Zone: The Movie). In addition to The Jacket, she also is appearing in the upcoming Rag Tale, about the tabloid newspaper business, and Lymelife, where she plays one of her famous slightly mentally encumbered characters. And then there's her turn in Todd Solondz's new film Palindromes. So Leigh is a bit rushed for time. She's clipped. Polite but matter-of-fact. But don't forget she's been doing this for years. So she's controlled. Even when I asked her how she felt when she first heard there was a band in Hollywood called Vic Morrow's Head, she doesn't overreact. "You are the first person to ever tell me about it," she says, quietly. "I'm just kind of numb to it. I think it's disgusting but it's a free country." Case closed. I state the obvious. "Solondz is a perfect fit for you." In fact, it's true. Solondz, whose films include Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), Storytelling (2001) and Happiness (1998), delivers suburban angst, unrequited love and perpetual alienation on film almost as well as Leigh does. In Palindromes, Leigh plays a young woman who wants to be a mother, though her parents, played by Ellen Barkin and Richard Masur, consistently try to foil this goal. It's an ensemble cast: Leigh plays Aviva Victor. Will Denton also plays Aviva Victor, as do Hannah Frieman, Shayna Levine, Valerie Shusterov, and a heavy-set black actress named Sharon Wilkins; a total of eight actors (including two women; four girls, aged 13-14 years old; a 12-year-old boy; and a six-year old girl) all play the same person. Leigh is tight-lipped about specifics of the plot. "I don't want to give away too much," she says. "But it's about a young girl who gets pregnant and has an abortion. It's really dark. Everyone plays Aviva at the same eight months in her life. I don't play a version -- it's all the same character. I play her at the end of the film." I point out that Solondz has expressed his own fears that the multiple characters would alienate the audience. It's hard to tell, from Leigh's description, how he exactly avoided that. "I can't explain Palindromes. It's something about how you can never escape yourself. I think you get really emotionally sucked into it. It's so beautifully directed and shot and the kids are really wonderful. You get really involved in the story." Leigh studied with doctors for her role as a psychiatrist in The Jacket and she's also studied mental illness for other parts. It's not that she's averse to playing lighter characters, so much as she isn't usually asked. "Some roles aren't that interesting to me; there's not much there," she explains. "The good roles with people who are unencumbered maybe don't come to me, but I'd do them if they did." Earlier... 21/03/05 Found this new JJL interview at bloody-disgusting.com in which she talks about this and that and everything in between, but most important, she reveals she finished writing a screenplay and right now, trying to secure the money to direct it. Great! Link is: <http://www2.bloody-disgusting.com/features.php?id=71> and the whole text below: Excuse me, Jennifer, what do you look for in a part? Jennifer: It's not that cerebral a process. It's usually just about what grabs my attention. Something interesting, something where there's more going on than meets the eye; that there's some kind of surface....ok, there's something to play, basically! Lol I want a character that I can actually play, and that will be fun. Did you do much research into psychiatry to play the part of Dr. Lorenson? Jennifer: I know two people, personally, who had pretty much exactly this job. So I spent a lot of time talking with them. And then I watched the Weisman documentary, which I am sure I am going to pronounce wrong...It's from the sixties...Titticut Follies. It's amazing! As horrifying, and grotesque, and creepy that this movie is at times, it doesn't come close to the real thing. There are images from that movie that will stay with me for as long gas I live, and I don't know that I even want those images anywhere in my psyche! It was so upsetting and so disturbing. You mean the most disturbing film you've seen? Jennifer: No, it was the most disturbing documentary I've seen while working on a movie...But the Jacket? No, I'd say... Single White Female was a really disturbing film. How do you psyche yourself up for a disturbing role like in Single White Female? Jennifer: Well, I think that the nice thing is... acting can be really cathartic, because it gives you a means to express things that in life ordinarily you would try to suppress. If you have thoughts or urges of things that are ugly, or things that are shameful, it gives you a really clean outlet for it. I kind of think it can keep one sane, because you feel like such a healthy person to come back to. Because you're usually very different from, or at least, I'm usually very different from the characters I play, so I feel better about myself then. Anything you would change if you could go back in time and change it? Jennifer: Oh sure, you know...! I'm not gonna say what they are, but I have turned down a lot of things that I have had tremendous regret over. But, It's stupid to live like that, because you can't do anything about it, and it just keeps you from being in the present. It's just another way to beat yourself up. I try not to do that too much. Anything you passed on that you were glad that you passed on? Jennifer: Oh sure, that happens too. It's probably about 50/50. You've done a couple of quirky films lately. What is the strategy, if there is one? Do you like Quirk? Jennifer: I am not much of a careerist; I don't plan things so specifically. If I read something and I like it, I take it, or if I like the director. Like in this case, I love John Maybury, I was very impressed with Love is the Devil, I try to do things that appeal to me and different things appeal to me at different times. I don't have an actual approach or agenda. I am not usually attracted to mainstream things... Fast Times at Ridegmont High? Jennifer: I haven't seen it n a long time, but I loved making it. Phoebe and I are still incredibly close. I am proud to be in the movie. I think it was a really good movie. It was an honest look at kids in the early 80's and it was also a very funny film. I like all the people involved. It was a nice experience. More directing? Jennifer: I hope so Are you currently developing something? Jennifer: Yes. I just finished a screenplay and am in the process of trying to raise the money to direct it. You wrote it? Jennifer: Yes. Talk about Rag Tale. Jennifer: Rag Tale was tremendous experience. It was fun. It was a movie I just finished filming in Europe right before Christmas and it was completely improvised. Completely. There was a script on each page: Who, What, and where. The who would be who was in it, the what would be basically what happens, and the where is the location, and the rest was up to us. Mary c provided us with a tremendous amount of research. It takes place at a rag, at a newspaper, during election week. But an English rag. A terrific cast. It's funny. It was really nice. It reminds me of Dorothy Parker, when I did that film. Will you be returning to the Theatre? Jennifer: I would say so. Whenever I finish doing a play I am always so tired that I think I need a couple years off. But now I have had, a couple years. A play is such a different phenomenon; the first three months you can't get enough of it. Its' so alive and great and energizing, and they always ask you to extend at the height of your experience. And then you do. And then when it comes to 6 months when your contract would normally expire, you're so dead and tired, and you have another 4 ½ months, and you are so dead, and you think "I don't know how I am gonna do it". Though it is a really thrilling experience. How do you de-stress at the end of the day? Jennifer: I went out with John a couple times, the director, who is so brilliant and has got this bitter, funny biting humor, which I personally respond to quite a bit But he was also very tired. Very little going out. Less than on any movie I have ever made in my life. It was a lonely time. The best nights were going out with John. And Kristofferson played (and Ii am a huge Kristofferson fan) in this beautiful cathedral in Glasgow, packed; he played 2 ½ hours straight him on a guitar. And some of the songs would make you cry. Then I had my birthday there, and everyone took me out to dinner, and that was really nice, but it was a lot of alone time. How do you keep from getting sad with the weather in Scotland? Jennifer: You don't. But the weather there was a hell of a lot nicer than it was in New York. It was incredible. I was so glad to be out of New York. It was 15 degrees one day, 2 degrees one day, it was the coldest two weeks in NY history, since the 1800's or something, and it was 50 degrees in Scotland, it was rainy and overcast, and when it rains it rains hard.... What's it like working with Adrien Brody? Jennifer: he's a really good actor. For someone who is so extroverted as a person, he has this incredible ability onscreen to project a kind of introverted presence. Someone that is living all in the mind and not able to communicate verbally. And you really believe that there is so much going on, it's really interesting. He can convey so much depth and soul. But in real life he's such a prankster. He's so funny and he's so incredibly extroverted. But onscreen he's able to completely switch it off, and what come son is something is something very internal and exciting to watch... Did he try to kiss you? Jennifer: No, but he likes telling that story! Coming back to the film Rag Tale, is it a challenge as an actress to be unscripted? Jennifer: It's a challenge to try not to move it any direction. Not to be funny, not to guide the scene too much. To actually try to be present and in the moment and to trust your director enormously. Even though its all coming from you, you need to trust enough to expose what is true in that moment, and know that someone else is watching and is gong to be able to edit and going to be able to guide you after each take, and tell you what's working, cause you can't edit yourself as an actor...There's one scene that's funny. I just saw Lucy Davis on The Office, so it's on my mind right now. She plays a secretary. We had this tiny scene, but it felt so inspired, and it just got funnier and funnier, the office is all glass and there's an atrium in the center, so we're having a scene on the phone, and we're able to see each other through the glass. She's able to bring out the best in people in a really subtle way.... What's it like working with Keira?: Jennifer: We only had one scene together. I thought she was so lovely. She was really sweet at my birthday party. I also love Adrien's mom! I really like Keira, aside from being beautiful, she's sweet and unjaded, and unguarded, and she knows who she is. She has incredible confidence without arrogance. There was a lot of heat on her back then, even in Glasgow. It was hard for her to walk around, and she took with grace and generosity. I think she's really smart, too. Did you give her any career advice? Jennifer: No, I think she'll do just fine! (Laugh) Can you talk about Maybury's style as a director? Jennifer: He's great. He's very clever. Some directors will approach everybody in the same vein. But he's a very intuitive guy, I think maybe because he's an artist, and so he approaches everyone slightly different. But he's so subtle, that he will be directing you and you won't even realize that where you started and where you've gotten to is a totally different place. You can't even feel it. It's so intuitive. You don't even feel his guidance. But it's there the whole time. He has a kind of inspired life; when you go back to his apartment, there's all these antiques and paintings everywhere, you just think, "I wanna live here" What do you think of The Oscars the other night? Jennifer: I didn't like the not allowing people to walk to the stage; that was absurd. Nor did I like all the people having to be onstage. You know, if you don't have time to do the show, don't do it. There was something very "price is right" about the whole show...But there was a lot of beautiful fashion! What did you think of Chris Rock? Jennifer: I thought he was great. He was funny and mean and I liked it. What does this film mean to you? Is it more than just a gimmick with the jacket? Jennifer: I mean, the thing about this film that I like is that you can't pigeonhole it. As soon as you begin to call it one genre it becomes something else entirely. So it's really just what you're left with individually, which is pretty exciting. I was left with a very dark, exciting "It's a Wonderful Life".... Earlier... 17/03/05 Maybe you're able to remember that months ago, there was a reporting about a project starring Jennifer Jason Leigh and Blaire Restaneo by the name of Easter sunday. Nothing else came out about this title, until now... and it's not that much. Apparently is a short to premiere on April 2nd and 3rd in the frame of The Method Fest to take place in Calabasas, California. Check all that's left to know in methodfest.com. Now, page announces: EASTER SUNDAY USA, 15 MIN Dir: Jasmine Kosovic Starring: Jennifer Jason Leigh, Blaire Restaneo, Jon Powell A young girl's frustrations of loss with her self indulgent, drug addicted mother reach their breaking point. Earlier... 12/03/05 Wow and double wow! Arguably the best interview ever done to JJL is up at the Guardian Unlimited. Oh, I'm ecstatic! Ok, ok, join me in the mood, the link is <http://film.guardian.co.uk/interview/interviewpages/0,6737,1434833,00.html> but of course, you can read it below, in case the link is removed: What you see and what you get She's a Hollywood child who has no time for showbiz nonsense. She's often driven and tormented in her film roles but presents her real self as a peacemaker. It's easy to have preconceptions about Jennifer Jason Leigh - and most of them turn out not to be true, Zoe Williams discovers Saturday March 12, 2005 The Observer 'In life I'm very dull'... Jennifer Jason Leigh A reviewer once remarked that Jennifer Jason Leigh makes even the most mainstream film seem arthouse just by being in it, and she has much the same effect on real life. Whatever she’s talking about, you have the sense that something importantly weird is about to happen, or maybe just did. As she sits down — we’re at the Chateau Marmont hotel in Los Angeles, not her kind of place at all — she sees some chips rush past in the arms of a waiter. She eyes them intensely. "Look at those fries. It’s nice when you see something, and then you want to eat it. It’s a good feeling. Especially when you can ... just ... order ... it." No ghost of a smile — truly, this is arthouse lunch-ordering. We’re here to discuss two films, The Machinist and Palindromes. The first is eerie, brilliant and unfathomable for about three-quarters of its length. Christian Bale plays a man who has not slept in a year — strange things happen to him, constantly. Strange allegiances are forged, and then evaporate. Impossibly gruesome accidents occur in the factory where he works. Jason Leigh plays a kind and complicated hooker, pulling off a masterful balance of trust and wary fragility. In the business of creating a cinematic atmosphere, she really is peerless. She seems pleased with the film. "I think it does engage you. I like a movie that the audience actively has to participate in, and not just casually observe. Whatever my part in it, just as an audience member, I find that exciting. Plus [The Machinist] has an interesting look. There’s a lot of green in it." This preference (for interesting films, not films with a greenish tinge) shows up in her CV — there’s little schlock in it, a marked leaning towards Hollywood’s most interesting directors (Altman, Cronenberg, the Coen brothers), and no repetition, although she has played an awful lot of prostitutes: Tralala in Last Exit To Brooklyn, Susie Waggoner in Miami Blues, Lois Kaiser, the phone-sex worker in Short Cuts (not strictly a prostitute) and now Stevie in The Machinist. It’s not gone unnoticed. "My manager at the time was going, ‘No, you shouldn’t do this part, you have done it, you have played prostitutes before. But I thought Stevie was a different kind of prostitute ... " She has said before that she finds acting a good way to discover and vent emotions that she would not want to have in real life. I wonder if her predilection for playing prostitutes represents the sexual dimension of that. She thinks on this for a second. "It’s like Sartre. His most typical story that represents existentialism — a woman in the window watches the prostitutes outside, and the only thing that separates her from them is going outside. You know, you really do choose your existence in a way. If that stuff appeals to you, which it does to me, you can have a very existential experience in acting." I find, as ever, that the introduction of Jean-Paul Sartre into an answer makes you forget what the question was. But her take on the catharsis her job offers is more straightforward. "It’s pretty liberating not to be afraid to get angry, or afraid to feel jealousy. So you get to experience all these things in life that you would normally try to suppress, or be more graceful with." The curious contention here is that acting an emotion is the same as living it. She is not, she says, a "dark person". "People can have so many ill-conceived ideas about me based on the parts that I play. I’ve had guys, when I’ve been single, come out of the woodwork to date me and I’ve found out very quickly that they were expecting some kind of whirlwind, some dramatic crazy person — and that’s just not me." Jennifer Jason Leigh is one actor who is rarely chosen for a part because it reflects her personality. The only other I can think of who is, like her, a different person in every film is Gary Oldman. She has a highly unfashionable, methody way of approaching her films. For Single White Female, she famously spent a lot of time in a psychiatric ward, showing a dedication and seriousness that the film probably didn’t warrant (it is a little bit schlocky — though at the same time fantastic). For Mrs Parker And The Vicious Circle, she spent months going to sleep to a tape of Dorothy Parker dispensing arch remarks. While The Machinist is a thoughtful and intricate film, it doesn’t come close to Palindromes, the latest from Tod Solondz, for complexity or sheer weirdness. The palindrome of the title is the name of its protagonist, Aviva, a 12-year-old girl who, desperate for a baby, gets pregnant by some nearby ne’er-do-well. Her parents force her to have an abortion. She runs away, and fetches up in the house of some pro-life born-again Christians. The abortion-forcing parents are by far the vilest people in the film, while a passing trucker, who has sex with Aviva and then abandons her at a motel, is, broadly, quite a sympathetic character. You could walk out of the cinema thinking you’d seen 100 minutes of anti-abortion polemic, with a side order of "paedophiles aren’t necessarily all that bad"; however, I think the clue is in the title. Solondz takes cornerstone liberal truths — abortion is fine, child abuse is evil — and works at them from the diametrically opposite pole, to see if they read the same backwards (that is, in a world in which liberals are intolerant and evil, and fundamentalist Christians are kindly and big-hearted). Nevertheless, it’s an unsettling, unpleasant film. Jason Leigh plays Aviva towards the end of the film (the actor playing the role changes throughout). "I’d been wanting to work with Tod since Welcome To The Dollhouse, and I auditioned twice for Happiness ... once, and I didn’t get the part, and then I begged to audition again, and still didn’t get it." She takes a studiedly neutral line on the politics of the film. "I’d much rather be in a movie that people have really strong feelings about than one that makes a hundred million dollars but you can’t remember because it’s just like all the others. Sure, he’s given us this movie in which the most loving person is this born-again Christian who wants to kill abortion doctors, but you know, it’s a movie directed by a liberal intellectual, so it’s not ... " She trails off — her line is basically, "Don’t worry, this can’t be ethically dodgy, because we’re in safe, liberal hands." She was born and grew up in Los Angeles. She talks of her mother, the actor and screen writer Barbara Turner, with such respect, bordering on awe, that I’d imagined her growing up in a boho all-female household, especially since her parents split up when she was very young. Her father was the actor — method actor, in fact — Vic Morrow, known for the TV series Combat and smaller parts, often villains, in numerous films, including Blackboard Jungle — he died in a helicopter accident in 1982. Her mother began as an actor; one of her last appearances was in Robert Altman’s 1964 TV film Nightmare In Chicago. At his suggestion she worked on a screenplay for Petulia, and although the project was revamped and directed by someone else, she decided she was by then a writer. Latterly she wrote the screenplay for Altman’s 2003 ballet film, The Company, and the Ed Harris film Pollock. "She’s brilliant," says Jason Leigh. "Her scripts are truly amazing. And it was definitely her energy that was in the house when I was growing up — I saw this woman who was so interesting, very powerful but also very introverted, and there was a lot of mystery there. That’s more interesting to play than some kind of simpleton." Though there are highs and lows in her filmography (One Thousand Acres, for instance, is an object lesson in why you shouldn’t remake King Lear without the good bits), she has stuck rigorously to the notion that female leads have to be more than very attractive people who say "help" a lot. Growing up, not just in Hollywood, but in such a "Hollywood" house — her stepfather is the TV director Reza Badiyi — left her with no taste for show-business glitz, but made her aware from the start that the acting and art were the point. That isn’t to say she and her mother have always been in perfect accord. Having been to a Lee Strasberg summer school at 14, she got her Screen Actors Guild membership very young, and promptly left school for a part in a horror movie, Eyes Of A Stranger, six weeks before her graduation. She’d promised her mother that she’d sit an exam before she left; she didn’t and, she says with amused exasperation, that still comes up in family rows. Her breakthrough year was 1990, when Miami Blues and Last Exit To Brooklyn had been released. This would have been her moment to enter the mainstream. In fact the closest she got was Single White Female, in which she played the psycho flatmate to Bridget Fonda’s non-psycho lead. "Barbet [Schroeder, the film’s director] is still a really good friend, we go hiking together a lot." "I didn’t know you could hike in LA." "God, yeah, it’s the best thing about the place." She bills herself as an irritating actor to work with — pernickety, perfectionist, so self-critical that she often offers to pay for reshoots out of her own pocket — but the directors she’s worked with speak highly of her. Robert Altman has said: "Leigh stands almost alone in her generation. Not only for her lack of ego but for her willingness to take risks." That’s not quite the way she tells it ... "When I did Short Cuts with Robert Altman, I went up to him on the first day and said ‘hi’, and he said ‘Hi, how are you? Could you get me a cup of coffee?’ When I brought it back, it turned out he thought I was the PA. For him, I come alive on film. As a person, I don’t really register that much. I mean, he loves me, I don’t take it as a cut, although you could. But he says that as a person I disappear in a way. On film, I’m very mysterious, but in life I’m very dull. I don’t feel like I’m dull, but I don’t put out a lot." I had expected her to be difficult and uncompromising — as it turns out, the opposite of how she sees herself. "I’m a typical middle child. I’m the mediator. The one that makes everything OK, puts their own needs aside to make sure everybody’s happy. It’s hard to change your nature, even with years and years of therapy." "Have you had years and years of therapy?" "Oh sure, I’ve been in therapy for years." "What for?" She looks at me a bit bemused, and very slightly shakes her head. I can’t make out whether that’s at the nosiness of my question, or the idea that I don’t know what the point of therapy is. There is no ambiguity about Jason Leigh’s politics, which are leftwing, fiercely anti-Bush (possibly not as anti-Bush as her mother who is so appalled by the recent election that she’s talking about moving to Denmark). "It’s frightening, and it’s depressing," says Jason Leigh. "Bush has gathered this circle, he’s made the Christian right so powerful. Or they’ve made him so powerful, I don’t know which comes first. I had no idea there were so many born-agains in this country. I don’t understand the place I live any more." Nor the overt hostility to perceived lefties. "Have you seen the sign on Sunset? It’s a picture of Whoopi Goldberg, Barbra Streisand, Sean Penn, Michael Moore, maybe Susan Sarandon, and it says ‘Four more years! Thank you Hollywood!’ That’s disturbing. It’s expensive to take up an ad like that. And they did it in Hollywood, like they were really sticking it to us." In tandem with a general surge to the right, Jason Leigh sees the film industry becoming more basic and less sophisticated. Talking about Georgia, the 1995 film about two country singer sisters she made with her mother, she says, "I cannot imagine getting the money to put that together now. It’s a character-driven film, about a complicated person. I can imagine pulling together one million dollars, but it wasn’t a cheap movie, it was a $5.7 million movie." Then she remembers, "Of course, we got our money from France." The way she speaks, the things she’s interested in, you could be mugged into thinking she was a new friend you’d just made. Which is how come I accidentally asked her the most rude and maladroit of questions as we were talking about not having children. "Did you mean to, and just forget?" She bristled a little. "I don’t see that as a closed window for me. I just don’t plan things. I live a month at a time. I also think, you know, it’s not such a great world ... " Without planning it, at the age of 42 she is in a remarkably advantageous position. Having never been in the market for straightforward romantic leads, she can’t be superannuated. She’s produced films and co-written one (The Anniversary Party, with Alan Cumming), there are other things she would like to write. She’s as passionate as she’s ever been about independent directors (at the moment, Lynn Ramsay, who directed Morvern Callar). She’s an independent spirit herself, which is probably what led someone to call Sean Penn her "male doppelganger". She does a little smirk at this (she never laughs, exactly, but she will do smirking). "I don’t know ... he’s more likely to appear in things. I’m more likely to be watching them." It strikes me here that she is so fascinated by acting as an artistic process, and so uninterested in every other aspect of it, that she sometimes forgets that she appears in films. Paradoxically, for the audience she forgets she has, this is what makes her so memorable · The Machinist opens on March 18 and Palindromes on May 6. Quite a read, right? Ok, now, on another JJL related news, the people of moviehole.net asked director Philippe Mora what the heck was going on with When we were modern and this is what he had to say. Look for the whole piece at <http://www.moviehole.net/news/5208.html>: "Thanks for your interest in WHEN WE WERE MODERN. Very pleased to report that rumours of our demise are highly exagerrated. We thought it important to set the record straight. Modern Pictures will produce the UK-Australian Co Production starting in the second half of 2005 on location in Melbourne and London with a great cast. We will keep you updated on our cast announcements and start date". Now, it's just to be seen if JJL will stil be part of it... Earlier... 06/03/05 If you win, you could grab a limited T-shirt signed by Jennifer Jason Leigh and also, donate for charity since the profits will benefit cancerous children. Go here and good luck on your bid! (For some reason I can't post a link): www.ebay.com <http://www.ebay.com/> Item name: C. Ronson T-Shirt signed by Jennifer Jason Leigh Item number: 5961315863 Thank you! And just for doing so, I confirm you that the opening date for Palindromes in on April 13th, 2005. Oh, and also some sweet for you, why not? The trailer link for this movie: <http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2653502?htv=12> Earlier... 01/03/05 Not much to do this March? You can head to the South by Southwest Film Festival placed in Austin, Texas and watch back to back JJL new movies. First Palindromes and then, you can see Childstar. For the first movie, schedule is: 6:00 PM, Sunday March 13th - Paramount And for the second one, you can choose: 9:15 PM, Monday March 14th - Alamo Downtown 11:00 AM, Thursday March 17th - Paramount 11:00 AM, Saturday March 19th - Paramount Thanks to Naoshi from the Netherlands for this information. Earlier... 23/02/05 On The jacket: BBCworld.com has video links of a TV interview with Jennifer Jason Leigh which you can check here: http://www.bbcworld.com/content/template_talkingmovies.asp?pageid=665&co_pageid=2 <http://www.bbcworld.com/content/template_talkingmovies.asp?pageid=665&amp;co_pageid=2> What she has to say? Here are transcripts of her commentaries: "The movie is a bunch of different genres because it’s kind of a thriller and at the same time it’s sort of this love story, this romance, and then there are these weird supernatural elements. It’s sort of an inverted 'It’s a Wonderful Life'. It’s sort of all over the map." & "I kind of like those movies. I’m a big, huge fan of `Jacob's ladder´for example, and 'Memento'. I enjoy being active as an audience member and participating, because so often you’re ahead of a movie. I like having to piece things together and figure out what’s real and what isn’t real. It makes it more fun for me to be in the audience sometimes." Earlier... 08/02/05 Congrats to Jennifer Jason Leigh for scoring yet another nomination for best supporting actress for Childstar (first one being for a Vancouver Film Critics Award)! This new one is for a Genie, which happens to be the equivalent to Canadian Oscars. Other nominations for the movie are achievement in cinematography, editing, music (original song) and screenplay. The ceremony will take place on Monday March 21st and the list of the contenders are: Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: A Silent Love - Susana Salazar Childstar - Jennifer Jason Leigh Les aimants / Love and Magnets - Sylvie Moreau Nouvelle-France - Juliette Gosselin Wilby Wonderful - Ellen Page Earlier 05/02/05 Where to begin with? I know, from the few lines to the big reading paragraph, so here we go: 1.- JJL's name has been announced as one of the big stars to walk the red carpet in Berlin, on mid-february, guess she'll be there promoting Palindromes. 2.- Lately, there's been some hoopla about Paul Giamatti not being nominated for an uncle Oscar, and startribune.com has listed other performers who shoulda be there but didn't materialize neither, and OF COURSE, JJL's name had to be there. This is what they have to say about her: JENNIFER JASON LEIGH Her rep: Gutsiest actor under 5-foot-3.Résumé: 42 features, including "Last Exit to Brooklyn,"Miami Blues" and "Delores Claiborne."Shoulda been a contender: "Georgia" (1995) should have been on voters' minds.That year's winner for best actress: Susan Sarandon, "Dead Man Walking." 3.- An interview!, fresh from Sundance, hit the link <http://jam.canoe.ca/Movies/2005/01/30/914346.html> or read it here: Leigh an independent woman By Kevin Williamson -- Calgary Sun PARK CITY, Utah -- Few things scare Jennifer Jason Leigh like a conversation about her career. One of the most respected, iconoclastic actresses of her generation, she's defined herself by her indefinability, whether as an all-American sweetheart in Fast Times at Ridgemont High or as a deranged psychotic in Single White Female. Given Leigh's aversion to overhyped blockbusters, along with the fact she's been working consistently for more than two decades, you might suspect she had all of this planned, or at least in mind, when she became a star as the deflowered heroine of Fast Times. You'd be wrong. "I didn't have any expectations at all," she says while chatting about The Jacket, in which she portrays a creepy doctor at an asylum for the criminally insane. "I always wanted to be an actress. I didn't think it wouldn't happen. I just never thought about it. I was always just thinking about getting the next job. I was never a careerist ... Fast Times was a great film to be part of. Phoebe Cates and I are still best friends. It's great to have something that like from one of your first films." Mention her longevity, however, or specifically how few actresses enjoy a decades-spanning career, and she seems almost nervous. "I guess that's true. It's a scary thought. We best not think about it." Not that she's without hindsight. She admits to making her share of bad decisions, particularly in turning down parts offered to her. "I'd like to have more money in the bank. There were some roles that were shocking and stupid to pass on, but I don't want to say what they were because they actually ended up being really good ... But yeah, I have regrets." One thing she doesn't think twice about, however, are the number of unsettling films she's appeared in -- from Last Exit to Brooklyn to last year's The Machinist opposite an emaciated Christian Bale. (She remembers seeing Bale for the first time, after he'd lost 60 lbs. for the part. "He looked horrifying. I never got over the shock of when I first saw him. Our love scenes were the scariest because I was so scared I was going to hurt him. He was so fragile at that point.") About her taste in films, she continues, "I like movies that take you places where maybe you wouldn't want to go ... I've always liked scary movies too. Like as a kid, I was always really drawn to them. I don't know why ... "In a way you don't have to be crazy in your life because you get to play maniacs. You get it out in a safer way." The Machinist premiered at Sundance, but Leigh didn't attend because she was shooting The Jacket, which opens theatrically March 4. Surprisingly, for someone who has appeared in as many independent films as Leigh, this marks only her second time at the festival. The last time was a decade ago for The Hudsucker Proxy. "I don't remember so many parties," she says. "There are also a lot of gifts now and I don't remember that. It felt smaller. Not so populated perhaps." While Leigh is here for The Jacket, she also has a close connection to another movie -- her boyfriend, Noah Baumbach, directed The Squid and The Whale, for which he was honoured with the Dramatic Directing Award last night. (Baumbach also co-wrote The Life Aquatic with Wes Anderson.) "Sundance still discovers great films and they're still very careful about what movies they select. They take a long time to decide what's in competition. It's really great for the filmmaker who makes a film, to come here and witness it being seen by audiences." Earlier... 29/01/05 Really nice ink by who's arguably the most respected film critic right now in the States. Manohla Dargis from the New York Times in her article titled "What's with these faces today? Plastic" writes about the beauty of actresses and then, out of nowhere, confesses she's smitten with JJL (well, she's not the only one.) The whole piece can be found at this link: <http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/01/26/features/plastic.html> If you wanna check it, do so, it'a a delightful piece to read or well, just refer to the part talking about JJL: "One of the pleasures of steady moviegoers is that if performers have lasting power, you can grow up and the older along with them. That's true of stars you discover when they're young adults and even more so for those you follow from childhood, like Elizabeth Taylor and Winona Ryder. There is something satisfying about that first encounter with such actors, which becomes a marker by which to view the past, both theirs and yours. One such performer is Jennifer Jason Leigh, whom I first encountered in 1982 when she was 19 in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", rediscovered in her 20s as an exuberant sexpot in "Miami Blues" (1990), and then found once more as a lushly, unmistakably adult woman in Jane Campion's "In the Cut" (2003). Leigh looks like a real person, though more beautiful. " Earlier... 23/01/05 2005 Sundance Film Festival is taking place right now, and Jennifer Jason Leigh is there, promoting The jacket. Some places she has been seen are the Motorola Lodge, M.A.C. Cosmetics, the HP/EW party and with Noah Baumbach! (Oh, me bad, me bad) Some pics in this page. A good report for Childstar: the lovely people of Vancouver chose the film for lots of accolades as part of the Vancouver Film Critics Awards, giving JJL the runner-up for Best Canadian Actress. Last time I checked, she was born in USA, but it's sweet, no matter what: BEST CANADIAN PICTURE: Childstar runner-up: 2. ScaredSacred BEST CANADIAN DIRECTOR: Don McKellar for Childstar runners-up: 2. Velcrow Ripper for ScaredSacred 3. Peter Raymont for Shake Hands With the Devil BEST CANADIAN ACTOR: Don McKellar for Childstar runner-up: 2. Noel Burton for A Silent Love BEST CANADIAN ACTRESS: Joely Collins for The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess runners-up: 2. Jennifer Jason Leigh for Childstar 3. Lianne Balaban for Seven Times Lucky BEST CANADIAN SUPPORTING ACTOR: Dave Foley for Childstar runners-up: 2. Mark Rendall for Childstar 3. Bruce Greenwood for Being Julia Earlier... 16/01/05 Childstar website is up and the link for the strangely behaving official site (info sent by a nice reader from Netherlands) is <http://www.childstar-movie.com/> Oh, and the movie (poster at your right) is opening in my second homeland, Canada, on January 28th! Earlier... 14/01/05 Hannibal redux? Red eyes and sandy skin included, at your right two posters for The jacket, and yeah, they're nothing original. Oh, and for your trailer if you want to see Jen with a hand on her face, check: <http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2539417?html> Earlier... 05/01/05 I'm sure you all now that one of the biggest performances of JJL on screen is that of Tralala, in the wonderful adaptation of Hubert Selby's Jr. novella Last exit to Brooklyn. For a little background, she wasn't the first choice to portray the heartbreaking prostitute but landed the role when a casualty named pregnancy required Patricia Arquette to walk away. Jen's Tralala was so powerful it landed her copious awards and the respect of the film industry here and elsewhere in this planet. The time has come to bring out the good memories of that role in Hubert Selby Jr. It/ll be better tomorrow, a documentary heading for screening this year. The author passed away last April and the documentary on his work directed by Michael W. Dean has come with a special appearance by Jen. Check the details at: <http://www.cubbymovie.com/> Earlier... 26/12/04 Should I retract myself and put the opening of The jacket in the ugly section? No, let's have hope and wait but the campaign for that movie has began as is simply hideous. Check for yourself al the official site via http://wip.warnerbros.com/ Once there click on Brody's face or the title and let it launch. It appears they're aiming for the teenage horror crowd with one of the silliest tag line I've seen in years and also, some people have reported to me that the trailer has been attached to a very old horror movie named "Darkness" opening this week in the USA (in the rest of the world opened more than a year ago) and well, that the trailer appears to be unappealing too. Well, after the rant and the hope that this is only mismarketing, let me inform you that Rag tale was really short on schedule as announced previously, since the filming wrapped up on Dec. 22nd. That was fast, hope it's good! Earlier... 13/12/04 ...or the good and the ugly. First, as many of you know, The jacket will premiere in Sundance but I chose not the update until I had the dates and the venues. For good, here they are (buy your tickets now!): Sat Jan 23, 9:30 PM Eccles Mon Jan 24, 2:30 PM Library Sat Jan 29, 7:30 PM Trolley Square 4 Sat Jan 29, 10:30 PM Trolley Square 4 We all know that Jennifer likes to choose innovative projects and Rag tale will be one of them, according to director Mary McGuckian: It’s about tabloid newspapers, set in London. It’s a week in the life of a tabloid newspaper, shooting on high definition film, improvising the dialogue with a group of great contemporary young actors, shooting it in six weeks, making it a very fast, funny, small and energetic film. It’s a black comedy. I’ve never done something like this. Again, it’s not an Irish film, it’s more Anglo-American, but I think we all get the tabloid culture. Not that we’ll be saying anything new about tabloid culture or the cult of the celebrity, but I do think somehow, as the world has become ennured to the proliferation of the tabloid culture in all of the media, that maybe a reminder piece will be fun. And we’ve had some American help on that as well, with Carl Bernstein looking at it, and Chris Horrie who wrote Stick it up your punter – the rise and fall of the Sun. It’ll be set when we shoot it, which is fairly opportunistically in the run up to the American Presidential Election”. Now on the bad. Actor Jason Isaacs had this to say to his fans on a forum regarding When we were modern. Here's hoping the whole thing doesn't fall apart: When we were modern has also had trouble getting to the starting blocks. At one point someone working with me didn’t call the producers back for a couple of months and I think they offered my part to someone else. Can you believe it?! I was momentarily mortified, since it’s a lovely script, but then they couldn’t get it started with my replacement either so who knows what will happen down the road. Don’t hold your breath.

Earlier...20/11/04

Jennifer Jason Leigh began filming Rag Tale last monday (Nov. 15th) in London and some other scenes will be shot in Luxembourg. As of When we were modern, apparently Angus MacFadyen will be playing John Reed and Jason Isaacs will tackle some other role. Palindromes opens next April after The Jacket does so in March and that's what I've got for news...

Earlier... 07/11/04

Just hours after I reported about When we were modern I received info on some other new JJL movies! Well, the actress is restless right now and we couldn't be happier. First, on this new movie, here is the official release of the production company, Film Bridge International:

When We Were Modern 
Based on the tangled romantic life of famed Australian artist, Sidney Nolan. The film chronicles Sidney's tumultuous love triangle with his wealthy, married benefactors, John and Sunday Reed (Jennifer Jason Leigh).
Set in the romantic ambiance of the fine art world in 30’s and 40’s Australia and England. Nolan‘s career blossoms as he and Sunday become lovers, with her husband John’s reluctant consent.
During the Second World War, Sidney is drafted. He finds the separation from Sunday to be unbearable and ultimately deserts his position to be with her.
The film takes us through the post war era, viewing Sidney Nolan's rise to the forefront of contemporary art through his self-imposed exile in England. Enhanced by the contemporary jazz music of the era, this is a story of modern art and modern life, which ultimately delivers the sentiment shared by the artists of the time period … When we were modern, we were alive.” 
 

http://hollywoodreporter.com/thr/awards/sundance/reviews_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=2065398
Earlier... 31/12/03

Not much new, but wait for January when JJL is supposed to go to Park City's Sundance Film Festival to promote The machinist, which opens there on Jan 18th. However,  In the cut gets the website it deserves via french distributor Pathé and it's actually great. Check it out at http://www.inthecut-lefilm.com/
 
Earlier... 09/12/03
 
The cavalcade of new projects seems never-ending. It appears now that Jennifer is filming a comedy by the name of Childstar and it's directed and written by her "Death to the demon Yevgueny Nourish!" "eXistenZ" costar. The pic costars Don Mckellar in his triple hat work and Dave Foley as well and tells the story of a 12 year old american movie star lost in Canada.  Jennifer's character goes by the name of Suzanne Burns, no other info available.These too many projects ongoing starts looking suspicious, so let's wait and see which one of them becomes a reality...

Earlier... 19/11/03
 
The new synonym of busy appears to be Jennifer Jason Leigh. The machinist is set to premiere in the next installment of the Sundance Film Festival, which will take place on January 15-25 2004 and Palindromes is in production, but it appears that she has signed for a new movie already. The title is The jacket and in it she joins the talents of Daniel Craig and Keira Knightley to surround the latest Oscar winner, Adrien Brody. No info, however, on what's her role, but the movie is directed by John Maybury and is described as the story of an imprisoned soldier (Brody) in the titular jacket framed for murder and apparently involves time shifting and travel. Aimed for release in 2005, here we'll wait for the details...

Earlier... 13/11/03

From  The machinist comes the new poster at your right. Then, follow the links in "The big picture" section to access the new teaser of the same movie. Interesting tough, there's repeated use of the "F" word and a topless JJL, so I guess this teaser is not rated yet.

Earlier... 03/11/03

According to a TVGuide article, there'll be a "The Anniversary Party" sequel: 

Quote: "She'll be seen next in The Machinist with Christian Bale and just finished filming Palindromes by twisted Happiness helmer Todd Solondz. Now she's busy writing the follow-up to her directorial debut, The Anniversary Party." It's great to think there could be a sequel to the marvelous wit of Jennifer Jason Leigh's abilities for laughing at herself like her directorial debut showed.

In other The machinist news, here's a german link to a featurette on the making of the film and a press conference: http://www.planet.nl/planet/show/id=69407/contentid=391180/sc=2a3e04 

Nothing specially interesting, just JJL praising the likes of Barcelona, but well, there're some scenes of her performance as well! 

Earlier... 26/10/03