Drama Queen

Regarded as one of the finest screen actresses of her generation, Jennifer Jason Leigh has never won an Oscar. She has not even been nominated for one. Ben cobb takes up her cause - and talks to her about phone sex, passport photos, celebrity and spilt milk

If Oscars actually went to actors who deserved them, everyone in the know knows that Jennifer Jason Leigh would own an armful. In fact, the 45-year-old star of Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Last Exit To Brooklyn, Single White Female, Short Cuts, The Hudsucker Proxy, Mrs. Parker And The Vicious Circle, Georgia, eXistenZ and The Machinist has never even been nominated. Her CV is a diverse roll-call of sluts, nuts and lost girls. Yet this most private of Hollywood players avoids self-publicity like the plague, choosing instead to disappear into her characters. Even after 25 years and almost 50 movies, Leigh continues to defy definition and, uniquely, is held in the highest possible esteem by her peers. In her latest outing, Margot at the Wedding, a punchy and poignant sibling drama with Nicole Kidman and Jack Black - directed by Leigh’s husband Noah Baumbach - she puts in another top rank performance. Maybe this time the Academy will take notice...

Wonderland: You have often been called a chameleon. What kind of an actress would you describe yourself as?
Jennifer Jason Leigh: I’m bad at terming things... I hope I’m a good actress. I wouldn’t say I was Method. I would never do anything damaging in terms of preparation. And I think I’m very easy to work with. I don’t like a lot of drama unless it’s in the scene...
WL: What’s the most extreme preparation you’ve done for a part?
JJL: When I played a phone sex operator in Short Cuts I visited some phone sex places. A few were a bit like factories, but I also went to this guy’s home in the Valley who did it. He had a really badly broken leg and couldn’t perform in his band, so he would put on this voice and do it in his bedroom... Oh, and I tattooed someone for a part recently. For Charlie Kaufman’s new movie Synacdoche, New York. It was a little scary actually. I did a very basic portrait of my dog Otis - who just died - on the inside of this real tattoo artist’s wrist. I’d said ‘I just want to feel what the gun is like to hold’ and he said, ‘Well, give me a tattoo’. After it was done he said, ‘Now you’ve marked me forever. How does that feel?’ It made me a little sick to my stomach.
WL: Do you still write diaries in character to get into the part?
JJL:I did on Margot At The Wedding, but less and less. Doing the diaries works any way you want it to work: if there’s a scene where the character talks about when she got her first puppy or something, then you flesh out that memory. It’s like a security blanket for me. How much it actually comes into play, I don’t even know.

“I had my eyes on her for some time. Tough. Unusual. Not afraid to do strange things… She is the female equivalent of Daniel Day Lewis. She is a brilliant and serious actor, and like a lot of brilliant and serious actors, she is punished.” eXistenZ director David Cronenberg. “Jennifer is a constant inspiration to those of us who view acting as an art and not as a product.” Short Cuts and The Hudsucker Proxy co-star Tim Robbins. “I get very bored when you see an actor look the same in every single movie… That’s why I love Jennifer Jason Leigh so much… She utterly changes herself in every movie… She is my favourite actress of all time.” Drew Barrymore. “She has the same intelligence and mad, creative temperament as Glenn Close and Faye Dunaway. It’s a combination of being totally possessed and lucid at the same time.” Single White Female director Barbet Schroeder

WL: Has a director ever told you not to research a role?
JJL: No but after The Hudsucker Proxy Joel and Ethan Coen were like, ‘Next time we work with you, you can’t do any research.’ They just like to tease. They were just busting my chops. Actually, I went through a lot of my old research stuff in my office at my house the other day. I keep everything labelled and organized in binders. I feel like such a sloth now. It was all so intensely researched. It’s crazy. I’ve got 11 binders on Washington Square, a Henry James adaptation I did that’s set in 1880. Seven of them are just about manners
WL: Do you steal character ideas from people you meet?
JJL:Yeah, all the time. You get away with it more if you’re an actor than you do if you’re a writer. Because people don’t necessarily know what detail is stolen from whose life: if I’m using a certain hand gesture, or a way of moving, or putting my voice a certain way, you’re not going to know who that is. Even the person might not know.
WL: You have been described variously as the female Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Penn and Johnny Depp. Which do you prefer?
JJL: I’ll take any of them! I never heard the Daniel Day-Lewis one, which I like a lot. I think he’s brilliant. I like the way he disappears. You also don’t really know much about him. And Sean Penn of course is great. We kind of came up together. I love Johnny Depp’s choices. He takes such risks, I love how far out he goes.
WL: People have commented on the fact that you can seem ‘invisible’ when you’re not on camera. Is that shyness or part of your preparation?
JJL: I can be socially a little bit shy. But shy is such a dull word. I don’t even know if it’s appropriate... Although when I’m prepping something I tend to be more introverted. I have changed though: when I did Fast Times At Ridgemont High,I learnt a big lesson. I had a scene where I was talking and eating and moving my fingers through my hair and the hair lady threw a brush at my face and called me a cunt. It came down to the fact that I didn’t hang out in the make-up trailer or have my lunch with them. I was shy, so I’d put my efforts into being with the people I was supposed to know in the movie. But she took that as rudeness. Now on a movie I always say right from the get-go, ‘There are days when I’m really quiet but please don’t take it personally’.
WL: Is it true that Robert Altman didn’t recognise you on the set of your third film together?
JJL: Yes. We had worked together before on Short Cuts and he cast me in Mrs. Parker, which he produced. I was working on Kansas City. I was sort of half in costume and half not. I walked up to say ‘hi’ and he asked me to get him some coffee. He thought I was a PA.

“That girl is so sexy. God! She’s sweet and really stern. And she loves herself and her body…” In the Cut director Jane Campion. “She is an extraordinary character actor, 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..” Mike Leigh. “There’s nothing wrong with being a big movie star if that’s what you want. I’d much prefer to be a Jennifer Jason Leigh.” Gwyneth Paltrow. “When she acts, it all comes out, all the devils and the angels… She can be anything. Yet in real life it’s almost as if she doesn’t exist, as if she’s always waiting for acting, and the acting is the real life.” Flesh & Blood director Paul Verhoeven. “I think Jennifer’s one of the few actresses who doesn’t use her own personality; she manufactures these characters and becomes them… And when she’s Jennifer Jason Leigh… she’s hardly there.” Short Cuts and Kansas City director Robert Altman

WL: You have never seemed to be thinking in terms of a grand career plan.
JJL: That’s probably been my big mistake. There are certain movies, maybe five, that I didn’t do because I didn’t see it on the page. Bad decisions.
WL: Can you say which?
JJL: I really don’t want to say. It’s too embarrassing. They’re really good movies. They could have been part of my life experience. So much of my life has been making movies that I wouldn’t mind a few more that I could watch without wanting to turn them off... I suppose I’ve felt pressure to play the game, but I am just not particularly good at it.
WL: Why do you think you’ve never even been nominated for an Oscar?
JJL: The New York Times once wrote a big piece on the fact that I wasn’t nominated. Their take was that the parts aren’t flashy enough. Or that I wasn’t winking and saying, ‘I’m not these people’. I don’t know. It just didn’t happen.
WL: Who do you lose parts to most often?
JJL: Anyone working could be my nemesis! When I was younger I would take the rejection more personally but I really don’t anymore. I have friends who are directors and they don’t always hire me. That’s fine. I get it now.
WL: You were the queen of art-house cinema in the 1990s. It was said that you simply being in a film made it art-house. How did you feel about that label at the time?
JJL:I didn’t know I had it. Can I have it back? I guess it’s meant as more of a slight, but I like it.
WL: I always thought it was a compliment. You bring an integrity to -
JJL:[interrupts] A lack of box office!

“I had a scene where I was talking and eating and moving my fingers through my hair and the hair lady threw a brush at my face and called me a cunt”

WL: You’ve played more than your fair share of prostitutes. Weren’t you up for the Julia Roberts part in Pretty Woman?
JJL: I auditioned for it. The original script was darker. She was doing cocaine. The director said to me, ‘She’s only been hooking for a little while so it’s still fun for her’. It might be fun for a 60-year-old guy but it’s not for her! Not if you actually talk to the women who do it...
WL: : Do you identify with outsiders?
JJL:I must do, because those are the parts I like the most.
WL: Does playing disturbed characters make you feel better about yourself?
JJL: If you really get inside the character, when you come back to yourself you realise you’re not lonely and you’re not depressed. So that part is good. But sometimes the inverse is true. When I stopped playing Dorothy Parker and came back to myself I thought, ‘Oh, I’m not a wordsmith. I’m not so clever or funny’. That’s harder. I really believed that I had it for a little while.
WL: What’s your favourite line from one of your films?
JJL: ‘While you’re up...’ was something I used to say in Mrs. Parker all the time. She would just add that to anything. ‘While you’re up...’ I like that. I still use that now.
WL: Do you think that there aren’t enough good parts for women of a certain age?
JJL: I don’t really think there are many good parts, period.
WL: You’ve had a lot of on-screen sex. Does it get easier?
JJL: I don’t think sex scenes were ever that tough for me. Everyone is so sensitive. They give you all this room and there are very few people on set. It all becomes about the work. It would be great if every scene was like that. I particularly enjoyed the sex scenes with Alec Baldwin in Miami Blues. They were a lot of fun.
WL: They looked it. Have you ever had a problem with taking your clothes off?
JJL: No, I haven’t. People put so little nudity in movies now. We’ve become more uptight as a culture. You can’t even say ‘abortion’ in a movie anymore. It’s insane.
WL: Have you ever wanted to look different?
JJL: I’d like to be taller. I’m five foot three. But otherwise I’m pretty happy. I feel pressure if I have to go to Hollywood type events where you know that you’re going to be judged. It looks terrible if you’re tense. You get that crazy-eyed look and that awful smile.
WL: Are you less vain in front of the camera than you are in real life?
JJL: Except when I’m getting my passport photo taken. In real life I rarely wear make-up and on set I’m not at all vain because I’ve got great people taking care of me. But yesterday trying to get my passport photos there was this horrid lighting. I must have done it five times. The woman was just laughing at me. This is something that I’m going to have to live with for 10 years. I couldn’t say I was happy with the one I left with but I just felt too bad to keep going with this woman.
WL: Is it true that you used to take parts if the character smoked?
JJL: I did or I used to make the character smoke. I gave up after The Machinist, which was one of those jobs where I go to another city and smoke my brains out. If I have one cigarette I’m up to a pack a day in less than a week. I get very addicted and you just can’t smoke here any more.
WL: What do you like to do when you’re not working?
JJL: I like to read and swim and play with my new dog and hang out with my husband. I cook a lot. I like to make soufflés. You can make them with absolutely anything but I make savoury soufflés. As long as you’ve got some good cheese in the fridge you can put anything else in there with it. You just need eggs. The secret is not to over fold the egg whites.
WL: Did your husband make you audition for the part in Margot At The Wedding?
JJL: Yes, eight or nine times, bastard! No, I’m joking, I knew I was going to play Pauline when he was writing it.
WL: Where did you meet?
JJL: At a play. We both went to see Neil LaBute’s The Shape Of Things the same night.
WL: Was it love at first sight?
JJL:It was for me.

If you really get inside the character, when you come back to yourself you realise you’re not lonely and you’re not depressed.

WL: There’s a great moment in Margot where you tell Kidman that she should take being called a celebrity as a compliment.. Do you think it is a derogatory term?
JJL: It depends how it is said and who is saying it. If someone calls me a celebrity, I don’t feel afflicted by it. But celebrity can be very unappealing.
WL: It can overshadow the work?
JJL: It can overshadow your life.
WL: You avoid that world very well. Do you think growing up in the industry, your mother a screenwriter, your stepfather a TV director, helped you deal with that?
JJL: It took some of the glossiness off.
WL: What advice would you give the 14-year-old Jennifer Jason Leigh on the set of The Young Runaways?
JJL: I hope you haven’t seen that. I barely remember it. I’m sure it’s terrible. I recall having a kind of quasi-English accent but I have no idea why. I had never done anything before and the camera looked so enormous so my eye kept going to it and they’d tell me not to look into the camera. I was scared out of my mind but part of my personality is never to admit that I’m scared... So I think my advice would be to tell myself not to try so hard to be good.
WL: What sort of a teenager were you?
JJL: I was very opinionated. When I started driving I was going to a public school and ditching class a lot to see all sorts of movies like Apocalypse Now, The Deerhunter and Christiane F.
WL: What’s your earliest memory?
JJL: Trying to get my own cereal when I was about two years old. I liked getting up early. But the glass milk bottle shattered on the ground. Then the whole plan of being independent and not bothering my parents backfired. I didn’t want to wake them up but I was crying because I’d cut my thumb. So I just stood outside their bedroom wailing until they got up. I still cry over spilt milk. But I like to get up a little later now.

Margot At The Wedding is released next February.