Fearless Pretender: The Jennifer Jason Leigh Podcast

FP bonus experience: Proof (2001)

Join Jason and special guest Sean Burns (splicedpersonality@bsky.social) as they discuss Jennifer’s October 14th, 2001, performance on Broadway in the play Proof in a very special bonus experience (not an official official episode). The language is explicit, the mood is weird, and CONTENT WARNING: two Americans talking about 9/11 and not in the way that usually happens in the discourse and things get very heavy. These are two people who’ve been friends since 1993 thanks to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me - they are getting old and it is inescapable. This is about as discursive as things can get, and Jason’s disfluencies are not minimized as is usually the case in the edit process. Side topics include stagedooring, Mulholland Drive, Joe Coleman, Atlanta Backdrop Foolishness, the state of Broadway, the West Newton Cinema, what it means when your alma mater is fucking it up on a global scale, the Harvey Weinstein Of It All, the good Kicking and Screaming, Oh Mary, nightsoaps, Neil Diamond, what it means to give The Full Jennifer, vomiting fire, JJL as Alia Atreides in the unmade Dune: Messiah, an origin for Adopting The Monster, the cruelty of the passage of time, Josh Hamilton, Daniel Craig, doing a Twin Peaks rewatch, InDigEnt films, Scarlet Diva, the Lincoln Center Theatre Library, what it means when a personality big enough for the movies takes the stage, Madison Square Garden, Dino DeLaurentiis, Jason’s philosophy of camp, Kathryn Hunter, and BritBox.

FEARLESS PRETENDER Episode 23: “I Practically Run That Office Now” (Backdraft)

Join Jason and Sam this month as returning guest Liam McCloud saddles up a seat on the fire engine for a discussion of Ron Howard’s 1991 film Backdraft. They also get into Pulsating Door Cinema, The looming Baldwin/Skarsgård Points of Divergence, Casualty!, Celebrity IOU, Fabulous Baker Boys hair, The Pillow Pyro, professionalism as a foundation, Stephen Baldwin’s career that could have been, toxic dynamics in closed structures, Jason making completely unfounded comparisons between US/UK civic structure, Frequency, ‘80s/’90s/Aughts revivals, historic moments in terrible CGI fire, European language questions, Hannibal Lecter and Clint Howard rankings, what it means to Edwige Fenech a film, boxcuts, inciting incidents/object lessons, Sliver, boat parties, OSHA laws, controversial Pacino thoughts, mysteries and subterfuge, a (shocking) secret of Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade, and the Pete Burns/Glenn Danzig Continuum. If you’ve been looking to find ways to help the victims of the Los Angeles fires, a good starting place is https://www.mutualaid.la/resources [https://www.mutualaid.la/resources] There’s also a spreadsheet that aggregates GoFundMes, as well as linking out to the Displaced Disabled and Displaced Latine spreadsheets, all of which are collated here: https://tinyurl.com/444f75yv [https://tinyurl.com/444f75yv] Our theme music comes courtesy of composer Tim Kutz. Follow him on Twitter ⁠@Rockub420⁠ and check out his brand new album at theeuphoricrecall.bandcamp.com/album/side-b.

Episode 22: Unviewable JJL

Join the gentlemen for the latest special episode of Fearless Pretender, where we explore two legendary pieces of Lost JJL work: we explore the remnants left behind of the TV pilot Partners in Life (and the show it eventually became) as well as Stanley Kubrick’s final film, Eyes Wide Shut, examining the ripples left from works which are simply – gone. In addition, you’ll hear Sam and Jason get silly and sorrowful and talk about cartoons, The Wall Of Temptation, more multiverse theory, cult followings, Margaret Dumont, boxsets, Laura Branigan, Single Female Lawyer, Stanley Kubrick as Master of sexual signifiers, QAnon, the Johan Falk films, the legacy of devoted fans and their video instincts, Jack Parsons, a future mystery, Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, eidetic memory, Temptation vs Possibility, The JPL, lost media, William Friedkin, Luke Skyywalker & The 2 Live Crew, Strange Angel, Liv Ulmann’s Faithless, Star Trek pilots and their evolutions, the cinema of grind, Thelema, realtime social media intervention, and Jason getting ridiculously in-depth about photochemical processing and camera philosophy and the various and sundry transfers of the film. Also, Jason misidentifies Sydney Pollack’s character as “Zidler,” rather than “Ziegler.” Zidler is Jim Broadbent’s character in Moulin Rouge! Laura Branigan’s “Self Control” video, directed by William Friedkin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP0_8J7uxhs The 1969 Traumnovelle: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u50DsIKCa1w

Episode 21: "One Big Maze; And I'm The Rat" (Buried Alive)

A TECHNICAL NOTE: Some of y'all may notice it's been longer than usual since our last show, and it's been very heartwarming to hear from listeners checking in to make sure that we're okay, what with general and specific chaos that is currently reshaping the world. The episode on Buried Alive was marked by a catastrophic technical situation that affected the entire second half of Jason's audio track, and while we reconstructed what we could, if things seem a tad 'off' or imbalanced, this is why. We thank you for your patience with this and hope that you are as well as possible. Join Sam and Jason and special guest film critic Liam McCloud as they talk about Frank Darabont’s 1990 directorial debut Buried Alive. You’ll also hear about ‘90s neonoir, the wrong time to decide to be fully honest, the comedy of tension and the tension of comedy, the many varieties of bastardry, a return of Blue Fang, William Atherton and unctuousness, tropical fishcraft, some Shawshank heresy, abortion judgments, the moral foundations of Gremlins, power imbalances in male friendships, buried alive cinema, inescapable Nashville movies, “Tasty Fish,” what unfinished homes and communities signify, Scooby-Doo villainy, malign smarm, Chekhov’s Rottweiler, getting real about Fantasia, buried accents, the art of the dawdle, the shameful legacy of Walter Peck and the enduring sins of Ghostbusters, the difference between compromise and acquiescence, heart attacks, how resurrection makes you inherently interesting, noble fat guys, an unexpected Emperor’s New Groove reference, trap cinema, and intense color coordination.

Episode 20: "I thought you'd like the 'Party Naked'" [Miami Blues]

In addition to discussing George Armitage's Miami Blues, join Sam and Jason this month for an ongoing debate about the intelligence of the character Susie, Desperation Pies, confrontational chest hair, the most unexpected Star Trek comparison you’ll ever encounter, the concept of The Generic becoming oddly Specific by being Generic in multiple spaces, The legacy of the Mayflowers, “Hour Back… Get It,” the Michael Hanekeness of Cockfighter (read Keir-La Janisse’s book!), Tom Tykwer’s Heaven, Koos Van Den Akker, “Somewhere That’s Green”- the person, the novels of Paul Beatty, Kṛṣṇa Consciousness as reflected in popular culture, the Bernard Goetz case, a Blair Witch-related schism, the Suzanne Vega multiverse, gardening skills, and Voight-Kampff Empathy Tests. At Sam’s insistence, certain material was excised from this episode. Vinegar Pie recipe: https://www.allrecipes.com/what-is-vinegar-pie-8401486 Context on what was cut: Boy George: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy_George#Assault_and_false_imprisonment_conviction James Franco: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Franco#Sexual_misconduct_accusations_and_lawsuit