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| Real Name: Jennifer Leigh Morrow | ||
| Birthday: 1962 | ||
| Place of Birth: Los Angeles, CA | ||
| Education: Palisades High School, Los Angeles, CA; Teenage Drama Workshop of the California State University, Northridge, CA; Lee Strasberg Institute, Los Angeles, CA | ||
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Movie critic Rex Reed accurately described the characters in Jennifer Jason Leigh's gallery as a collection of "sluts and nuts,” but the soft-spoken actress affectionately refers to the hookers, drug addicts and head cases she has played as a group of vulnerable, injured women she is thrilled to get to know on-screen, but grateful she doesn't encounter in real life. A versatile young actress, Leigh possesses intelligence and candor, which have made her one of the leading talents of her generation.
Leigh portrayed yet another unhinged character in Barbet Schroeder's "Single White Female" (1992). As Heddie, Leigh transformed herself from a frowsy seemingly supportive woman into the sleek "roommate from hell" who attempts to overtake Bridget Fonda's identity. She followed with the small role of a woman who works as a phone sex operator from her home in Robert Altman's episodic "Short Cuts" (1993). In the Coen brothers' "The Hudsucker Proxy" (1994), Leigh essayed an award-winning journalist who goes undercover and romances the new president of an industrial company. Some critics faulted Leigh's use of Katharine Hepburn-inspired accent while others compared her work with that of such 1940s stars as Rosalind Russell and Barbara Stanwyck. Her eccentric yet powerful portrayal of writer Dorothy Parker in Alan Rudolph's "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" (1994) won her citations as the year's best actress from the National Society of Film Critics and the Chicago Film Critics Association but not the expected attention from the Academy. Her performance was not without controversy; some found her accent indecipherable, yet Leigh claimed to have studied recordings of Parker and patterned her speech on them. In 1995, Leigh again displayed her versatility, first in "Dolores Claiborne" as the title character's haunted careerist daughter and then as a drug-addicted singer wannabe in "Georgia". In the latter, her character was scripted by her mother, Barbara Turner, and was reportedly based in part on Leigh's older sister Carrie. Again, critics were divided over her emotionally vivid depiction of a character constantly living on the edge. Leigh ventured into lighter territory in 1997 playing a plain-Jane heroine who falls in love with a handsome gold digger in the film version of Henry James' "Washington Square". Leigh's take on the role differed greatly from Olivia de Havilland's interpretation in the 1949 film "The Heiress", which was also based on James' book, in that her performance is much quieter and her bashful, innocent character takes a spiritual journey to independence that is a far cry from the one de Havilland takes to revenge and bitterness. Leigh followed that film up with another bittersweet romance, this time re-teaming with her "Mrs. Parker" co-star Campbell Scott for the TV-movie "The Love Letter" (CBS, 1998). Here, she played a lonely, young Civil War-era woman who develops a passionate correspondence with a man who lives in the 20th Century via a magical roll-top desk. Unlike most of Leigh's movies, this one had a happy ending.
The actress returned to playing tortured souls in 1999, replacing Natasha Richardson as miserable nightclub performer Sally Bowles in the Broadway revival of "Cabaret" opposite Alan Cumming. The part not only proved she was a compelling presence on stage, but also showed she was an adequate singer and dancer as well. The following year saw the actress star as an isolated computer game designer who is more comfortable playing a character in a game than she is dealing with people in real life in "eXistenZ", David Cronenberg's bizarre sci-fi flick. It was a role she acknowledged was one to which she could relate as in her mind acting offered a similar escape. Leigh continued to add to her gallery of misfits throughout 2000, acting in the fourth Dogme 95 film, "The King Is Alive" (screened at Cannes), which focused on a group of passengers on a broken down bus who pass the time by staging "King Lear". She went on to essay an unhappily married woman whose affair with a Native American raises eyebrows in "Skipped Parts". Leigh then took on a very ambitious project with Alan Cumming, her "Cabaret" co-star and real-life friend. The pair agreed to write, direct, produce and star in the comedy-drama "The Anniversary Party" which examines what happens when a newly reconciled couple throws an anniversary bash that quickly deteriorates into a drug-fuelled rehashing of the couple's problems. The film was shot entirely on digital video and was lauded not only for its rich appearance but its clever writing direction and often improvised acting. It was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in 2001. Leigh next went back to her acting full time, appearing briefly in "Road to Perdition" (2002) as Tom Hanks' wife, and director Jane Campion's "In the Cut" (2003), in which she played Meg Ryan's sister (at Campion's behest, the two actresses spent much time prior to filming interacting as if they were real siblings).
Leigh clearly relishes difficult, unglamorous roles and inhabits them with conviction. She dieted down to 86 pounds for both "The Best Little Girl in the World" and "Georgia" and is famous for the research she does before filming. Her work is intimate and richly detailed and often painful to watch, but there is no denying the talent that drives it.
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She
first garnered critical attention as Casey Powell, the anorexic teenager in
the TV-movie "The Best Little Girl in the World" (ABC, 1981), and
made her feature film mark as a young teen who gets an abortion in Amy
Heckerling's finely observed teen comedy "Fast Times at Ridgemont
High" (1982). Despite critical acclaim for "Fast Times", it
was eight years before Leigh's next notable role, as the prostitute Tralala
in Ulrich Edel's grim adaptation of Hubert Selby Jr.'s novel, "Last
Exit to Brooklyn" (1990). Her uncompromising performance was followed
by two more gritty films in which Leigh portrayed ostensibly fragile women
with unsuspected reserves of strength: "Miami Blues" (1990), as
another woman of ill repute; and "Rush" (1991), as a narcotics
cop-turned-addict.
Leigh next appeared in the psychological thriller “The Machinist”
(2004) opposite a gaunt