Fearless Pretender: The Jennifer Jason Leigh Podcast

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...

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 be...

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 sil...

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 trac...

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… Ge...

This month, Sam and Jason are joined by Dr Linda Marric to talk about 1989’s Last Exit To Brooklyn, following a perhaps more involved pre-episode content advisory than any episode since Flesh + Blood. In addition, we get into Baldwinalia, fat politics, Cabaret, the legacy of Alexis Arquette, Fassbinder blondes, Courtney Love, intersectional dehumanization, Constantin Films, union politics, Metropo...

To start with: Yanni/Overture (from Heart of Midnight) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_epW6yR8e0s Whitney Houston/I’m Your Baby Tonight* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0oRnyXxIrY X-Men: The Animated Series https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAkL2-vh2Sk Join Sam and Jason this month as they discuss 1988’s Heart of Midnight, as well as Steve Buscemi, The Three Mothers, the spectre of AIDS, Tamara de...

Join Sam and Jason this month as they’re joined by host of The Directors Club podcast and Chicago-based Film Critic Jim Laczkowski to talk about Christopher Guest’s 1989 debut feature The Big Picture, wherein the following topics may occur: Pay-Per-View, The persistence of vision of Corky St. Clair, The Goodbye Girl: The Musical, fleeting Bechdel moments, Al Cliver/Pierluigi Conti, misunderstandin...

Join Sam and Jason on this month’s episode of Fearless Pretender, where we finally discuss the elephant in the room [in comments recorded about a month ago] as well as John Stockwell’s 1987 film  Under Cover , in addition to satellite dish searches, The LaHabra Sound, the sad winnowing of availability,  Witchboard , Rainbow Harvest, the liminal space that is the video store, the difference between...

Join Sam and Jason as they are joined by Bede “The Terrible Australian” Jermyn to discuss* 1986’s SISTER, SISTER as well as crimes against hair, bayou safety, why nobody’s happy in The House of Mirth, an expansion of the Fearless Pretender Drinking Game, the ritual sparagmos of Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part Two, Schrödinger’s Dub, the perils of running a small business, heroic med-taking, the disco...

Join Sam and Jason as they discuss the 1986 filmed theatrical production of PICNIC* as well as take a crash course in the history of Labor Day, House of Gucci syndrome, writer/director conflicts, The Golden Girls, Broadway on US cable TV, flowers for Conchata Ferrell, Duckman, humble fuckability, what determines Southern belletry, and sitcom paleontology. * in a recording that predates some of the...

Sam and Jason welcome back Craig MacNeil (Craig and Friends) to discuss 1986's The Men's Club, a film which challenges the viewer in unexpected ways. Join them as they discuss this ensemble curiosity, as well as Gwen Welles, Vice Squad, Oliver North, deep kissing and 1980s HIV paranoia, The Before Trilogy, Sasha Grey, Psychoplasmics, shoulder dancing, Season Hubley, brothel breakfasts, &#3...

Sam and Jason take an eighteen-wheeler to tradition and welcome two guests for this month’s very special episode, talking about 1986’s THE HITCHER. With Super Marcey (The Super Network) and William Bibbiani (The Critically Acclaimed Network) having thumbed a ride, we talk about the Rutger Hauer/JJL reunion, nihilist homoeroticism, police ethics (and the lack thereof), what makes a Dardenne protago...

For the first episode of 2024, Jason and Sam take a break from their chronological survey of Jennifer Jason Leigh's career and discuss what might have been. In the first of several episodes that will cover films that Jennifer was ALMOST in, we look at a somewhat forgotten 80s coming of ager and an iconic rom-com that made a megastar of its lead in 1990. First up, loose Twelfth Night riff Just...

This month, Sam and Jason welcome producer Heather Buckley ( The Ranger , The Sacrifice Game , Blood and Flesh: The Reel Life and Ghastly Death of Al Adamson , amazing special features on the blu-rays you love for the past fifteen-plus years) to discuss the Paul Verhoeven film Flesh + Blood . It’s a wild and expansive discussion about the most violent and upsetting film ever named after a Roxy Mus...

A full length episode for this, Jennifer's only film of 1984, in which she has a tiny supporting part covering only about 3 minutes screen time, might seem a little indulgent, but when Billy Ray Brewton is your guest, you make the most of him. Jason, Sam and Billy Ray talk about the authenticity of the smalltown feel of this coming of ager, about the chemistry between Jamie Lee Curtis and male...

For episode 8, Sam and Jason delve into the theatrical cut of Jennifer's exploitation TV movie, directed by Jonathan Kaplan. First screened as Girls of the White Orchid, but released theatrically with some more overtly sleazy ingredients as Death Ride to Osaka. This time, we're joined by Jonathan Hertzberg of Fun City Editions, who released the film in their excellent Primetime Panic blu-r...

For Episode 7, Jason, Sam and guest Craig MacNeil confront the cultural divide provoked by Rodney Dangerfield and his 1983 Brewster's Millions-alike comedy Easy Money. Among the subjects up for discussion are the genius (?) of Rodney Dangerfield; how good a year the pizza guy at Ridgemont High had after everyone graduated; the merits of RC Cola and Panda Pops; the comic potential of precarious...

This time, Jason and Sam tackle another couple of TV projects from Jennifer Jason Leigh's early 80s career. After School Special "Have You Ever Been Ashamed Of Your Parents?" defies the stereotype of these shows by having some excellent writing and nuanced performances (and, yes, a slightly clunkily inserted moral). TV movie "The First Time" sees Jennifer among a quality ca...

Sam and Jason tackle the first of this show's white whales: Jennifer's breakthrough role in era defining teen comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Among the subjects up for discussion are the incredibly stacked cast of character actors the film introduced; the existence or otherwise of Linda's boyfriend Doug and the differences between the theatrical and TV versions of the film. We als...

Join Sam and Jason as they explore four of Jennifer Jason Leigh’s performances from late 1981 through 1982, including the feature film Wrong Is Right, an episode of Trapper John MD, and the made-for-television one-two punch of The Killing of Randy Webster and The Best Little Girl In The World. Along the way we’ll debut Jason’s Currency Conversion Corner, come up with a game involving the many Trap...

On this episode, Sam, Jason and guest Timothy Evans finally get to discuss Jennifer Jason Leigh's first theatrically released film, the Florida shot and set slasher Eyes of a Stranger. We discuss the genre and the critical antipathy towards it; director Ken Weiderhorn's stylish approach to the film; the details that abound in Jennifer's performance as a deaf, blind and mute character and much more...

In the first half of our first two part episode (the recording ran very long), Sam and Jason are joined by a guest: Sam's Hawke Talk co-host Timothy Evans, to discuss Jennifer's first after school special, and the first of many projects covering the topic of abortion: I Think I'm Having a Baby. We discuss the phenomenon that is the after school special, the differences between the way American TV...

In this month's episode, Sam and Jason take us through 1980 and early 1981, with a stop by seat of American mythos Walton Mountain as well as the allegorically shocking Angel City. What exactly do The Waltons signify today? Can unjust systems perpetuate themselves without the support of the authorities? Are we finding throughlines between these early touchstones and the future, iconic JJL performa...

Following last week's introduction, we start our chronological journey through Jennifer Jason Leigh's filmography with small cameos in the film The Spy Who Never Was (1976), episodes of TV shows Baretta (1977) and Family (1978) and a small, but fairly substantial, supporting role in the Disney TV movie The Young Runaways (1978).  Among other things, we discuss the politics of US TV during thi...