Jennifer Jason Leigh

Interview By: Andrea Tuccillo
AndreaTuccillo@TheCinemaSource.com

Jennifer Jason Leigh has constructed a low-key career for herself. Despite coming from a filmmaking family (mom is a screenwriter, dad is a director) and acting in numerous memorable movies, Leigh has avoided outright stardom. And she seems just fine with that. She proves that she's passionate about what she does, and passionate about her husband, director Noah Baumbach. No doubt that helped her in snagging one of the lead roles in Baumbach's new film Margot at the Wedding. To hear Leigh tell it, the transition from husband and wife to director and actor was a smooth one.

'It was not strange at all,' she says. 'I was so wanting to work with Noah and I love being on set, I love acting especially if it's a project I believe in and I feel I'll really connect to and do great work on and I wanted to kind of show off for him a little bit. I'm never late, I'm easy to work with'like I wanted him to see all those aspects of me that you don't get to always see when you're just married to someone or living with someone. So I was looking forward to showing off for him a little bit. I've seen him on set so I knew I'd love working with him. For me it was kind of idyllic, in a way.'

Baumbach also wrote the script, so Leigh was able to read drafts in various stages of development. She was in on the process from the beginning, but did not immediately picture herself as any of the characters. 'I saw it all along the way,' she says of the script. 'I grew up with a screenwriter, my mom's a screenwriter, so I can really read a script without putting myself in it as an actress or without envisioning myself as an actress. I can just read it as a piece of work and talk about it and think about it in that capacity. And so I really enjoyed all of that stuff and I was able to separate it because I've been doing that for so long, having that experience as a child. But he told me at one point that he wanted me to play Pauline and I was really happy because I really loved the character of Pauline and it was just very exciting for me, very different for me.'

The dysfunctional relationship between Pauline and her sister Margot is the focal point of the film, so it was crucial to convey the complicated sense of history these two siblings shared. Luckily, Leigh quickly bonded with her co-star Nicole Kidman.

'I was really excited about the possibility of working with Nicole,' Leigh says. 'She's so perfect for Margot and I've been a big fan of hers for a long time. We've known each other through the years but we've never had a chance to work together before this. But it was very easy for us to create that sister bond, intimate thing, that kind of history. I don't even know quite how we did it. Noah did give us two weeks of rehearsal and we spent a lot of time together. But I felt very connected to her'I feel like we approach things in a very similar way. There was something kind of effortless about it and I could sort of recognize myself in her the way you can in a sibling. I feel like that is maybe the magic of Nicole as an actress.'

One of Leigh's favorite scenes in the film involves the two sisters. 'I really liked the first day we did the scene in the bedroom, that's Margot and Pauline together in the bedroom and it's just such a great scene to play because they're both trying so hard to make it go well and it goes so badly,' she says. 'The scene's hilarious to play but it also gave me such a stomachache and Nicole such a stomachache because I really do have the best intentions and they just start hurting each other right away. I just loved it because it really set the tone for the whole movie and it went so well and it felt so right immediately.'

Pauline and Margot's differences come to a head when Margot reveals her disapproval of Pauline's average fianc' Malcolm, played by Jack Black. Leigh herself disagrees with Margot's objections. 'I really like [Pauline] and Malcolm together,' she says. 'I really root for them as a couple. I think he's actually a really good choice for her and I think people fall from grace occasionally but I don't think necessarily that's who Malcolm is. I personally like them as a couple. I think he makes her feel loved and grounded and I think it all gets undone when her sister comes. Everything gets thrown kind of out of whack, but I think he's good for her. He's not perfect, but who is''

So what was it like working with notorious funnyman Jack Black' 'I loved working with Jack,' she says. 'Everything you would ever want or think Jack might be like, he is in the most wonderful ways. He's incredibly funny and warm and loving and open. He's a great singer and he would sing with me all the time even though I'm not a very good singer. He's so easy to be around, funny to be around.'

Whatever new projects come Leigh's way, one thing's for certain'she'll be counting on her husband for support. 'If I do really like something I'll always ask him to read it and I'm very much a part of what he does too,' she says. 'He shows me every draft and things as he's working on them. I think we help each other and influence each other quite a bit.'

Sounds like a match made in movie-heaven!