Jennifer Jason Leigh - April 1999

let's get right to it my first guest starred out in Fast Times at Ridgemont High she's terrific actress starred in Washington Square a thousand acres and of course Georgia her new movie is called existence with a z at the end please welcome Jennifer Jason [Music] [Applause] [Applause] Lee I'm going to take a wild guest here and say you you you seemed like you would have strange dreams no it's true yeah I do you got one um I actually the other night I jumped that I had a baby which is very nice and it looked an awful lot like my dog and I was so proud cuz it went out in the garden and went to the bathroom in the garden you I saw this on Jerry Springer actually so the the baby look like your dog but I could read already at two days old and it's very very smart baby yeah smart dog so it was a little disturbing but it was kind of good yeah that is a little disturbing but all right interesting you you know Terry Hatcher was here last night she did Cabaret oh she doing it now now you did it on Broadway right how like is that scary that's a that's hard work isn't it you know it's so I was so terrified that I didn't even know I was terrified because you go into complete denial um the only way I knew I was terrified was that I couldn't eat at all during the day except for um rice just eat rice right and then in the play I would eat a raw egg which I was so grateful for because I knew it was protein I was getting protein so rice because otherwise my stomach would go crazy but I had no idea I was nervous and when I got home to La which I was so happy to come home to you know Los Angeles even though it was the greatest show no no but why now I mean you do all these movies and things why is that scarier um because there's an audience there really see I'm the exact opposite to me making movies is like so boring really I love it where you get the they say be there at 8 you shoot at 4 you sit in a trailer and you talk to actors about Pyramid Power or something for like nine hours you know I mean you don't and there no you don't get any feet don't you need I love to be bored and lonely you should watch this show every night then you should have my job no no really movies are kind of perfect although the play was really thrilling you know incredibly exciting the most brilliant cast and Brilliant production I got to sing oh yeah but the rush is what terrifies me the rush is like close is a near experience I think really yeah no you've got it completely backwards yeah I think maybe you should be I mean that's the fun part you would it's like if you're not getting any laughs nearly died you nearly died but cuz you don't see you don't really know in a film when you're good until like a year later that's okay yeah yeah no but I love doing it I really I would you know I'd do it again I mean I was singing and dancing on Broadway yeah they what's cooler than that that's pretty good now what was your first job was your first job out here on my first job yeah it was on veretta oh oh yeah play okay I played the bird babysitter yeah so uh did you have a lot of lines I didn't have a lot but they were a choice oh yeah had very good right no the the thing was um Robert Blake got really mad at me on my first job because I didn't know you're not supposed to talk to the bird why why did he get mad because you were talking to the bird cuz I said hello to the bird it was just being friendly you know sure you want to be friendly with the other actors on the set why not uh and once you say hello to that bird that bird just keeps saying hello oh hello hello hello hello and non-ending is that what I'm trying to say we're probably saying so just oh all through the shoot yeah cuz you know you know what's interesting about you when you play these characters you really seem to get into them I I know you do a lot of research I remember one role uh you played an anorexic you got down to what way um 86 lbs 8 I mean I mean what kind of Jenny Craig slim F how do you do that you just stop eating but how do you I mean you see I I can stop eating like between meals you know what I'm saying after lunch I can goo I'm not eating again then have a snack and then a sensible dinner yeah but I mean how long did it take you to do that well I didn't have a lot of time because it was you know a TV movie so I had like two weeks to lose the weight pretty much oh that's am it was insane but I was so you know I was 18 so you can do that pretty easily then now this movie existed am I saying it right existence yes exist okay it's like existence with a Z on the end and you play a video game designer designer now did you hang around with like a lot of nerds to sort of get into this uh my boyfriend I guess oh your boyfriend yeah oh wasn't that ni should be thrilled to hear this is he like a nerdy guy um well he's a bit of a yeah he's a bit of a computer nerd he likes to you know he gave me Nintendo 64 for the movie how romantic well that that's a guy gift isn't it that's a guy good yeah he loves it instead of a diamond I'll give her a Nintendo game it's good you know I like Mortal Kombat and those you know yeah now what does he do what kind of is he an actor is he oh no he's he's an editor oh he's an editor okay okay now explain explain um in this film you you play a game designer what kind of games explain to be honest what it is um well it's it's a bit in the future so the games actually poured into your spine people have holes put into their spin I people try to play that game with me believe me no no I'm seeing and then they pour directly with an um chord which looks a lot like an umbilical cord so it plugs into you and you're plugs into your body and you are the energy you are the life source of the game so if you're not feeling well or something's up with you then the game will respond to that and um and it's very alive and very real and the more you play it the L you know what is actually real and what is yeah the the movie itself is like a puzzle because when you watch it you got to figure out whether you're in the as the audience member you got to figure out whether you're in the game or not in the game here let's take take a look so people can what does this scene we're going to see here explain this um this this is when we're playing the game and things start to get uh a bit confusing okay let's take a look well fascinating film really interesting really different you always you always pick uh wonderful interesting projects so I like I like when you come by I know you have to run now I know you're going off to do something so but thank you thanks for coming and say hi to your nerdy jennif Jason Le be right back with Hollywood hul [Music]