Jennifer Jason Leigh

 Jennifer Jason Leigh Biography

Date of Birth

5 February 1962, Hollywood, California, USA

Birth Name

Jennifer Lee Morrow

Nickname

JJL

Height

5' 3" (1.60 m)

Mini Biography

Born in Los Angeles, Jennifer Jason Leigh - the daughter of actor Vic Morrow - worked in her first film at the age of nine, in a nonspeaking role for the film Death of a Stranger (The Spy Who Never Was (1976)). At 14 she attended summer acting workshops given by Lee Strasberg and landed a role in the Disney TV movie The Young Runaways (1978) (TV), and received her Screen Actors Guild membership in an episode of the TV series "Baretta" (1975) when she was 16. Jennifer performed in several TV movies and dropped out of Pacific Palisades High School six weeks short of graduation for her major role in the film Eyes of a Stranger (1981). Her first major success came as the female lead in Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).
IMDb Mini Biography By: Alex Fung

Spouse

Noah Baumbach

(2 September 2005 - present) (filed for divorce) 1 child

Trivia

Daughter of actor Vic Morrow and actress-screenwriter Barbara Turner.
Won two 1990 Critic Society awards for her portrayal of Tralala in Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989), and as Susan Waggoner in Miami Blues (1990).
Selected as one of "America's 10 Most Beautiful Women" by Harper's Bazaar Magazine, 1989.
Has an older sister, Carrie Ann Morrow, and a younger half-sister, actress Mina Badie. Her ex-stepfather is director Reza Badiyi.
Well-known in Hollywood for the exhausting research she does for each of her portrayals and for her affinity of playing lurid roles.
Had a small part in Eyes Wide Shut (1999). However, when its director Stanley Kubrick asked Jennifer to do some re-shoots, she was not available to do that. Her entire part was redone by another actress.
Born at 12:33pm-PST.
Jennifer lost weight down to 86 pounds for her role as an anorexic teenager in the TV-movie The Best Little Girl in the World (1981) (TV).
In 1997, Jennifer appeared in Faith No More's music video "Last Cup of Sorrow". Its plot was derived from Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo (1958).
Jennifer's father, actor Vic Morrow, died during the filming of the movie Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). He was killed in a helicopter accident.
Measurements: 34B-23-34 1/2 (Source: Celebrity Sleuth magazine).
After reading the script for the movie Backdraft (1991), Jennifer reportedly told its director, Ron Howard, that she wished that she could be the fire because it has the best part.
Jennifer attended the strict "Stagedoor Manor", summer camp in upstate New York that trains teenagers in acting, singing, and dancing. Jennifer's fellow classmates include the actor Zach Braff from NBC's "Scrubs" (2001), the writer-director Todd Graff, and the actress-singer Mandy Moore.
Is of Russian descent.
Friend of Phoebe Cates and Blair Tefkin, whom she met while they were acting together in the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982).
Frequently works with maverick director Robert Altman who, before his maverick days, worked with her father, Vic Morrow on the sixties televison series "Combat!" (1962).
Jennifer lived with Eric Stoltz for five years during the 80s.
One of Jennifer's friends is Paul Thomas Anderson.
Jennifer chose her second middle name "Jason" from that of her and her father's friend, the actor Jason Robards.
Jennifer has acted with three of the four acting Baldwin brother in five different movies: Miami Blues (1990) and Lymelife (2005) with Alec Baldwin; Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989) and Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994) with Stephen Baldwin; and Backdraft (1991) with William Baldwin.
Member of the jury at the "Venice Film Festival" in the year 2000.
Auditioned for the role of Sarah Connor in The Terminator (1984) but director James Cameron considered her too young for the part. Linda Hamilton ended up playing the part.
The song "Jennifer Jason Leigh" by the punk band J Church has lyrics made up from interview quotes.
Has become somewhat famous for turning down many roles in some popular movies: Jodie Foster's roles in Taxi Driver (1976), The Accused (1988), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Nell (1994), Contact (1997), Flightplan (2005) and Inside Man (2006); the Brooke Shields' roles in Pretty Baby (1978) and The Blue Lagoon (1980); the Ally Sheedy roles in The Breakfast Club (1985) and St. Elmo's Fire (1985), the Laura San Giacomo role in Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), the Julia Roberts role in Pretty Woman (1990), the Kyra Sedgwick role in Singles (1992), the Lori Petty role in A League of Their Own (1992), the Asia Argento role in The Stendhal Syndrome (1996), the Julianne Moore role in Boogie Nights (1997), the Kim Basinger role in L.A. Confidential (1997), the Lara Flynn Boyle role in Men in Black II (2002) and the Heather Graham role in Adrift in Manhattan (2007). She also turned down a recurring role on the TV show "Lost" (2004), which was eventually played by Cynthia Watros. She also turned down the role of Bree on the TV series "Desperate Housewives" (2004), which was eventually played by Marcia Cross.
She signed on for the film Spread (2009) but later backed out, and is being replaced by Anne Heche.
She was one of several actresses considered by Jane Campion for the Holly Hunter role in The Piano (1993), but she was unable to meet with her because she was shooting Rush (1991) at the time.
Dario Argento offered her the female lead in his film The Stendhal Syndrome (1996), but she turned it down. It was eventually played by his daughter Asia Argento.
She turned down the Kyra Sedgwick role in Singles (1992).
She was offered the Kim Basinger role in L.A. Confidential (1997) but turned it down as she had already played a few prostitutes.
She won the role in Washington Square (1997) over Meg Ryan and Anne Heche.
She won the role in The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) over Winona Ryder and Bridget Fonda.
Auditioned for the Nicole Kidman role in To Die For (1995).
Auditioned for the role of Catwoman in Batman Returns (1992).
Moved in with Jack Black and Nicole Kidman during filming Margot at the Wedding (2007), because they wanted to perfect their roles as a dysfunctional family.
She has received three separate career tributes - at the Telluride Film Festival in 1993, a special award for her contribution to independent cinema from the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2002, and a week-long retrospective showing of her film work held by the American Cinematheque at Los Angeles' Egyptian Theatre in June 2001.
Jennifer has become noted for supposedly turning down some film roles that were instead taken by other actresses, including several who won Oscars: Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver (1976), The Accused (1988), The Silence of the Lambs (1991), Nell (1994), Contact (1997), Flightplan (2005), and Inside Man (2006); Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby (1978) and The Blue Lagoon (1980); Ally Sheedy in The Breakfast Club (1985) and St. Elmo's Fire (1985); Laura San Giacomo in Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989); Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman (1990); Kyra Sedgwick in Singles (1992); Lori Petty in A League of Their Own (1992), Asia Argento in The Stendhal Syndrome (1996); Julianne Moore in Boogie Nights (1997); Kim Basinger in L.A. Confidential (1997); Lara Flynn Boyle in Men in Black II (2002); Heather Graham in Adrift in Manhattan (2007).
Did an audition for the role of Violet in Pretty Baby (1978), but the part went to Brooke Shields instead.
Daughter-in-law of Jonathan Baumbach.
Gave birth to her son Rohmer Emmanuel Baumbach, with husband Noah Baumbach, in Los Angeles (17 March 2010).
Returned to work five months after giving birth to her son Rohmer in order to film her guest appearance on "Weeds" (2005).
Announced that she had filed for divorce from husband Noah Baumbach, citing irreconcilable differences, and is seeking spousal support and primary custody of their son Rohmer (24 November 2010).

Personal Quotes

I could never play the ingenue, the girl next door or the very successful young doctor. That would be a bore.
On her best friend, Phoebe Cates: "Your best friend is the only one who would tell you the person you are in love with is a sexually ambivalent man-child."
I just don't plan things. I live a month at a time.
I'm a typical middle child. I'm the mediator. The one that makes everything OK, puts their own needs aside to make sure everybody's happy. It's hard to change your nature, even with years and years of therapy.
I like a movie that the audience actively has to participate in, and not just casually observe. Whatever my part in it, just as an audience member, I find that exciting.
People can have so many ill-conceived ideas about me based on the parts that I play. I've had guys, when I've been single, come out of the woodwork to date me and I've found out very quickly that they were expecting some kind of whirlwind, some dramatic crazy person - and that's just not me.
I'd much rather be in a movie that people have really strong feelings about than one that makes a hundred million dollars but you can't remember because it's just like all the others.
When I did Short Cuts (1993) with Robert Altman, I went up to him on the first day and said 'Hi', and he said 'Hi, how are you? Could you get me a cup of coffee?' When I brought it back, it turned out he thought I was the PA. For him, I come alive on film. As a person, I don't really register that much. I mean, he loves me, I don't take it as a cut, although you could. But he says that as a person I disappear in a way. On film, I'm very mysterious, but in life I'm very dull. I don't feel like I'm dull, but I don't put out a lot.
But in mainstream movies the woman's role is mostly just to prove that the leading man is heterosexual. I'm not good at that, and I'm not interested in that.
I like the comparison to Johnny Depp because with him, the way he transforms himself from role to role, he's just this miraculous changeling and people really get behind it. But with me, people sometimes have a problem.
I think I live in this mythical world where doing the parts I do is not going to hurt me, and telling people my age is not going to hurt me. And it actually does. It's a bit sick-making but, you know, I can't change who I am.

 Jennifer Jason Leigh 

Jennifer Jason Leigh 

Jennifer Jason Leigh 

Jennifer Jason Leigh

Jennifer Jason Leigh interview on the Late Show (1994)