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The extraordinary 40-year Hollywood career of Jennifer Jason Leigh, who just got her first Oscar nominationhttps://www.businessinsider.in/people/the-extraordinary-40-year-hollywood-career-of-jennifer-jason-leigh-who-just-got-her-first-oscar-nomination/slidelist/50749598.cms2021-07-26T12:47:40+05:30

The extraordinary 40-year Hollywood career of Jennifer Jason Leigh, who just got her first Oscar nomination

Jul 26, 2021, 12:47 IST

Jennifer Leigh Morrow was born February 5, 1962, in Hollywood. Her parents, actor Vic Morrow and screenwriter Barbara Turner, were both in the industry.

Jennifer picked the middle name "Jason" in honor of family friend actor Jason Robards Jr.

Her first film role was a nonspeaking part in 1976's "The Spy Who Never Was," directed by her now ex-stepfather, Reza Badiyi. You never see her face.

When she was 14, she attended acting teacher Lee Strasberg's summer workshop and received her Screen Actors Guild membership when she was 16, after appearing in an episode of "Baretta."

She appeared in a few small TV roles before dropping out of high school six weeks shy of graduation for her first major film role in the horror film "Eyes of a Stranger." Soon after, she dropped to 86 pounds to play a young girl suffering from anorexia in the 1981 TV movie "The Best Little Girl in the World."

Though not her first film, her role as the female lead in 1982's "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" helped launch Leigh's career. The coming-of-age comedy also launched the careers of Sean Penn, Nicolas Cage, Phoebe Cates, Forest Whitaker, director Amy Heckerling, and screenwriter Cameron Crowe.

She received much acclaim in 1990 with her portrayals of two different prostitutes in "Last Exit to Brooklyn" and "Miami Blues." The films starred two different Baldwin brothers, Stephen and Alec, respectively.

Leigh appeared in a number of successful films throughout the 1990s, including roles in 1991's "Rush" and as a psychotic roommate to Bridget Fonda in "Single White Female." For the latter, she won an MTV Award for best villain.

Leigh says the two roles she is most proud of are Sadie Flood in 1995's "Georgia" and Susie Waggoner in "Miami Blues," excluding her films from last year. "Georgia" was written by Leigh's mother.

Leigh was praised for her performance in "Georgia," about a singer, and there was some outrage that she didn't receive an Oscar nomination that year. Her costar, Mare Winningham, was nominated for her supporting role. Winningham has said of the nomination, “In my mind [Jennifer’s] will always be the greatest performance of [1995], and a lot of other people thought so, too.”

She earned her first Golden Globe nomination for "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" in 1995.

She made her Broadway debut in 1998 as Sally Bowles in "Cabaret," replacing Natasha Richardson.

In 2001, Leigh cowrote, codirected, and costarred in "The Anniversary Party," with Alan Cumming. The cast also included Gwyneth Paltrow, Denis O'Hare, and her "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" cast mate and friend Phoebe Cates.

That same year, she replaced Mary-Louise Parker in Broadway's "Proof." The two would work together when Leigh joined the cast of "Weeds" in 2009 as a recurring character and then became a main character for its final two seasons.

The following year, she starred in the Oscar-winning "Road to Perdition."

In 2004, she played the prostitute girlfriend to Christian Bale's character in "The Machinist."

She married writer and director Noah Baumbach in 2005 and the two have a son. She starred in his films "Margot at the Wedding" and "Greenberg," which she cowrote. They divorced in 2013.

She returned to the Broadway stage again in 2011, originating the role of Bunny Flingus in the revival of "The House of Blue Leaves," alongside Ben Stiller and Edie Falco.

She joined the cast of "Revenge" for a brief time in season two as Emily's mother.

Some of her most recent roles include the indie films "Kill Your Darlings," "The Spectacular Now," and "Welcome to Me."

She earned her first Oscar nomination this year for her supporting role as a captive fugitive in Quentin Tarantino's "The Hateful Eight." She was also nominated for a Golden Globe and BAFTA award. Though the character received some notoriety among critics for the amount of violence inflicted on her, Leigh said the role was "probably the best time I've ever had making anything."

She also lent her voice to the Oscar-nominated stop-motion film "Anomalisa." She had previously played the character in 2005 for a two-night play. Director Charlie Kaufman had written the parts for her, David Thewlis, and Tom Noonan. She had also worked with Kaufman in his 2008 directorial debut, "Synecdoche, New York."

Later this year, she'll appear in "Amityville: The Awakening."

She's portraying Lady Bird Johnson alongside Woody Harrelson's Lyndon B. Johnson in the forthcoming biopic, "LBJ."

She is set to star in the upcoming "Twin Peaks" revival.

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