As Dolores Claiborne's daughter, Jennifer Jason Leigh assumes the complex character of Selena St. George, an investigative reporter who brilliantly dissects her subjects in print but refuses to deal with her own troubled past.
Prior to the release of "DOLORES CLAIBORNE," Leigh starred as the writer and celebrated wit Dorothy Parker in "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle," produced by Robert Altman and directed by Alan Rudolph. She was named Best Actress of 1994 by the National Society of Film Critics and received a Golden Globe nomination as well as an Independent Spirit Award nomination for her performance.
With Altman, she joined a star-studded ensemble cast in "Short Cuts" portraying a working mother who supplements her income by selling phone sex. She followed this ironic role with that of the fast-talking newspaper reporter in Joel and Ethan Coen's "The Hudsucker Proxy," an homage to the classic comedies of Frank Capra, Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges which opened this year's Cannes Film Festival (where "Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle" also made its world premiere).
In 1992, Leigh tackled two very diverse and challenging roles. In Barbet Schroeder's thriller "Single White Female," she starred with Bridget Fonda as the obsessive Hedy, a young woman fixated on her roommate's identity. In Lili Fini Zanuck's directorial debut, "Rush," she starred with Jason Patric as an undercover policewoman falling prey to heroin addiction.
Jennifer Jason Leigh won the 1990 New York Film Critics Circle and Boston Society of Film Critics awards as Best Supporting Actress for her work in both "Miami Blues" and "Last Exit to Brooklyn." In 1993, she was given a tribute at the prestigious Telluride Film Festival.
Her additional motion picture credits include "Heart of Midnight," "The Big Picture," "Crooked Hearts," "Backdraft," "Easy Money," "Grandview U.S.A.," "Undercover," "Sister, Sister," "The Men's Club," "The Hitcher," "Flesh and Blood," "Eyes of a Stranger," "Wrong Is Right," "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" and the movie-for-television "The Best Little Girl in the World."
Her theatre credits include William Inge's "Picnic" at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles and William Mastrosimone's "Sunshine" at the Circle Repertory Theatre in New York, both directed by Marsha Mason.
Jennifer's extraordinary preparation for her roles is evidenced again in the research she conducted for "DOLORES CLAIBORNE." Coming off the heady knowledge of the life and works of Dorothy Parker, a magazine writer of the 1910's and 20's, she met with many of today's top literary magazine writers to get a picture of what makes the best investigative reporters tick, both on paper and in person. She also consulted a number of psychiatrists and their patients to comprehend different aspects of repression and to understand how a woman whose profession it is to peel away the protective layers of her interview subjects can function without the slightest degree of self-examination.
