Jennifer Jason Leigh: 'I've never been happier'

Jennifer Jason Leigh, in a scene from "The Anniversary Party," helped in writing, producing, directing, and acting in the film

By Jamie Allen
CNN

(CNN) -- One might expect Jennifer Jason Leigh to be moody.

After all, the actress has a reputation for picking roles that come from dark corners of the human psyche. She's played a drug-addicted cop, a murderous psycho roommate, and a fatalistic hooker.

But on the phone from Los Angeles, Leigh sounds bright and cheery, and for good reason. It seems she's found a new calling in her seriocomic film, "The Anniversary Party," which marks her debut as a writer-director.

"Writing, producing and directing, I must say, is incredibly satisfying and gratifying," Leigh, 39, says. "I've never been happier."

Leigh also stars in the film as Sally Nash, an aging actress whose star is fading. She's married to immature, egocentric novelist Joe Therrian, played by Alan Cumming, who co-wrote and co-directed with Leigh.

As the title suggests, the play is set at the couple's sixth anniversary party. They've just reconciled, and to celebrate they've invited over their closest friends. A few unwanted guests round out the mix, and by the end -- after death and drugs and confession -- the audience is left wondering how Sally and Joe might ever pick up the pieces.

The movie aims for the extremes of light and dark, says Leigh.

"I like this tone -- stuff's that funny, and then brutal. That's my niche," she laughs.

'Count me in'

Leigh and Cumming met while appearing in a 1998 Broadway rendition of "Cabaret." A friendship blossomed and they were soon talking about writing and directing, using the new digital technology that makes it easier and cheaper to shoot and edit.

"It started off as a lark, and then it became realer and realer," she says. "As we were writing it, I started calling my friends and saying, 'Listen, we're writing this thing. We're writing it for you.' So everyone said, 'Oh sure, count me in.' I don't think anyone thought it would actually get made."

Alan Cumming co-wrote and co-directed with Leigh

But it did. Fine Line helped produce and distributed the film, which premiered in limited release on June 8.

Along with taking on love and marriage, the film also explores identity in Hollywood, through clever casting. Leigh used her close friends in the roles, each actor offering an alternate reality of their (presumably) real selves -- Gwyneth Paltrow as the young starlet; Kevin Kline as the aging actor still prone to spouting Shakespeare; Phoebe Cates as the former actress-turned-happy mom.

Cates and Leigh, in fact, have been friends since the days when they starred in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982). In one climactic scene, they battle through an emotional confrontation while, in the background, a real picture taken some 18 years before features Cates and Leigh smiling. It's one example of the sense of skewed reality offered by the picture.

"It was really intense and it was so much fun," she says. "In a way, it's a chronicle of our friendship."

'They're struggling too'

Leigh says she wanted to present a new version of Hollywood glamour -- an authentic one.

"You come in with these expectations and ideas and judgment and theories about these (famous) people and as it wears down and the veneers wear off, you realize, Oh, they're struggling too, you know?" says Leigh. "They may have the perfect house and have a lot of success and everything, but they still have issues."

Leigh is also quick to point out the help she received from her family. She says her mother, screenwriter Barbara Turner, was the "harshest critic" of the script in the development process.

Leigh also lauds the "Anniversary Party" work of her half-sister, Mina Badie, who plays a star-struck neighbor invited to the party with her uptight husband.

"She's a brilliant actress," says Leigh. "We're really, really close. But what an amazing thing for me to be able to do, to have my sister -- who I know is a great actress, who's never had a break -- and to be able to write something and then the world gets to see how she shines.

"I'm just so proud of her, because she's just so good," says Leigh.

Leigh is proud of her own work, too. The actress-turned-writer and director, who counts auteurs such as Alan Rudolph, Robert Altman, Jane Campion and Woody Allen as major influences in her work, plans to make another movie soon -- this time, writing and directing without Cumming.

"Now, it's all I want to do, of course," she laughs. "It's such a joy to have it be your own, completely."