Apr 29, 2021
We’ve got actor, writer, director, producer Jillian Armenante on the show today, ay, now that’s amore. You Might Know Her From Judging Amy, Vice, North Country, Kittens in a Cage, Bad Teacher, Fresh Off the Boat, and Girl, Interrupted. We go in deep with Jillian about being the comic relief on a CBS courtroom drama (Judging Amy) and how that differs from being on a bonafide sitcom like Fresh Off the Boat. Jillian talked to us about her theatre roots in Seattle, the stage adaptation of The Cider House Rules that earned her a Drama Desk nom and a career in Hollywood, and what it’s like to come into the machine as an already out LGBTQ+ actor. We also got into the sisterhoods on the sets of both Girl, Interrupted (where she ran in a crowd with Clea DuVall and bff Angelina Jolie) and North Country (where she bonded with Michelle Monaghan, and Charlize Theron had them top off their whiskey shots with her breast milk). All that plus Jillian gives us some old Hollywood lesbian gossip and talks to us about acting in The Dark Knight without knowing her co-star’s lines. We are just giddy from this one. Enjoy!
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Girl, Interrupted details on Wiki (Leelee Sobieski took Joan of Arc instead of Girl, Interrupted)
How to Make an American Quilt was
If These Walls Could Talk (1 is about abortion, 2 is about women)
Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her still mostly about men
Anne has announced The Mummy Returns is lesbian canon
Nomi Malone = Elizabeth Berkley
Stockard Channing at the beginning of The First Wives Club is gay canon
Glenn Close wore gloves to the Oscars
Oscars with Glenn and “Da Butt”
Glenn’s drunk gif at the 2013 Golden Globes
SATC is not gay canon but Desperate Housewives is
Played Donna on Judging Amy (CBS) for 6 seasons
Dan Futterman, Amy Brenneman founded Cornerstone, Tyne Daly
In the episode “Waterworld” Donna gives birth in Amy’s house with Maxine helping her (tyne’s idea!)
Cider House Rules play (performed @ Seattle Rep, The Atlantic, Mark Taper Forum) won an Obie
Fresh Off the Boat was an offer
Kittens in a Cage (featuring Tyne Daly, Constantine Maroulis) is a camp sendup of women in prisons movies: like Caged with Eleanor Parker, Wentworth, and Prisoner of Cell Block H
Stuck with former YMKHF guest, Heather Matarazzo (full episode here)
Playled Cynthia Crowley in Girl, Interrupted
“Dyke” was something Angelina Jolie improvised about Jillian’s character
Gay energy on set with: Jolie, Armenante, Clea DuVall + Brittany Murphy, Elisabeth Moss, Angela Bettis
Angelina bisexual talk Re Jenny Shimizu
North Country (dir: Niki Caro)
Ensemble: Charlize Theron, Michelle Monaghan, Frances McDormand, Rusty Schwimmer, Jeremy Renner, Corey Stoll
Renner and Charlize helped create a shot called “the white dog” aka Jack Daniels + Jillian’s breastmilk
Tweeting about Barbara Stanwyck
Best Hollywood lesbian lore: Judy Garland and Mary Astor (co-stars in Meet Me in St Louis), Marlene Dietrich, Hattie McDaniel
The Barbara Stanwyck Show (not Hour as Anne said) featuring Anna May Wong
Gave Charlize a GLAAD Award in South Africaans
Actors she loved who felt similar: Marie Dressler, Dorothy Loudon
Godmother to Angelina’s son, Maddox
Grey’s Anatomy 2 ep arc has her screaming nonstop
Ass juice to save your voice (from Josh Hamilton: boil grapefruit rind into a tea and sip)
Vice with Rockwell, Bale, Carell
Dark Knight Rises was extremely secretive
Played drums in a teacher jam band with Timberlake in Bad Teacher
Black Sabbitch is an all girl BS cover band with Angie Scarpa on drums
Judy Garland slept with at least a few women
Marjorie Main (Ma Kettle, The Harvey Girls, Meet Me in St. Louis, Summer Stock) is one of our favorite lesbians. She was in a relationship with Spring Byington who was in In the Good Ole Summertime
Jillian was in Judging Amy with Amy Brenneman who was in Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her with Glenn Close, who was in Rex with next week’s guest (who was making her Broadway debut!)