64. Illeana Douglas - Connecticut in the Movies

Meet Our Makers

In this chat, we get to meet actor and writer Illeana Douglas. Illeana is best known for her film work, costarring in films as wide-ranging as Scorsese's Cape Fear, Gus Van Sant's To Die For, or (one of my personal favorites) Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World. In addition to her film and television, Illeana is also an accomplished writer and film historian, and she has just published her second book, entitled Connecticut in the Movies. In this chat, Illeana and I discuss a LOT about her new book, which was especially exciting given that I grew up in Connecticut just like she did. We talk about the many different versions of CT that have been seen in the movies, the cliches and stereotypes, and the varied styles of films made or set here - from dark suburban dramas to sex comedies. We talk about how surprisingly integral CT has been to filmmaking, and how the state's perception has shifted and ping-ponged from accurate to, well, less-so. We touch on Mystic Pizza's place as our emblematic film, the idea that characters from CT have something odious to hide, and much more. Now, we recorded this while the SAG strike was still ongoing, so we couldn't talk much of her acting work. But fear not - there was plenty to talk about. Thank you for listening.