Interview : Joshua Leonard (The Lie)

[Editor’s Note: This interview was published during the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.]

Many will dismiss The Lie as another mumblecore graduate and not get why it’s worth making a movie for this, which is fine. Let them. There are enough of us out there who do get this. Written by Leonard with the participation of Jess Weixler, Mark Webber and Jeff Feuerzeig (director of The Devil and Daniel Johnston and an upcoming Untitled Chuck Wepner Project), I see this as a modern telling of Elia Kazan’s The Arrangement, but do not take that to mean Leonard is conjuring Kirk Douglas in any way. Although come to think of it, Weixler could probably do a very fine Deborah Kerr. I invite you to check out my review, and listen to my pre-festival phone interview below where writer/director/co-star Joshua Leonard — where we dig into the fabric and genesis of the film and how the actor went from The Blair Witch Project to Humpday and more recently onto Higher Ground and how he slowly worked his way to a narrative feature debut via music vids, The Youth in Us – the Sundance selected short in 2005 and the co-directed the doc, Beautiful Losers. You’ll want to also check my festival interview with Leonard alongside Weixler and cinematographer extraordinaire Ben Kasulke.