Movie Star

'You Must Remember This' Podcast Focuses on Actresses/Activists Jean Seberg and Jane Fonda

  

Rolling Stone's Justin Ravitz interviewed Karina Longworth about her Podcast You Must Remember This and the new season's focus on actresses and activists Jean Seberg and Jane Fonda.

Rolling Stone excerpt (June 26, 2017):

Two female icons of the screen. One, a second-generation Hollywood royal, and ubiquitous for over 50 years; the other, born in obscurity, still mysterious and lesser-known today, her biography mired by tragedy and untimely death. What unites them? That's the focus of "Jane & Jean" the new season of You Must Remember This, Karina Longworth's popular and addictive podcast about 20th century Hollywood – now over three years and 100-plus episodes old – which finds an unexpected sisterhood between Jane Fonda and Jean Seberg. As told by the honey-voiced Longworth – a charismatic, details-obsessed film critic and historian – YMRT has previously delved into the Blacklist, Hollywood during World War II, Charles Manson's Hollywood connections and Joan Crawford. Most recently, the "Dead Blondes" season explored the spiritual and cultural import of such doomed women as Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Veronica Lake and Grace Kelly.

As Longworth tells Rolling Stone, that's where Jean Seberg first came into the picture. Click the link to read the rest of the Rolling Stone's article.

To listen to the Jean & Jane Podcast click HERE!

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The new award-winning Movie Star: The Secret Lives of Jean Seberg was funded in part with grants from Humanities Iowa, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Iowa Arts Council. The Historical Society of Marshall County served as the fiscal sponsor for the documentary project. The documentary is expected to be released on DVD late 2017/early 2018, with broadcasts to follow on PBS stations.  The documentary is co-produced by Fourth Wall Films and McMarr, Ltd.

Garry McGee (McMarr LTD) is the author of “Jean Seberg: Breathless” and co-author of “Neutralized: The FBI vs Jean Seberg” and “The Films of Jean Seberg”. He received a Regional Emmy® nomination for writing the documentary The Last Wright.  Kelly and Tammy Rundle of Fourth Wall Films received a Regional Emmy® nomination for their documentaries River to River: Iowa’s Forgotten Highway 6, Letters Home to Hero Street (co-produced with WQPT) and Country School: One Room – One Nation.

Jean Seberg & Natalie Wood

Courtesy Paramount Pictures

Hollywood actress and Oscar-nominee Natalie Wood turned down the title role in Robert Rossen's 1964 psychodrama Lilith.  Wood deemed the lead character too similar to the role she played in Splendor in the Grass.  Actress Jean Seberg was cast and garnered more praise for her performance than any other role in her film career. 

Natalie never regretted not playing Lilith, perhaps because she was pleased with Jean's success in the role.

In a letter written to her parents in April 1966, Jean mentioned the box-office success of her current film Moment to Moment. "[It] has done pretty well--better than Judith with Sophia Loren, and better than Natalie Wood's picture [This Property is Condemned]--but I don't want to do another movie where I am without support from a well-known actor.  It's too much responsibility alone."  Three years later Seberg made Ondata di Calore, aka Dead of Summer, without the benefit of a strong leading man.

Author Gavin Lambert noted in his biography, Natalie Wood - A Life, that on November 16, 1981, Natalie "...watched Mike Wallace's profile of Jean Seberg, whom she liked and admired.  It might seem to throw light (or more darkness) on the last weeks of Natalie's life that she watched a program about a deeply troubled actress."

Natalie must have wondered what happened to the beautiful and talented Jean Seberg. 

Wood died thirteen days later at the age of 43.  With the reopening of the investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death, many are wondering again what happened to the beautiful and talented Natalie Wood.