Official 'JT Leroy' Posters - US, Canada and the UK

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Very short footage of Kristen and Laura Dern in 'Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy'

Snippet of 'Jeremiah Terminator Leroy' from the BFI Flare: London LGBTQ Film Festival trailer.

Kristen's interview with Yo Dona (Spain)

Digital Scans

 

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Google translated from the Yo Dona article online.

Were you aware of this twisted and fascinating story?

No. When I received the script, the first thing that came to my head was: "Wait, did this really happen?" And I thought maybe they had taken some liberties to make the movie more interesting. Come now, people could not believe it for so long!

What convinced you then so that you agreed to star in the film?

This story can be understood as a huge and strange artistic experiment, which combined installation and performance. I love the character, but also the human being. Savannah is a generous, intelligent and warm, genuine person. It strikes me that a girl so young, immersed in this torrential media phenomenon, managed to stay true to herself and forge an identity.

By posing as JT Leroy, Savannah discovered things about herself. What have you learned?

I have discovered that I am very happy to be older. Two years ago I was in a vital moment in which I felt overwhelmed, to the point of not knowing who I was or with whom I wanted to share my time. It happened to me like Savannah: I was not sure if it fit, with what aspect I wanted to present myself to the world...

In fact, the film raises the contrast between the public and the private person, so I imagine that you have felt identified.

And so much that internal struggle, that continuous exposure ... I know what you experience when the way you present yourself in public does not necessarily align with how you feel inside.

What has been the most difficult aspect of fame to face?

When I was young, other comrades told me: "Come, relax, give the public and the press what they want. But I can not. And it is terrifying. You are sitting in a room in which everyone considers you the freak and the real freak is the one next to you, giving the impression of being the coolest. I know a lot of people who nail the appearance of being charming. They are so predictable ... They say what is expected of them at every moment. Everyone loves them. And it's ironic, because often what they show and what they say is not true.

Have you overcome this stage of confusion and feel greater are the reasons why you have decided to direct your first film?

Why am I older? (Laughter) No, I've always felt that roar inside me. Making a film is a precarious and delicate process, where many hands are needed. And getting to the end of that experience is like juggling precious content. It is the best feeling I have ever experienced. Since childhood I have been stimulated by that community of people who share an idea to the point of doing anything to carry it out. And I want to lead that community, because it has excited me in the past, it has made me who I am. I feel so lucky that I want to share it.

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Laura Dern, who in Jeremiah Terminator Leroy plays Laura Albert, corroborates the talent of Kristen Stewart as a filmmaker: "There are few actors that transmit that quality, but in this film, in which we have had to support each other, I have seen how everything looked with the eyes of a director".

Her first film is a bisexual drama entitled 'The Chronology of Water', based on the homonymous autobiography of the American writer and teacher Lydia Yuknavitch. Kristen, who in her sentimental life has alternated couples of both sexes, is plethoric with the complexity of the projects she leads.

"It's not just that my journey of personal self-discovery has led me to interpret characters with gender fluency, they are creating more, it's a triumph, and I feel happy defending and telling those stories," she said to 'IndieWire'. Among the range of films that are ready to reach the big screen is the period thriller 'Lizzie', where he gives life to the lover of his co-star Chloë Sevigny, and the romantic comedy 'Happiest Season', in which he discovers that his girlfriend has not yet come out of the closet.

There is also room for the biopic: in 'Against All Enemies' plays the actress Jean Seberg. And it does not disgust the action - in 'Underwater' it leads a team of underwater researchers facing an earthquake - or pure entertainment, with the remake in a feminist key of 'Charlie's Angels', a film about which it says: " It was a shoot in which women supported each other, we did not just kick ass. The only reason to make a new version was to link it to these times of awareness.

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Have you talked to Savannah about the frustration of being labeled by your sexual preference?

Yes, I love talking to her about that. We put labels because we want to call things so we can understand them. It happens to me too. But it is because of the lack of references. As time goes by I realize that there are many outstanding stories. When I watch a period movie, I wonder where the homosexuals are. They are not telling their lives. That is why we have not yet developed the right vocabulary for these times, but everything will come.

What changes do you see in the new generations when it comes to the acceptance of sexuality?

They do not give it the greatest importance. I grew up surrounded by kids who called each other socially inept and used fucked all the time before saying any words, but the new generation has changed a lot. I do not believe in great distinctions, in reducing everything to man and woman, because we have so much in our interior...And they assume it naturally.

Speaking of reductionism, what do you think about going to write my impression on you after 20 minutes of conversation?

Everyone has a perception of things according to their own experience, so you are in your right to write what you honestly think. If you try to dominate things, you can go crazy and not focus on what matters. Before, it made me nervous and I was an obsessed with control, but now, honestly, I like to have conversations about things that concern me, so do what you consider.

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'Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy' closing the Melbourne Queer Film Festival and the London LGBTQ Film Festival in March

Melbourne, Australia:

MQFF Kristen Stewart is at her charismatic best in this wilder than fiction true account of the infamous literary scam that fooled Hollywood. Stewart plays the androgynous Savannah Knoop who spent six years pretending to be the celebrated male author JT LeRoy, the made-up literary persona of her sister-in-law Laura Albert, played here by Laura Dern at her prickly best. Featuring Courtney Love, Jim Sturgess and Diane Kruger and directed by Justin Kelly (I Am Michael, King Cobra, MQFF 2017), Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy is an intriguing and provocative tale on the slippery nature of celebrity, gender and sexuality.

The film festival runs from 14-25 March. 'Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy' will therefore screen on 25 March.

London:

The BFI is also thrilled to announce that the Closing Night Gala is the European premiere of Justin Kelly’s JT LEROY. Powered by superb performances from Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart, the film is adapted from Savannah Knoop’s memoir Girl Boy Girl: How I Became JT LeRoy and tells the captivating real life story of the most compelling literary ‘hoax’ of our generation. With a screenplay written by Justin Kelly and Savannah Knoop, JT LEROY also stars Diane Kruger and Jim Sturgess. Fortitude International is handling international sales.

Justin Kelly, Director, JT LEROY says:

“Having opened 2015’s BFI Flare with my first film, I AM MICHAEL, I am beyond honoured to return to close this year’s festival with my new film, JT LEROY, the fascinating true story about two women whose lives forever change when they bring to life the fictional boy-wunderkind author JT LeRoy.”

The BFI Flare: London LGBTQ film festival runs from 21-31 March. The film will therefore screen on 31 March.

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If you are in Melbourne, Australia - tickets can be purchased here.

If you are in London, England - tickets will go on sale at the end of February here.

'Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy' will be released on 26 April in the US + New Still

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'Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy' was to be released in theaters on 29 March in the US but is now being released on 26 April in theaters and on VOD.

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'Jeremiah Terminator Leroy' will be distributed by Universal Pictures in the US + several other markets

Kristen Stewart’s portrayal as literary hoaxer JT Leroy is poised to get distribution after it premiered as one of the high profile titles at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival. Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Content Group is near to closing a U.S. rights to the Justin Kelly-directed drama. UPHE Content Group will set a U.S. theatrical release for the film and also gets in the deal some international rights that include Benelux, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and South Africa.

Stewart plays the title character alongside Laura Dern, Diane Kruger and Jim Sturgess in a film produced by Patrick Walmsley, Julie Yorn, Thor Bradwell, Gary Pearl, Cassian Elwes, Giri Tharan, Mark Amin, and Dave Hansen.

The fact-based drama has Stewart playing Savannah Knoop, a young woman who spends six years pretending to be the celebrated author JT Leroy until the scandalous revelation that this was a literary persona invented by Knoop’s boyfriend’s sister (Dern), who actually wrote the novels. The film is written and directed by Kelly (King Cobra, Welcome the Stranger) and co-written by Savannah Knoop, based on Knoop’s book about her experiences “playing” LeRoy.

JT Leroy was executive produced by Kelly, Savannah Knoop, Phyllis Laing, Devan Towers, Anders Erden, Simon Williams, Wayne Marc Godfrey, Robert Jones, Cami Winikoff, Tyler Boehm, Jed Root, Tracy Christian, Nadine De Barros, Erika Olde, Margot Hand, and Jere Hausfater.

CAA Media Finance and Cassian Elwes brokered the deal.

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Kelvin Harrison Jnr talks about working with Kristen in 'Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy' with Brief Take

Excerpt from the interview:

Can you talk about working with Kristen Stewart in Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy?

It was interesting. We didn’t talk much and it was kind of fun. I met her the first day and we just started the scene. [laughs] They just called and asked if I wanted to do it; I think someone better dropped out.

That’s not possible! You and Kristen are so electric on screen together. 

Definitely someone with more experience. It was fun, but I was nervous, she’s Kristen! [laughs] So I show up, and I talk to Justin (Kelly) a lot about Sean, and I have my ideas of what I want to do with him. Then I get there, and we start the scene, and that was the only interaction we had. And it was in the middle, and we don’t even say anything, like I’m cutting something, and she looks at me and I look at her, but it was like we had this unspoken understanding of where we both were in our lives in real life and in the story, and that carried on. We never talked about the material; we spoke through the characters in that moment. It was interesting, it was really interesting. I remember this one thing in which we improvised this stuff and she told me, she was just like “I see you”. And I was like “I see you“. And I think we both were like these misfits, these extra-terrestrial beings that don’t belong on Planet Earth, it feels like it sometimes. And I guess that we just, we understood it, and we just did it. It was kind of unreal, honestly, that experience.

Was that the restaurant scene?

Not the restaurant scene, by that point we were having a ball. That was like the last day. I think that the first thing that we shot was towards the middle of the movie, it was like…maybe it’s not even in the movie, but the first scene I was chopping fruit and she just looks at me, and I look at her, and that’s it. And also to see it all stripped down, and to see her bare her self, do you know what I mean? And she’s just herself and he’s just himself, and that’s why they connected. It’s these two queer people, and they just love each other and support each other and it’s beautiful.

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Beau Nelson shares photos of Kristen from TIFF

 

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Kristen, Laura Dern, Justin Kelly and Savannah Knoop talk 'Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy' at TIFF

Interview is from the press day roundtable discussions.

Justin, why would you say you gravitate toward real stories?

Justin Kelly (JK): Well, I have done three, and honestly it's not seeking true stories out, it just keeps happening. But I will say, of course, I wouldn't tell them if I didn't love them. I think it's, you know, truth is stranger than fiction, and there are so many amazing stories out there, and there is something with each one. There is something that feels very good about trying to find and craft a true story.

There's a tabloid one liner - for my first film (I Am Michael), it was something like ‘Gay Activist Becomes an Anti-Gay Pastor’, you know? And this one is, ‘Two Women Trick the Literary World’. And it's kind of fun to do research - whether there's a book involved or an article or something - and tear it apart and try to find the real story behind that tabloid one liner. There's something very fulfilling for me about doing that.

Savannah Knoop (SK): Mystery is so much about a reveal. You look at the reveal then you go backwards and it's like this tangling of all these people's lives.

JK: Through her details.

What was your first conversation like? Justin, were there things that you especially wanted to bring out of Savannah's story - that you encouraged her to hone in on?

JK: I think for me, since I was living in San Francisco when the whole thing happened, and was truthfully obsessed with the story- I loved the book Sarah, but more so when I would look through images in magazines and see JT's photo, and then reading Sarah, it was just like ‘What is happening?!’

I didn't think it was fake, I mean the rumors surrounding whether or not JT was real, as you see in the film, made people believe even more, because if he wasn't real then why is he out in the world? Why is Courtney Love saying they're friends?

SK: Why?!

JK: I believed it! So for me it was reading the memoir (Girl, Boy, Girl) and after I finished the book, I thought, ‘Oh my god, this story is something completely different. It's so much more complicated than what some people would say,

‘These women who tricked everybody for fame and money’, that's not what happened and that's not what this story’s about, so, when I read it, it was less of me wanting something from Savannah and more so me realizing that she already had this incredible story written down, that we wanted to realize.

Savannah, are you still in contact with Laura Albert at all?

SK: Occasionally we email. We send each other YouTube links that we think the other would enjoy. She will see the film.

A decade ago, Albert didn't have the nicest things to say about the prospect of you writing your memoirs...

SK: For sure. That's true. I mean actually when I first started, like after the reveal, I said ‘Wow, this is crazy. I have to start writing this down and figure out what had happened and I asked Laura to do it with me. We should kind…

Collaborate?

SK: Yeah, kind of go back together, and she wasn't interested in that. And so when I wrote the book, in some ways it was sort of a breakup publicly. There's that line, “Just because you played a writer doesn't mean you are a writer” (Albert’s initial response). It's interesting. It's an interesting statement in context. But obviously I think she's an amazing artist, and I have a lot of respect for her and I probably wouldn't have engaged in the first place if I didn't feel that way.

I enjoy the meta moments in the film that tease reality, like the cameo from JT’s old friend, Courtney Love.

JK: Yeah! Right? That's another moment where it's like that person actually was involved.

SK: She doesn’t play herself. She’s a producer.

Did Love enjoy being a part of the film?

JK: Yeah she did. We were really hoping to have at least one of the real people involved, meaning one of JT's friends, and Courtney Love, being a seasoned actress, felt like the logical first idea. I really had no idea if she would say yes or not. She just kind of liked the idea of this full-circle moment after having been friends with JT for so long out, being able to come back and play a fake character herself in the JT story. She was so cool, so fun to work with, and I was there when she saw Savannah for the first time.

Tell me about it!

JK: I can't remember what she said. But it was something like “I know you... Get over here!”

What were the biggest changes from your first draft to your final draft?

SK: So many.

JK: In the first draft, Laura and Savannah travel basically. It was like you see how Savannah becomes JT. They go to all these places and then the movie ends. And then in the last draft we sort of removed the information, the exposition with travel- I mean they still travel in the film, but… I remember a particular producer friend read the first draft - that we thought was so good, of course - and he was like, "This story's incredible. I love it, but I don't know who these two women are."

So the biggest change was flipping it and making it less so about JT and how they pulled it off and more why, really getting into their lives, which is why so much of the film takes place in their apartments, really, or inside. I almost think people when they get to see it will expect a much broader scope. But the story just became better and better and better the more we get more internal and intimate.

At this point, Justin and Savannah leave to join another small table of journalists as Kristen Stewart and Laura Dern take their seats across from us. A fellow to my right begins the conversation by comparing the onscreen relationship of Laura and Savannah to Clarence and Alabama of True Romance, adding that, “of course there is some inequality in this powerplay…”

Kristen Stewart (KS): It is a love story, 100 percent, which is strange because if you look at the story on a surface level, you can make assumptions that might lead you in the wrong direction. Such as, ‘Oh Savannah was manipulated and she was swept up in something so much larger than her, and there was this weird Svengali like figure behind the curtain.’

They were both really facilitating, in an ironic way, very, very deep embedded truths. They're sort of allowing each other to have them and really taste them. They really saw each other and they were really deeply protective of one another and still are. And they spent so much time together as well that they became a little consumed and a little addicted and codependent to a certain extent. And that's obviously never the healthiest thing, but real like real rock 'em sock 'em love stories are never healthy. It was really fun to get to know them as a couple.

Laura Dern: It was amazing!

KS: She just keeps saying that. (Teasingly imitating Dern) “Everything was amazing!”

(Laughter)

LD: It was! I mean, that part of it was forever a love story. We had to find each other in it, and it got to be this amazing incredible human being who was as generous as Savannah is. (Gazing at Kristen) You open your heart, you tell me the truth with your eyes. (Turning back to us) You don't get that even from the finest actors. It's a different requirement to be an open human being.

What excited you most about taking on your individual roles?

KS: Well, the story takes place over like six years. When you meet Savannah, in the beginning of the story, she's a really sort of a lovely, fragile, delicate little forest animal. Seeing someone like that get swept up in something so much larger than her and then come out the other side of it the way that she did, and the sort of self exploration and sort of articulation of her identity was, to me, just like so cool.

And I think that I wanted to protect that. I wanted to protect her. I didn't want anyone to come in and fake that, because I have experience with that. I know what that feels like to be affected by the fact that maybe the way you're presenting doesn't necessarily line up with how you're feeling inside, and struggling with that and being in the public eye. It was so meta, I was like, ‘Dude, I got you. I know exactly how to protect you in this and tell that story truthfully.

And then, additionally, I think that Laura and Savannah's dynamic - the ‘art as savior’ story - is also something that runs through my veins. I think that if I didn't have my outlets, I don't know who I'd be, how I'd feel, I don't know how I'd survived, so I think it's a survival story on another level... and a dope love story and a weird and cool part of history.

LD: (Enraptured by Stewart) Oh! Um, same. Ditto.

KS: “It was amaazing!”

(Everyone laughs)

LD: Yeah it was soooo amazing!!

I mean, your character, Laura, is so complicated. We fault her, but we also feel for her, thanks to you.

LD: Well, that certainly was, as an actor, a great, delicious challenge that made me want to do it. If I read (a character) and don't know how to find deep empathy, then I want to take it on to figure it out, because it means I'm not seeing the truth, and I'm not being generous.

So then I want to find my way to understanding her, someone who's that desperate to be heard or be seen. It was an incredible opportunity to try to figure that out. There were moments where I felt venom and viscousness but I love her. Unfortunately, and fortunately, we've not been our best selves in our deepest love stories.

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'Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy' co-star Kelvin Harrison Jnr mentions Kristen with Blackfilm

Kelvin, you got Jeremiah Terminator Leroy coming up and it’s going to be the closing night film. What’s you’re role in the film?

I basically play Savannah Knoops’ boyfriend, so Kristen’s boyfriend in the movie. He goes to design school and he is kind of a free spirit and he’s just kind of vibing and they’re just really in love.

How was working with Kristen Stewart?


I was so scared of her the first time I met her. I was so intimated. I was like, she’s Kristen and she was the sweetest person I met. We really built beautiful this friendship and relationship for that movie, and it was special and unique and surprising. She’s captivating that girl.

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Video interviews from the 'Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy' red carpet at TIFF

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CP24

Justin Kelly talks about Kristen (above).

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Kristen and Laura Dern's interview with Indiewire for 'Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy'

Closing night in Toronto brought Justin Kelly’s $2 million indie labor of love, “Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy,” which lured two bankable actresses with its twisted but true tale of mistaken author/avatar identity. Dern flew to Toronto from filming “Little Women” and Stewart from the set of “Charlie’s Angels” to help Kelly sell the movie in Toronto. The filmmakers wanted to screen “Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy” to friendly TIFF fans in order to land some upbeat reactions. (Metascore: 63.)

“This is as independent as it can get,” said Dern on the phone from the TIFF press day. “If a distributor gives Justin the time and love he needs to shape it, it’s about being able to finesse a thing we made on a shoestring.”

Clearly, both actresses rolled up their sleeves on set. When extras didn’t arrive in late ’90s-early ’00s period clothing, Dern and Stewart threw T-shirts on them “so it looks like a rich and real environment to live and breathe in,” said Stewart. “We are really running and gunning.” For the party scene, they threw a “house party” and ordered pizza, while the cinematographer picked up the camera.

The two women also bonded as the hardworking LA children of industry pros. “We both grew up knowing movie sets like a second home,” said Dern. “I gotta say, I could never have a more perfect partner who knows how to make $2 million movie. We’ve seen it all.”

Unlike Jeff Feuerzeig’s documentary “Author: The JT LeRoy Story,” author Laura Albert (Laura Dern), who created the fictional battered memoirist JT Leroy, is not the central focus, but rather her sister-in-law Savannah Knoop (Kristen Stewart), who also produced and co-wrote the screenplay.

Over six years, Knoop took on the public role of the shy, soft-spoken androgynous author LeRoy, while Albert whispered into the ears of his many celebrity fans by phone. On one trip when Knoop left her Bay Area boyfriend behind, she embarked on a lesbian affair with a charismatic filmmaker (Diane Kruger plays a version of Asia Argento), who turned her book into a movie. That’s when Knoop’s idenity was really challenged. Who was making love to who?

The actresses supported each other as they tried to help Kelly and Knoop deliver a believable movie, which was complicated at best. Both actresses took on and off multiple costumes and wigs as several characters: Albert has her own red-wigged alter ego as JT LeRoy’s pushy manager/publicist, while Knoop’s LeRoy persona keeps evolving, adopting a blonde wig and black hat. “We were changing constantly,” said Dern. “It was as punk rock as anything.”

“You do what you have to do,” said Stewart, “when you’re trying to get on the other side of adversity. Our intentions were aligned, with a few heartbreaks when things were not perfect and we were not getting what we wanted. We bolstered each other in way that allowed us to laugh at it as well. Considering the budget and time restraints, everyone had to stand at attention and not let things slip through cracks.”

The actress was also trying to protect Knoop, “who was not just a silly kid swept up in something that exploded in her face,” said Stewart. “She was fearful at losing herself in something bigger than her. It was a performative weird experience that was dizzying and exhilarating and confidence building. But it took a lot from her, it was draining, and at the end she couldn’t get away from it. There’s nothing worse than not being seen. I’m happy this movie exists because this is what fucking happened.”

“JT was one way for Laura to express her own pain and experience,” said Dern, who fell in love with Albert’s “brokenness.” “It was one writer’s way of expressing their truth.” As eagerly as celebrities jumped on the JT LeRoy bandwagon, after the fabricated identity was exposed, they angrily attacked Albert and Knoop for lying to them. “You’re asking, ‘Who’s using who?’ said Dern. “Is everybody so desperate that they need to be part of this thing?”

Stewart, who is openly bisexual, is thrilled that screenwriters are bringing her a wider range of women to play (she and Chloe Sevigne play lovers in “LIzzie,” which just hit theaters). “That has opened up in the world a bit,” Stewart said. “It’s not solely my journey to now start playing gender-fluid characters. More of them are now being written and presented to me. That’s a triumph for sure. I read things and say, ‘Where are the queer kids?’ I feel happy championing and telling those stories.”

She also didn’t mind joining the light-hearted set of Elizabeth Banks’ remake of “Charlie’s Angels.” “I’ve never done such a fun movie,” Stewart said. “JT was fun but it was dark and heavy, a lot of weight. This was a lot of flouncing around joking, women supporting each other, not just kicking ass and being kitschy. It was so well-intentioned and warm and strong. The only reason to remake ‘Charlie’s Angels’ was to do a super-woke version, with no objectification whatsoever.”

Dern is also remaking a classic, director Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” she said, “trying to do a new retelling from a female feminist perspective, with a delicious group of women.”

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Portraits from the Toronto International Film Festival

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Photographer: Jennifer Roberts

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Video: Kristen and Laura Dern's interview with ET on the 'JT Leroy' red carpet at TIFF

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World Premiere of 'Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy' at TIFF - 15 September 2018

 

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Fan/ Media Photos

Below Pics: Shared by producer Cassian Elwes, CJ and Justin Kelly.

  

Shared by Beau Nelson (below).

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Videos




Full red carpet footage (above).
 
























Cast introduction at the 1st screening.





Cast introduction at the 2nd screening.

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