"I like a movie that the audience actively has to participate in, and not just casually observe. Whatever my part in it, just as an audience member, I find that exciting"
About this Quote
The phrasing matters. “Actively has to” isn’t pretentious gatekeeping; it’s a plea for stakes. Leigh’s pointing to a kind of spectatorship where you’re not just receiving information but completing the work - decoding motives, tolerating ambiguity, sitting with discomfort, noticing what isn’t said. That’s especially resonant given her filmography: she’s drawn to directors and projects that trust silence, volatility, and messy interiority (Altman, the Coens, Reichardt, Tarantino). Her performances often function like puzzles with missing pieces, daring you to misread her before you read her correctly.
There’s also an actor’s subtext hiding in plain sight: “Whatever my part in it.” She’s not centering herself as the attraction; she’s advocating for a kind of filmmaking where the performer isn’t there to deliver neat emotional takeaways but to create a charged space the viewer has to navigate. The excitement she names isn’t escapism. It’s consent to be implicated - to leave the theater feeling less like you watched something and more like you were worked on by it.
Quote Details
| Topic | Movie |
|---|---|
| Source | Verified source: What you see and what you get (Jennifer Jason Leigh, 2005)
Evidence:
I think it does engage you. "I like a movie that the audience actively has to participate in, and not just casually observe. Whatever my part in it, just as an audience member, I find that exciting. Plus [The Machinist] has an interesting look. There's a lot of green in it.". This quote appears as direct speech from Jennifer Jason Leigh in Zoe Williams's Guardian feature/interview discussing the films "The Machinist" and "Palindromes". The Guardian page shows the timestamp "Fri 11 Mar 2005 19.28 EST"; the article is displayed under the Film/Movies section. Based on the available evidence, this is a primary-source publication (a reported interview) and is the earliest clearly citable original publication located in the search results; many quote-aggregator sites appear to be reproducing this line without attribution. |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Leigh, Jennifer Jason. (2026, February 10). I like a movie that the audience actively has to participate in, and not just casually observe. Whatever my part in it, just as an audience member, I find that exciting. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-like-a-movie-that-the-audience-actively-has-to-135638/
Chicago Style
Leigh, Jennifer Jason. "I like a movie that the audience actively has to participate in, and not just casually observe. Whatever my part in it, just as an audience member, I find that exciting." FixQuotes. February 10, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-like-a-movie-that-the-audience-actively-has-to-135638/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I like a movie that the audience actively has to participate in, and not just casually observe. Whatever my part in it, just as an audience member, I find that exciting." FixQuotes, 10 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-like-a-movie-that-the-audience-actively-has-to-135638/. Accessed 24 Feb. 2026.
