John Early on the melo-comedic cinematic influences behind his directorial debut, Maddie’s Secret • Journal • A Magazine • , Life in canada

I grew up on Perfect Body. That is, in some ways, to me, a more important, spiritual, emotional and filmmaking influence on this movie. It was very important to me and my sister. We loved Amy Jo Johnson from Felicity, and we were obsessed with US gymnastics, the 1996 women’s team, so we loved that movie. I went back and watched it, and I was like, “This is like Starship Troopers. This is like Showgirls. This is Verhoeven.” It’s shot like that. Everyone feels like they’re, like, Swedish, but playing an American or something, which they’re not. There’s a weird sexualization happening of these teen girl characters, even though it’s posing as an educational, moralistic movie. It’s actually, on a filmmaking level, very perverse. That was very inspiring to me.

Then I watched The Best Little Girl in the World, which is with Jennifer Jason Leigh, and For the Love of Nancy with Tracey Gold, who was very openly, publicly anorexic at the time. It’s a very disturbing movie on multiple levels, because she is really ill but also playing someone anorexic. It’s a very troubling movie. I don’t recommend it. The Secret Life of Mary Margaret: Portrait of a Bulimic starred Calista Flockhart. Student Seduction, starring Elizabeth Berkley, was very influential on the husband dynamic: like, “I want to have a baby.” I’m talking about this as if you’ve seen it. I don’t think anyone’s seen it, but that’s what happens in that movie. And, obviously, Elizabeth Berkley, I would follow her anywhere.

In Someone I Touched, which stars Cloris Leachman, it’s [about] syphilis. It’s incredible. It’s formally very, very beautiful, and it’s full of brilliant actors. Kenneth Mars is in it; it’s crazy. It’s so compelling, but it’s about an STD. I was like, “What is going on here?” I also really felt the craftsmanship of that. These are clearly people who probably have made beautiful films in the Hollywood studio system, or these are people who’ve made art films… It’s very artful, but they also needed to make a buck. These are people with real skills that are making a buck for a TV movie, and the result is kind of special.