I never heard of Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy until I saw the preview for Author: The JT Leroy Story, a documentary about the real story behind this famous titular name. I recall having zero interest in seeing the documentary in theaters because it felt as if I would be perpetuating the problems surrounded by this persona if I financially supported the film, but when it was available to stream on Amazon Prime, I added it to the queue with no sense of urgency to watch it. I only leapt at the prospect when a feature length film, JT Leroy, also became available for home viewing. The idea of a viewing marathon seemed appealing to me and my mom because one of the few viewing experiences that we both enjoy are movies based on real stories. So on one rare Saturday when mom was willing to break her rules and watch movies all day, we embarked on a journey to learn more.
I have no idea if the premise of Author: The JT Leroy Story is a spoiler or not. If you are familiar with the real story, then it is not, but if you are not, then it would be; however even reading a brief summary of the movie will spoil it so here goes. There was never an actual single person legally named JT Leroy. One person, Laura Albert, conceived of this person and his story and actually wrote the books. Another person, Albert’s sister-in-law, played him in real life under the scrutiny of the harsh light of fame while Albert invented more elaborate characters as a cover story for why she was always with her creation. JT Leroy became more than an author, but apparently a bit of a popular culture phenomenon, particularly among the famous in the literary, cinematic, television, music and fashion world. To put it in perspective, Oprah Winfrey gave James Frey a public tongue lashing for his fictionalized memoirs. His memoir fame is limited to the national level. Frey is a slacker in comparison to Albert who became an international, jet setting hit directing a cast, successfully creating a multimedia industry and cultivating a renown social life for a person that did not even exist. Is she a great con artist and/or a genius performance artist? Maybe a little bit of both or even neither.
I read Frey’s book after the controversy so I am probably the wrong person to ask. If someone snookered me, I would probably not be so dispassionate and intellectually curious as someone who was emotionally invested in one person then discovered that it was all lies. Author: The JT Leroy Story has such innately intriguing subject matter, archival footage from Albert’s personal recorded conversations and interviews with many of the people intimately involved, including Albert, that it almost does not matter if it is actually a good film. Ordinarily I may quibble about the narrative structure or the actual visual style, but you will not remember either element more than a few hours after watching the documentary. Any viewer will be struck by this whopper of a story.
So screw technique. Author: The JT Leroy Story succeeds because it feels like a comprehensive, detailed chronicle of a bananas real life story that will leave you fascinated long after it stops playing. Just the nature of the story feels like a time capsule of a certain period just by virtue of all the famous people who just as eagerly crossed paths with Albert. If I had to criticize the documentary, it would be because I would have loved to have a few talking heads intellectuals or even activists whose gender is fluid or who actually had HIV felt about her using characteristics that she did not possess. Did she do a good job of depicting a character or did she exploit and stereotype? Is it appropriation? It appears that most of the people who embraced Albert’s work wanted to be edgy, but they could be just as pedestrian and heteronormative as the average American embracing misery lit like tourists going to a predominantly black church not to worship God, but to other an unfamiliar person whom they do not ordinarily meet in their circles. To put it in less controversial terms, a New Yorker writes as if she was from West Virginia. There is a regional prejudice—banjos, anyone?
Author: The JT Leroy Story’s goal is not to explicitly analyze this scenario, but to put all the story’s primary sources and witness accounts in one digestible film; however it is impossible not to obsess about Albert’s success and its implications for fame, media consumption and credibility. At worst, even if Albert is just an extremely talented con artist who gave as much as she took by contributing durable works of art that transcended a single form of media, there is some truth to her rationalizations. As a child, Albert alleges that someone sexually abused her as a child, and as a girl, she would simply be a target of blame, but as a boy, she could fully explore it without stigma. Even though as an adult she sought help from people who provide support to children, it would have been helpful to get more than an armchair psychology perspective on whether trauma created a conscious dissociative state or identity disorder. People who survive abuse often get stuck in the age of their initial trauma.
Author: The JT Leroy Story reveals a cannibalistic type of fame. Celebrities actively sought out the author, and when they met him in real life, made sexual advances. It is disturbing how people want to consume talent and that can get translated into sex with no brakes applied for the person’s age or sensitivity to his prior sexual exploitation. Asia Argento was alleged to be one of those people, and if you Google her and allegations of sexual misconduct against her, it creates an alarming image that people were eager to sleep with a former child prostitute while he was either under the age of consent or barely legal.
On a more cynical level, in Author: The JT Leroy Story, Albert confesses that an overweight middle-aged woman is less likely to get acceptance and praise than a teenage boy. She is not necessarily wrong. It is an intersection of age and gender, and the expectations that the world greets people. Even successful women writers’ work gets treated differently once published and publicized.
Even though my mom was engaged, Author: The JT Leroy Story shocked her because of the subject matter which focuses on sexual situations, has profanity and is generally touched by scandal. If you consider yourself a sensitive or conservative viewer, you should probably stay away from this documentary. Unlike A Million Little Pieces, I am probably going to stay away from Albert’s books for the same reason. Child sexual abuse is inherently disturbing, but a fictionalized account even by a survivor is not something that I would deliberately seek out. I have read books where child sexual abuse occurs in the book, but it is a part of the story, not a draw.
Author: The JT Leroy Story is not a perfect documentary, but the story is so unimaginable that any of the flaws can easily be tolerated, ignored or forgotten. Even if you know nothing about the titular creation, you will be fascinated as long as you are not easily shocked.