The Film That Lit My Fuse is a Deadline video series that aims to provide an antidote to headlines about industry uncertainty by swinging the conversation back to the creative ambitions, formative influences and inspirations of some of today’s great screen artists.
Today’s subject is Jane Lynch. In a career that encompasses TV, film and the stage and five Primetime Emmys, Lynch has shown she can do most anything. That ranges from her turn as Sue Sylvester in Glee, to turns in Two and a Half Men and The L Word, to the Chris Guest-directed mockumentaries Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, and comedies like Talladega Nights and The 40-Year Old Virgin. She has hosted Hollywood Game Night, the Primetime Emmys and Saturday Night Live.
Now, she is returning to one of her first heralded roles in Party Down, the Starz sitcom that ran two seasons starting in 2009. While it was canceled after two seasons, the show was not forgotten. It followed the young employees who worked for a catering company as they waited for their own careers to take off. Cut to now, and Lynch and castmates Adam Scott, Megan Mullally, Ken Marino, Lizzy Caplan and Ryan Hansen have all seen their careers soar. All but an otherwise engaged Caplan returned to a show that featured early turns from the likes of White Lotus star Jennifer Coolidge to even Stormy Daniels, most famous for an alleged sexual encounter with ex-president Donald Trump.
Here, Lynch discusses her formative influences that led her to become one of the most versatile performers in town.
