Drawing inspiration from the melodramatic made-for-television movies of his youth, John Early wrote, directed, and stars in Maddie’s Secret, a new quasi-comedy-drama with a credible premise: as a sparky young woman in Los Angeles pursues a career in food media, behind the scenes she is battling bulimia.
It’s important to state outright that as Maddie—who finds herself promoted from dishwasher to on-camera recipe developer at Gourmaybe, a Bon Appétit-inspired media company—Early is careful not to create a caricature. We aren’t meant to laugh at the gender performance, nor at her eating disorder. Millennial food culture, on the other hand—think gochujang cookies and oddly coupled fusion food trucks—is the frequent butt of the joke. In one scene, as Maddie throws an eggplant dish together, her supportive husband, Jake (Eric Rahill), begins casually filming her meal prep. Her reply elicited cackles from my theater: “I just wanted to make my husband some dinner, and now I’m in post-production.”
Among the members of the remaining cast—who shepherd the story between the bounds of satire and heartfelt sincerity—are comedy superstars like Kate Berlant (playing Maddie’s coworker and best friend, Deena, who begins to question her priorities), Vanessa Bayer, Claudia O’Doherty, Conner O’Malley, and Pat Regan.
Kate Berlant and John Early in Maddie’s Secret.
Photo: Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures
“To me, my movie is Freudian,” Early says of his directorial debut, “It has a love of Freud from someone who’s never read Freud.”
Early has long been a presence in the entertainment scene, co-creating the 2022 special Would It Kill You to Laugh? with his long-time friend and collaborator Berlant, playing Elliott in the dark comedy Search Party, and, earlier this year, starring as the perverted son Tim in Wallace Shawn’s What We Did Before Our Moth Days at the Greenwich House Theater. Ahead of the theatrical release of Maddie’s Secret—which marks his feature directorial debut—on June 19, Vogue sat down with Early in New York’s Stuyvesant Square to talk about writing and becoming Maddie, the abundance of films that influenced his work, and the pleasures of working with a bunch of his friends.
Vogue: Before we begin, I wanted to let you know that I know you take everyone to this park. I’ve heard that you do all your interviews here.
John Early: This has been the spot. I’m sorry.
It’s okay, but I’m onto you. Anyway, I was listening to the A24 podcast episode you did with Da’Vine Joy Randolph and you spoke about writing essentially your entire movie while on the set of Eternity. How did you actually conceive of this story?
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