You Might Also Like: Fair Game by Vanity Fair

SPEAKER_1 (0:01)

Into the wild, the Caltier Panther encounters a shimmering crocodile, a lonely love bird, a breathless zebra, and a restless tiger.

Jeremy O. Harris (0:15)

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SPEAKER_3 (0:22)

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Jeremy O. Harris (0:25)

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David Remnick (0:28)

Price and participation may vary. Promotion pricing may be lower than meal pricing.

SPEAKER_3 (0:31)

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Mark Guiducci (1:02)

From Vanity Fair, this is Fair Game. I'm Mark Guiducci.

My guest today is Jeremy O. Harris. I first encountered Jeremy by means of his theatrical debut, Slave Play, which he wrote as a grad student at the Yale School of Drama. I saw it at the New York Theatre Workshop in 2018, and later that season, it transferred to Broadway. The play was provocative, dangerous, funny, daring, a lot like Jeremy himself. But Jeremy's influence today extends way beyond the landscape of New York Theatre. He's written and produced films like A24's Zola, and more recently, Yeripshia. I always love talking to Jeremy because you never know quite what you're going to get. I'm sure you'll find the same. All right. It's all fair game.

Jeremy, welcome to Fair Game.

Jeremy O. Harris (1:46)

Thank you for having me.

Mark Guiducci (1:48)

Jeremy, I just listed a bunch of different job titles. What do you consider to be your primary vocation?

Jeremy O. Harris (1:54)

I consider my primary vocation to be Jeremy. I think that's so silly and dumb, but I think that on a certain day, I'll be like, my favorite job to do is writing. My favorite job to do is producing.

It changes every day. I think that the thing that I'm most committed to is following Jeremy's lead and doing what I want to do. Jeremy also is an avatar. Jeremy O. Harris is different than Jeremy the person. They're different version of myself that wants to do a bunch of jobs and have a lot of different hats.

Mark Guiducci (2:27)

Do you remember the night we met?

Jeremy O. Harris (2:29)

It was after my play?

Mark Guiducci (2:31)

Yeah, I went and saw Slave Play.

Jeremy O. Harris (2:32)

It was on The Bowery?

Mark Guiducci (2:33)

It was on The Bowery.

Jeremy O. Harris (2:34)

Yeah.

Mark Guiducci (2:34)

And I DM'ed you and I was like, I don't remember what I said. We'd probably scroll all the way up and see. But I just said that was amazing and I haven't seen something like that in years. And you said come to The Bowery and have a drink. My friend went home and that's how we met.

Jeremy O. Harris (2:49)

It was so much fun. I mean, I remember really adoring you from the minute I met you, feeling really connected to you. I also know that like so many people have talked to me about that time and have been like, do you remember? And I'm like, no. I think that all of these, the ways in which my life was changing so rapidly and I wasn't even aware of it, I was just saying yes and yes and yes and getting on the ride made me not really take in how much I wasn't retaining.

And I kind of feel bad that I didn't take Brandon Jacob Jenkins' advice because Brandon was like, do you have a journaling practice? You should start one. And I was like, I don't really like journaling. It really stresses me out. I think my iPhone will suffice. And like I go back to my notes app, nothing suffices.

Mark Guiducci (3:31)

I wish that I had a journal too.

Jeremy O. Harris (3:32)

Do you not journal?

Mark Guiducci (3:33)

I have certain moments. I've had certain scenes.

Like the day that Biden dropped out, I was with this fascinating group of people who went into each one, went into a different mode of what we're going to do.

Jeremy O. Harris (3:45)

Wow.

Mark Guiducci (3:45)

And I just had to write down that scene. Wow. You know, there's been different days in my life that I've had to go down and write down. But no, I know people who just as a practice, whenever they're alone on the subway, whatever, they're getting a few lines out.