Jia Tolentino
speaker
981 appearances
13 recordings
3 series
first heard Dec 2024
last heard Apr 2025
Jia Tolentino’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
You could call it that, sure, yeah.
But sorry, your theory is that the real sort of thematic subtext is that desire is the thing that causes suffering. Yeah.
But season two is too. I mean, my argument is that like— All plots are about this. That desire is what gives something stakes and the thing that instigates the plot, right?
And the needs are what puts the spikes in the plot, you know? But, right, it's interesting because now we are in the home of this ideology.
That seems to be the difference that the hotel is configured around awareness and spirituality and gratitude really overtly. You know, I mean, it was interesting. The part of the Buddhist writing that Piper is listening to on audiobook is about identity being a prison, that we build a prison, we step into it, we lock it.
I mean, we're supposed to take it as that. Yeah.
But this time there's someone with a gun. You know what I mean?
I think there's also something funny happening in the writing too, which is like being aware of something is not morally additive necessarily, right? Like there's this strange weight placed on like, okay, like being self-aware or just being aware of suffering, of privilege or whatever. That scene is somehow redemptive when in fact it's not.
You can be completely aware and still be doing the same horrible shit.
Exactly, yeah. And I feel that there is something funny going on in the writing where – Previously, the characters were often not self-aware. They were taking their experiences for granted, the ability to be at these gorgeous places. And they're more sort of aware and self-conscious here, perhaps because they've chosen to go to a place that's kind of wellness and awareness focused.
And I think that that will be like this kind of growing tension and joke in the writing where everyone is so aware of their blessings. And it makes them actually so much worse. Yeah. Now, we have the pleasure of talking to Michelle Monaghan, who plays Jacqueline Lemon, famous TV star on the show. So excited to be here, you guys.
Michelle, your character comes with a backstory that is supposed to be immediately legible to the viewer and is. You're a big star. The owner of the hotel is dying to meet you. I wanted to ask you, what are the pleasures as a movie star of playing a movie star? What does that allow you to get to do?
Tell us, as you read through all the scripts, what were those nuances that emerged for you, that deepened the part for you and showed you the specificity of who Jacqueline was going to be? And specifically, that was not you, right?
It's just very relatable. Yeah, there's something in there about the three of them have been friends for so long that any decision that any one of them makes, it's personal to the other two. It's somehow a referendum. It's somehow a judgment. Some shadow is cast over the other two no matter what.
Well, and you were like, this shows up in the first episode when the women are watching the mask performance.
They all have clearly this ingrained memory of having been sort of... You know, of Jacqueline as the star and the face. And then they're like, we were here.
Of course, you're the pretty face. And Jacqueline was like, what? What are you talking about? And it left an impact on them. And Jacqueline's like, oh.
You know, we were discussing, we were talking about it yesterday and I was like, this is, you know, deeply familiar to me as a woman. Yeah. The framework that this sort of when one person leaves the room or when you're on a side chat where it's like, There is a specifically feminized way of laundering the most unkind impulses through the most kind language, you know? Ooh, wow.
That's a deep statement right there. You know, and it's just like, I just want her to be happy, you know, and you're just saying the meanest shit.
So I think we're close to running out of time, but I have a dumb question, if you will humor me. I love dumb questions. There's really no dumb questions. Well, we've been debating.
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