‘Jade’: The movie that sent William Friedkin into Hollywood exile and “a deep funk”
In 1995, William Friedkin made what he considered his favourite movie from his long, storied career.
Now, considering Friedkin was the wild maverick behind two of the greatest movies of all time (The French Connection and The Exorcist), as well as a handful of other cult classics that still have devoted fanbases to this day (Sorcerer, Cruising, To Live and Die in LA), that’s a huge statement. Especially when you find out the movie Friedkin loved more than any other tanked at the box office, and cast him adrift in Hollywood for five long years.
As any fan of the irascible genius will gladly tell you, though, Friedkin basically flirted with exile on an almost daily basis throughout a career that routinely struggled to repeat the critical and commercial successes of his early films. He made raw, uncompromising movies that slapped audiences in the face with their gritty realism, and to him, pushing the boundaries of good taste was a requirement, not a risk.
For example, in ‘87, having not enjoyed an unqualified hit in more than a decade, Friedkin decided his best course of action was to make Rampage, a lurid thriller about a deranged serial killer who drinks the blood of his victims. When it fell victim to the collapse of its distributor, and didn’t even see theatrical release until ‘92, Friedkin returned to horror with The Guardian, a bonkers story of a child-killing tree nymph masquerading as a nanny. The man never knew the meaning of compromise, and that didn’t always serve him well.
In truth, during this period, Friedkin’s career was floundering worse than ever – until he met one of Hollywood’s hottest producers at a party, fell madly in love, and quickly married her. Sherry Lansing became his fourth wife, and the one he remained devoted to until his death in 2023. In ‘92, only a year after they wed, she became the head of Paramount Pictures and guided the studio to its most fruitful period for seven decades. Under her stewardship, megahits like Forrest Gump, Titanic, and Mission: Impossible were greenlit, as well as some lesser-known pictures, three of which were helmed by her husband.
While there were some sideways glances when Friedkin directed the sports drama Blue Chips for his wife’s studio, he insisted she had nothing to do with his hiring. The basketball-centric underdog story wasn’t a huge success, but it was better reviewed than anything Friedkin had made for almost a decade, and it seemed to set him up nicely for Jade.
This time, Friedkin was positive he had struck gold. Jade was made at the height of the erotic thriller trend, when all of a sudden, audiences became obsessed with A-list stars taking their clothes off in titillating, sleazy stories about sex, murder, and betrayal – and more sex. Basic Instinct’s Joe Eszterhas wrote the screenplay, receiving between $2-$4million for the privilege, and Friedkin cast the beautiful rising star Linda Fiorentino as a femme fatale who may or may not have crucified a wealthy businessman, then struck a killing blow with a ceremonial axe. Ouch.
Friedkin had a superb time making the film, loved the final result, and was therefore sure it was his ticket back to the big time. However, when it made back less than a fifth of its budget and was torn apart by critics who seemed furious that someone like Friedkin had stooped so low, he began to question whether he’d lost whatever made him a great filmmaker in the first place.
“I felt I had let down the actors, the studio, and most of all, Sherry,” Friedkin lamented in his memoir The Friedkin Connection. “I went into a deep funk. Was it the Exorcist curse, as many have suggested, a poor choice of material, or simply that whatever talent I had was ephemeral? Maybe all of the above.”
Indeed, after Jade was dragged through the mud, Friedkin spent half a decade in exile before he was granted the opportunity to helm a major feature film again: 2000’s Rules of Engagement. In the meantime, he made a couple of TV movies, licked his wounds, and waited for that inevitable chance to redeem himself.
