From: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org (jewel-digest) To: jewel-digest@smoe.org Subject: jewel-digest V4 #714 Reply-To: jewel@smoe.org Sender: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-jewel-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk jewel-digest Tuesday, November 30 1999 Volume 04 : Number 714 * If you ever wish to unsubscribe from this digest, send an email to * jewel-digest-request@smoe.org with ONLY the word * unsubscribe in the BODY of the email * . * For the latest information on Jewel tour dates, go to * the OFFICIAL Jewel web site at http://www.jeweljk.com * and click on "Presence" * OR * go to the Atlantic Records site at http://www.atlantic-records.com * and go to the "On Tour" section * . * PLEASE :) when you reply to this digest to send a post TO the list, * change the subject to reflect what your post is about. A subject * of Re: jewel-digest V4 #xxx or the like gives fellow list readers * no clue as to what your message is about. Today's Subjects: ----------------- * Jewel featured in BMG Music Service [BabyLindsay23@aol.com] * Jewel magazines etc. [TheOddess@aol.com] * mixed stuff [QTPYSK8R2@aol.com] * CNN article about RWTD/Jewel [Paul Schreiber Subject: * CNN article about RWTD/Jewel http://cnn.com/SHOWBIZ/Movies/9911/24/jewel/index.html So, can Jewel act? Jewel has a starring role in the new film "Ride With the Devil" Web posted on: Wednesday, November 24, 1999 3:15:05 PM EST By Jamie Allen CNN Interactive Senior Writer (CNN) -- No one can accuse Jewel of shying away from her dreams. The folk singer who has sold more than 14 million albums added "author" to her resumé in 1998 with the publication of her book of highly personal poetry, "A Night Without Armor." And now, Jewel has another job title: actress. In her feature-film introduction -- one of the most conspicuous acting debuts in recent years -- Jewel stars opposite Tobey Maguire, Skeet Ulrich and Jeffrey Wright in director Ang Lee's U.S. Civil War epic "Ride With the Devil." It's based on the Daniel Woodrell novel "Woe To Live On" and goes into limited release over the Thanksgiving weekend. - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "I was aware that I was going to be open to a lot of criticism. I was aware that ... I would look bad at some point in my career. And knowing that, I went ahead and did it." - -- Jewel - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jewel plays Sue Lee Shelley, a widow who provides feminine balance and allure to a band of bushwhackers fighting for the Confederacy in the Kansas-Missouri border wars. The film, a sort of anti-"Gone With the Wind," deals with a montage of themes -- slavery and loyalty, growing up and dying, murder and revenge. In her supporting role, under Lee's direction, Jewel comes of age, moving from young object of desire to mother, to wife. As she does when singing on MTV and VH1, Jewel the actress receives the camera well. Her Nordic countenance -- prominent cheekbones and silky hair -- augments her character's 19th-century provincial manner. So, can she act? Lee, the acclaimed director of "Sense and Sensibility" (1995) and "The Ice Storm (1997), may be the best person to ask. "She's just very right for the part," says Lee, who hadn't heard of Jewel prior to a suggestion from his casting director, Avy Kaufman. "I didn't know her (as a singer)," Lee says, but she was right for the part, with her personality, intelligence -- because this is the only female part among the boys. You need that center of attention, that feminine dominance and sexuality and intelligence and she had all that. "I spent about three months observing, participating in her acting lessons, then we did a screen test," says Lee. "After meeting with all the others actors, I said, 'She's the risk I want to take.' "She was quite good and she was very devoted to her part," says Lee. Tai chi? The transformation of singer to actress wasn't effortless. Lee took Jewel under his wing, teaching her drama-school basics like the meaning of "hitting her mark," while resorting to unconventional methods of bringing out the actor within. For instance, Lee taught Jewel the art of tai chi, a physical and spiritual regimen of slow-motion movements that originated in China. "My character had to be really earthy, really grounded, feminine and strong and confident," Jewel says. "She had to be so confident and womanly that she made these strong, murderous men feel like children. And that isn't acting, that's getting a person that's real grounded. I wasn't real grounded at that time in my life. I grew up that way, but all of a sudden I was famous, I had a stalker at the time, and I was working with the best director. "I was really intimidated. I was really timid. And so a lot of what Ang did with me was trying to get me grounded and I think that's why he had me do tai chi, just trying to get me settled." While she was seeking help from Lee, Jewel was getting little advice from the actors on the set -- at least, not at first. "We bumped her around the first couple of weeks," says Maguire. "But she was there to work and she was serious, so she earned her stripes." "She was pretty raw and technically she didn't know what was going on and that's understandable," says Ulrich. "So we sat back and laughed. We had all been there, we had all been the ones who didn't know what to do. I remember my first film was terrifying, so it was nice to sit back like I was Jack Lemmon or something." Even at this interview at the Toronto Film Festival earlier this year, Jewel still seemed a little out of place. Wearing sweats, a faded blue T-shirt and a jeans jacket, she looked over at Ulrich, standing nearby wearing a hip brown dress shirt and black pants, and said, "I didn't know we were supposed to dress up." Jewel's roots It turns out that Jewel has similarities to her character. Lee says that's one reason he took his chances with her. Raised in Alaska by a family that centered its activities on performance, Jewel -- full name Jewel Kilcher -- thrived on singing, songwriting and local theater. Music became her main outlet as her parents split and she spent time living with her mother, then her father. She eventually made her way to California, living in a Volkswagen bus in San Diego before being discovered at a local coffeehouse playing the tunes that would later be heard on her first album, "Pieces of You" (1995). This young blonde had snidely remarked in her hit single "Who Will Save Your Soul," from that album: "People living their lives for you on TV / They say they're better than you and you agree." Soon Jewel was on TV, herself, her music rising up the charts. "Pieces" has sold over 10 million copies to date. Her much-anticipated follow-up, "Spirit" (1998), has sold 4 million copies. The same year it was released, "A Night Without Armor" spent weeks on best-seller lists. But Jewel describes herself as "really ambitious" -- and she says it as if she's making an excuse for wanting to accomplish more. Her next mountain was acting. The trouble with fame "I was horrified," Jewel, 25, says now of her "Ride With the Devil" experience. While she says she always had plans to act, Jewel believes her fame in the music industry worked against her plans to fulfill that goal. "Fame is an odd creature," she says. "It has a life of its own and it has an influence on you, which is a force to be reckoned with. Things change when you're famous. My own person has always been most concerned with growing, above anything else, with no fear of failure. Failure is secondary to growth. You're going to fail, you're going to look bad sometimes if you're pushing beyond what you're comfortable with. To have that kind of courage pre-fame is real easy because if you fall on your ass, who cares? "When you're famous, it's in front of the whole world and the world does not value growth over perfection," she says. "The world values perfection and product over growth and they're very unforgiving. That can really override the creative process. It causes self-censorship. It makes you go, 'I've got to be safe. I'm going to stick with what I know.' "So I was aware of that when I went into the book-writing and when I went into film. I was aware that I was going to be open to a lot of criticism. I was aware that I was going to be starting two professions that I didn't have completely wired and that I would look bad at some point in my career. And knowing that, I went ahead and did it, because otherwise you die creatively and to die at that young age would be really torturous." Her attitude earned the respect of her acting peers. "I thought it was really courageous that she chose to do this thing in the first place," says Maguire, "especially with her high profile and the idea that people would be watching her, and their expectations of her." Ultimately, Ulrich says Jewel was perfect for the part of Sue Lee, perhaps more than she realized at first. Her roots in rural Alaska provided the foundation. "I think she was much closer to the character than she thought," says Ulrich. "I think it was a relief to her to realize that there was a reason Ang cast her and it wasn't a fluke and there wasn't some other thing behind it. It was that she could do it, so it was good to see her really relax. "The thing that impresses me is that she doesn't stand apart from the film," says Ulrich. "It all works as a whole." Despite the praise, Jewel says she has no plans to stop making music. She has a song, "What's Simple Is True," on the "Ride With the Devil" soundtrack, and her third album, a Christmas-themed CD -- "Joy: a Holiday Collection" -- was released November 2. Music is the art form she remains true to. But she says she'll never stop chasing new dreams -- and failures. "I like jumping into the deep end of the pool," she says. "This movie, to pick such a hard dramatic role for your first role was horrifying. It took years off my life. "But at the same time, I loved doing it. I don't know if it's a perversity. There's a lot at stake and if you pull it off it's good and if you don't, you're screwed. You don't gain a lot by not risking a lot." ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 21:36:16 EST From: UndauntedSpirit1@aol.com Subject: * HOW JEWEL HELPED ME I just wanted to say that I've never met Jewel and I'm not completely obsessed with her or anything. Actually kind of but anyway. Jewel helped me find who I really am. Before i even knew who she was I didn't know that i could write and I didn't know I could be so open with my emotions. When I first heard her first song played on the radio I went out and bought her cd and I listen to it still then spirit came out and I just wanted to let everyone know that i idolize her. I remember the day when my mom bought me A Night Without Armor she completely surprised me with it and i love it i read it over and over everynight. One more thing until i bought her first cd i didn't know that i could sing either but when i sang along to it i put my family almost in tears because i discovered i can sing and i love her for helping me find the real person inside of me and I'm going to try to get a record deal and if I ever do it will be thanks to her. I really hope to meet her someday. I believe that she is a beautiful person inside and out and she has a tremendously beautiful voice. Anyway if anyone has any comments you can email me back. Also just a little strange thing that happened to me the other day. I went in to Best Buy to get her holiday cd because everytime I went and looked for it before no one had it. Anyway I searched every single aisle and it wasn't there. I thought it might be down the aisle with the holiday music so I went to look and it wasn't there. Well down every aisle under the shelves there's boxes (BIG boxes) with extra cds and theres about 20-30 boxes in every aisle. So before I left I decided to pick just one box and look through every cd (there's like 80 cds in one box). So I picked one box and my mom went to look through another box and I pulled it out and there on the top was 1 cd with really light print like kind of hard to read and i wasn't even going to take the effort to try to read it but something told me to and I did and there it was. My mom was kind of freaked. But if you read this whole thing again feel free to e-mail me I love to talk if you haven't already figured it out!! :) Sammie The angel who needs to think of a name! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 22:09:33 -0500 (EST) From: Seth Fulmer Subject: * NJC: SE PA/NJ/DE Christmas party EDA style Hey peoples, As some of you remember, I posted a while ago about how I wanted to do a christmas party sorta idea(If you didn't see the post, email me and I'll resend it to you). Anyhow, I still haven't found anyone who can/will host the event at their humble abode(their house/apartment) :) Unless someone emails, ICQs, IMs, or otherwise somehow contacts me about that, the party idea was futile. My apartment is shared by 5 other guys that complain when I play Jewel quiet let alone a party of EDAs, or I'd offer mine. I'm looking for someone in the Philadelphia or South Jersey maybe, as it's sorta central in location. We probably can't do a polyanna but maybe still a party of sorts. Well, with that, I won't babble on. If you don't know what this is about, let me know and I'll get you informed :) Take care and Have a Wonderful Day! :o) Seth D. Fulmer mailto:kaosking@voicenet.com mailto:usfulmer@mcs.drexel.edu mailto:st96t879@drexel.edu mailto:sdf9768@collegeclub.com ICQ: 175984 AIM/AOL: espoire8 phone: email, IM, or ICQ me and ask me :P ------------------------------ End of jewel-digest V4 #714 ***************************