John Early dreamed of playing a woman with bulimia. ‘Maddie’s Secret’ is the wrenching result

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Lately, I’ve been finding myself asking whether I should laugh or cry during movies, and that feeling hit me hard while watching “Maddie’s Secret.” It’s the first film written and directed by John Early, who I already knew as a really funny comedian, and it definitely made me feel things.

Early delivers a disturbingly honest and surprisingly vulnerable performance as Maddie Ralph, a rising food influencer in Los Angeles who secretly battles bulimia.

Early delivers an incredible performance, especially considering the extensive makeup – wig, padding, and prosthetics – required for the role. The film feels genuinely heartfelt, like a classic made-for-TV movie, but avoids becoming overly ironic, resulting in a story that is both humorous and touching.

Entertainment & Arts

According to 38-year-old actor Early, speaking from his New York City apartment during a recent video interview, the key to Maddie’s success is something special. He was discussing this while also performing in Wallace Shawn’s new off-Broadway play, “What We Did Before Our Moth Days.”

According to Early, the movie’s big surprise isn’t a typical plot twist. Instead, the twist lies in the change of tone. He hopes the film’s serious dedication to its high-stakes premise will ultimately be what makes it funny.

According to Early, you can fully immerse yourself in a moment and find it deeply meaningful, or you can momentarily detach and realize how amusing the whole situation is.

The critically acclaimed film by Early, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, will open this year’s Los Angeles Festival of Movies. It will be shown Thursday at Vidiots in Eagle Rock, with cast members available for a question-and-answer session, and again on Friday at 2220 Arts + Archives in Historic Filipinotown.

The film “Maddie’s Secret,” releasing in theaters on June 12th, is a great way to start this year’s event. While the event features movies from around the globe, organizers ultimately chose to showcase a lot of films made right here in Los Angeles.

“This year’s festival truly feels local,” explained Sarah Winshall, co-founder and director of LAFM. “Planning it made us realize how much L.A. feels like a close-knit community.”

Micah Gottlieb, co-founder and artistic director of LAFM, praised the film as a remarkable achievement. He explained that it was created by someone who is both a talented comedian and a true movie lover, with a deep understanding of film history. The filmmaker aimed to create something both entertaining and worthy of its place in cinematic tradition.

“Maddie’s Secret” was filmed in the same trendy, artistic neighborhoods of Los Angeles featured in LAFM. In fact, the house used in the movie belongs to the film’s creator. The actor and filmmaker describes the movie as capturing the vibe of areas like Echo Park, Silver Lake, Eagle Rock, Frogtown, Glassell Park, Highland Park, and Los Feliz.

The story is also rooted in Early’s own complicated feelings about the L.A. food scene.

As a total foodie, I gotta say, this project really came from my experiences living in L.A. I’m originally from Nashville, but I moved to L.A. from New York back in 2016, and I was honestly blown away by how many amazing restaurants were popping up everywhere. It was a real shock to the system – in the best way, of course!

I know it sounds like I’m fixated on millennials, but this whole trend really struck me as our thing. You know, those restaurants where the food is amazing, but super pricey, and the vibe is deliberately
rough around the edges? Like, fancy Middle Eastern food made by people who don’t necessarily have that background, and you’re sitting on a milk crate. It was honestly hilarious to me, even though I totally loved it – and still do, to be honest. It just felt very
us.

I’m really struck by how personal this film feels! Bo Burnham cast so many of his close friends – like the hilarious Kate Berlant, who he works with all the time – and people like Conner O’Malley, Claudia O’Doherty, Eric Rahill, and Vanessa Bayer. It’s amazing that his ex, Gordon Landenberger, designed the film, and even more special that so many talented people – costume designers Kimme Aaberg and Izzy Heller, and cinematographer Max Lakner – are getting their first feature film credit right alongside Bo as a writer-director. It feels like a true collaborative effort with people he really cares about.

Berlant portrays Maddie’s close friend in the movie. She and Early have collaborated on various projects, including short films, live shows, and their 2022 Peacock special, “Would It Kill You to Laugh?” Because they frequently discuss their current projects with each other, Berlant learned about “Maddie’s Secret” early on, when it was still just an initial concept.

She remembers being very surprised by the idea, laughing as she described it while driving on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. He told her he was going to play a character battling bulimia, and she initially doubted he could do it. She was amazed by his success, calling it something of a miracle and praising his dedication as a filmmaker.

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On a perfect Sunday, Kate Berlant happily follows her food cravings, driving all over Los Angeles – from Silver Lake to Santa Monica and back – for bagels, tacos, and several trips to Erewhon.

Berlant explains that the knack for blending humor and sadness is liberating. She believes that “underlying absurdity or a joke” allows for genuine emotional depth, giving permission to explore feelings that might otherwise feel overly sentimental or cloying.

For Early it was also a chance to fulfill his longtime desire to play an old-school ingénue.

Early explains that he intentionally tried to recapture a sense of childlike wonder and simplicity. He describes the movie as an unusual take on the classic ‘campy’ style.

He draws on Susan Sontag’s essay “Notes on Camp,” which describes two types of camp humor: one that’s unintentional and another that’s deliberate. Creating truly unintentional camp is almost impossible today, but making “Maddie’s Secret” was an attempt to be deliberately campy while also aiming for that genuine, unaware quality.

According to Early, it’s nearly impossible to recapture that original, joyful, and innocent form of expression – what she calls ‘camp’ – in today’s cynical world. However, she believes everyone still has a childlike sense of hope and purity within them. This movie, she says, is aware of being campy, but it also longs for that original, more genuine feeling – a return to innocence and naivetĂ©.

While some might compare Early’s performance to the work of drag legends like Divine and John Waters, Early himself sees his role in “Maddie’s Secret” as something different and separate from that tradition.

He explains that drag is usually associated with being over-the-top and glamorous, but Maddie is very down-to-earth. Because of this, he doesn’t consider what Maddie does to be drag, and it didn’t feel like drag while they were doing it. He simply saw it as acting.

When tackling the sensitive subject of bulimia, Early was determined to portray the eating disorder with respect and avoid making light of it. He drew inspiration from several films and documentaries, including the TV movies “Kate’s Secret” (1986), “Perfect Body” (1997), and “The Best Little Girl in the World” (1981), as well as Lauren Greenfield’s 2006 documentary “Thin.” He also cited Alfred Hitchcock’s “Marnie,” Paul Verhoeven’s “Showgirls,” and Adrian Lyne’s “Flashdance” as influences, though these weren’t specifically about bulimia.

Early clarifies that she doesn’t find the eating disorder bulimia humorous. What she does find funny is the style and tropes of melodramatic movies that often depict such issues. Specifically, she points to the over-the-top emotions, acting, and the combination of moralizing with suggestive content. She also found humor in applying that classic melodramatic style to modern life—specifically, the world of young, trendy food influencers in Los Angeles.

While writing the script, Early often became deeply moved by the story and found himself crying. He jokingly admits this shows he’s not immune to the emotional power of the genre.

However, actually performing the role was challenging. He’d convinced everyone working on the project of a particular style and shared vision, and now he had to deliver on that promise.

“I was like, ‘I am so stupid, I can’t believe I have put myself in this position,’” Early says, laughing at the memory. “I had set myself up to do the thing that I really had no proof that I could do, which is to play an almost Juliet kind of character who’s going through these extreme things. And I was the one that promised everyone that we would take it seriously. And then suddenly I was like ‘OK, well you have to do it. You actually have to do it.’”

Although Early might have been hesitant while filming, the final product is striking: a captivating mix of funny and heartfelt moments, and one of the most daring performances of the year.

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2026-04-08 13:32