Since premiering at Telluride in Fall 2023, the directorial debut of playwright-turned-filmmaker Annie Baker , “ Janet Planet ,” has been lauded as an understated gem , with Julianne Nicholson garnering particular praise for serving as one of the central forces the film gravitates around. The film opened in New York yesterday and hits Los Angeles on June 28th and with it, perhaps the recognition Nicholson finally deserves after her multi-decade career as an actress. “Normally, the first thing that’s said about me is ‘underused,’ ‘underappreciated,’ ‘overlooked,’” said Nicholson in a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times .
“Normally, I’m fine with it because I continue to work. But every once in a while, I feel like, ‘Oh, my God. I’m so tired — am I still trying to get people’s attention?’” Pretty much all of “Janet Planet” is seen through the eyes of Janet’s daughter Lacy, played to precocious perfection by newcomer Zoe Ziegler.
For “Gilmore Girls” fans , it will feel like relatively familiar territory, but in focusing on a younger period in life and one specific summer in 1991, Baker’s tableau of growth at all ages finds a greater depth by mining the quiet moments as much as the talkative ones. “I actually think the human experience is pretty lonely,” Nicholson said of how she came to relate to her character and the story. “For me, it’s ultimately a pretty solitary experience — and I’m lucky, because I have .
