Miramax Presents The Film That Lit My Fuse is a Deadline video series that aims to provide an antidote to headlines about industry uncertainty by swinging the conversation back to the creative ambitions, formative influences and inspirations of some of today’s great screen artists.
Every installment asks the same five questions. Today’s subject is Jay Roach, the versatile director and producer who directed all eight of the first season of episodes of High Desert, the new Apple TV+ series that stars Patricia Arquette, Brad Garrett, Rupert Friend, Bernadette Peters and Matt Dillon.
Best known for directing the blockbuster comedy franchises Austin Powers and Meet the Fockers and producing the Sacha Baron Cohen subversive comedies Borat and Bruno, Roach has also directed a series of politically-charged dramas that include the Fox News Roger Ailes drama Bombshell, Recount, Game Change and All The Way, the Bryan Cranston-starrer Trumbo, the Will Ferrell-Zack Galifianakis-starrer The Campaign, Mystery, Alaska, Dinner for Schmucks and many others. How did Roach veer from earning an economics degree from Stanford to a four-time Emmy winner? A chance encounter with the David Lynch surreal film Eraserhead had a lot to do with the course change.