Welcome back to The Deep Dive. Today we're looking
at the source material around Amanda Peet and
really treating her career as more than just
a film list. It's a case study, you know, ambition,
academia, and that deliberate shift from actor
to, well, creator and activist. Exactly. Because
if you just think of her, say, from her early
comedies, you're really missing the blueprint,
I guess, for a much deeper career path. Our sources,
they point to this consistent intellectual foundation.
And that really informs her later moves. She's
a writer, a producer, and yeah, a very vocal
advocate. We're looking for those connections,
the things that aren't maybe the standard Hollywood
story. And you see it right away with her education,
don't you? She didn't just drift into acting.
She graduated from Columbia University, American
history degree. Yeah. That depth intellectually,
it feels like the first big clue. It really does.
That grounding in history and analysis. Yeah.
It feels important, especially when you look
at her writing later on. But okay, let's start
at the beginning. Born in New York, 1972. Parents
were a corporate lawyer and a social worker.
They divorced later, right? Yes. And the family
background itself is pretty fascinating. Lots
of different influences mixed in there. It is
complex. Her parents identified as atheists,
but her father was from a Quaker background and
her mother Jewish. So right there, you get a
sense of maybe intellectual independence. Definitely.
And that non -traditional thing extends to her
ancestry, too. It's like pure Manhattan history,
some of it. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Two maternal
great grandfathers who were, well, major figures.
You've got Samuel Levy, lawyer, businessman,
public official. He was president of the Manhattan
Borough. Huge civic presence. Wow. OK. Borough
president. And then the other one, Samuel Roxy
Rothafell, theatrical impresario, entrepreneur,
basically the guy who invented the whole spectacular
movie palace thing. No kidding. Roxy. Like the
theater. That Roxy. So you've got this lineage,
right? High -stakes public service meets high
-stakes showmanship. It's almost cinematic, like
you said. Built -in drama. But her own path to
acting, it seems more disciplined. Columbia first,
then deciding on acting after studying with Uta
Hagen. The legendary Uta Hagen, yeah. That led
to an off -Broadway role, Awaken Singh. It suggests
she took it seriously, you know? An academic
approach, almost. She definitely paid her dues
on screen, though. Little things. A Skittles
commercial. Huh. An unaccredited spot on the
Larry Sanders show. And she was Lynette in that
classic Seinfeld episode, The Summer of George.
Ah, yes. The Summer of George. But when did things
really click professionally? I'd say the big
turning point was 2000. The whole nine yards.
That mafia comedy with Bruce Willis and Matthew
Perry. She played Jill St. Clair, the aspiring
hit woman. Oh, she was fantastic in that. Stole
scenes left and right. Totally. And how did it
do? Commercially? Critically. It was a genuine
hit, made over $106 million worldwide. So, boom,
commercial viability confirmed. And the critics.
That's what's interesting. They really noticed
her. Roger Ebert specifically called her performance
perfect. Wow. Perfect. Yeah. That got her nominations,
like the Blockbuster Entertainment Award. It
put her on the map in a big way. But it's funny,
you look at the sources and there's this contrast,
isn't there? A perfect performance in 2000. But
just the year before, 1999, she did that rom
-com Simply Irresistible. Critics hated it. Total
box office flop. Right. I remember that one.
Or rather, I remember it not doing well. So it
shows she could, you know, take a hit and bounce
right back with something major. resilience that
versatility is definitely the theme here because
then you look at like 2001 to 2004. she just
jumps genres seems like she was actively trying
not to get stuck as just the quirky comedy girl
yeah you see it psychologist and saving silverman
then something really dark igby goes down playing
a heroin addicted trophy mistress acclaimed film
that one very acclaimed and then changing lanes
the lawyer's wife Three totally different vibes
in just a couple of years. And she kept working
in these strong ensemble casts, right? Always.
She's in Something's Gotta Give in 2003. Big
hit, that Nancy Meyers rom -com. Made $125 million
just in North America. And the same year, totally
different. Identity. That psychological thriller
with John Cusack. She played the prostitute in
Vegas. So high -end comedy, one minute. Dark,
twisty thriller, the next. That's someone managing
their career carefully. Seems like it. aware
of her image, trying different things, and that
focus on maybe commercial projects alongside
the critical ones, it paid off with her biggest
movie. Audience -wise. She teamed up with John
Cusack again for 2012. Ah, the disaster movie,
2009. That one was huge globally. Over $769 million
worldwide. That really cemented her as a recognizable
face everywhere. And that's a whole different
skill, isn't it? Acting convincingly when everything
around you is, you know, CGI chaos. Totally different
from those smaller character pieces she was also
doing. But okay, right in the middle of this
big screen success, she takes this big swing
at Prestige TV. Aaron Sorkin's show, Studio 60
on the Sunset Strip. Right, 2006 -2007 on NBC,
high profile. She played Jordan McDeer, the network
president. Yeah, a really high stakes bet for
her, I think. She got a Satellite Award nomination
for it, which is great recognition. But the show
itself. Didn't last. Canceled after one season,
despite all the buzz and the pedigree, intense
work, high pressure, and then... And we should
probably mention the sources note she later talked
about struggling with postpartum depression around
this time period. That's really important context.
Yeah. It humanizes that whole intense period.
High profile projects, a new baby. Yeah. That's
a lot to navigate. Absolutely. And yet even after
the huge success of 2012, she pivots again. Deliberately,
it seems. Back to independent film with Please
Give in 2010. That's what I find so interesting
strategically. You go from a nearly $800 million
global hit back to a small indie film playing
a, what was it, self -centered cosmetologist.
Yeah. Was that like a conscious move to remind
people of her acting chops after the blockbuster?
I think it has to be right. And it worked, critically
speaking. A film journal international called
it career best work. She got a Gotham Award nomination
with the cast. So it proves she wasn't just a
blockbuster actress. She wanted complex roles.
Exactly. And that range, that willingness to
shift, it becomes crucial because the next phase
is really about moving behind the camera. Yeah.
From performer to creator. Okay, so now we're
into the creator phase. And her personal life
connects here, obviously. She married David Benioff,
the screenwriter who co -created Game of Thrones.
Right. That definitely puts her in the orbit.
of that whole creator -producer world at a very
high level. And it seems like she really leaned
into it using that academic background we talked
about earlier. Her writing career really took
off. It's pretty robust. Yeah. She wrote a play,
The Commons of Pensacola, back in 2013. It starred
Blythe Danner. and Siri Jessica Parker. Wow,
big names for a debut play. Definitely. And she
didn't stop there. She branched out into children's
books, too. Co -wrote one in 2015, Dear Santa,
Love, Rachel Rosenstein. What was that about?
It tackles that specific feeling of being a Jewish
kid during Christmastime, which is, you know,
a relatable experience for many. Interesting
niche. Yeah. But her biggest creative success
as a writer -producer, that came more recently,
right? Yeah, I'd say that's the Netflix series
The Chair. from 2021. She wrote it and was a
co -executive producer. Set in an English department,
academia. Exactly. And this is where you can
really draw a line back to that American history
degree from Columbia. The show is all about institutions,
hierarchy, tradition versus change. It's an academic
critique in a way. So it shows she's thinking
about systems, history, not just individual characters.
Precisely. It feels like that intellectual foundation
really coming through on screen. But while she
was developing this writing side, she didn't
disappear as an actress. She kept taking significant
TV roles. No, she stayed very visible. Great
roles, too. Tina Morris on HBO's Togetherness.
Jules on Brockmire with Hank Azaria. Brockmire,
yeah. That was great. And then she played Betty
Broderick in the second season of Dirty John.
That's a huge, challenging true crime role. Yeah,
really intense stuff. But we can't wrap this
up without talking about her public advocacy
work, specifically around public health. That
got pretty heated. It really did. This is back
in 2008. She became a spokesperson for Every
Child by Two, very strong advocate for childhood
vaccinations. And she used some incredibly strong
language, didn't she, calling parents who don't
vaccinate parasites? She did. That specific word,
parasites, arguing they rely on herd immunity,
the community's protection, without contributing
to it. That's, wow, that's deliberately provocative
language, using scientific terms like parasite
host. Extremely provocative. And it predictably.
caused a huge reaction, a real firestorm. Did
she back down? Well, she later apologized specifically
for using the word parasites. She acknowledged
it was inflammatory. But crucially, she didn't
back down from her actual position on the science
and importance of vaccination. She stood by that.
And did that advocacy have any lasting recognition?
It did. The sources note she received an award
from the IIG, that's the Independent Investigations
Group, in 2009 for promoting science and popular
media. So her willingness to use her platform,
even in a controversial way, was recognized by
some. So when you look at the whole picture,
then. The serious acting training, the breakout
comedy success, leveraging that into huge blockbusters,
then that deliberate pivot to writing, producing,
and this fierce advocacy, it's quite an arc.
It really is. It feels like the arc of someone
who's always been intellectually driven, always
thinking about the next step, the bigger picture.
And those personal details add layers, too. Knowing
about her postpartum depression struggle during
that intense Studio 60 period. And even little
things like her connection to Peter Dinklage.
Right, who starred in her husband's show. But
she knew him before that, apparently. Yeah, the
sources say she met him through friends from
Bennington College, even though she went to Columbia.
It just shows how interconnected those creative
and intellectual circles can be, you know. leading
eventually to her marriage to Benioff. It all
paints a picture of someone using their career
as, well, a platform for something more, something
deeper. Which brings us to the final thought
for you, the listener. Right. Given everything
we've discussed, that family mix of public service
and showmanship, her own academic background
in history, her shift to creating content, her
passionate advocacy, what's next? Exactly. Will
she lean further into creating maybe something
historical, tapping into that American history
degree directly? Or could she make a complete
departure, something totally outside the Hollywood
sphere, maybe focusing more on that advocacy
or public service side hinted at by her ancestry?
What do you think her next chapter looks like?