Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/957795
34 DGA QUARTERLY Whenever she was given a chance, though, she made shows she worked on better. After directing her first epi- sode of the uncompromising Vietnam-set China Beach, in its second season, co-creator John Sacret Young asked her to come aboard as a producing director. After wit- nessing her direct an episode of ER (she's been credited with creating the medical drama's kinetic Steadicam style), Steven Spielberg hired her for The Peacemaker at a time when it was unheard of for a woman to direct a $50 million action thriller. Though her 1998 feature-length follow-up, Deep Impact, was a bona fide box-office hit, Leder's big-screen days seemed to end in 2000 with Pay It Forward, a heartstring-tugger unembraced by critics and audiences alike. Painful as this stretch was, Leder's talent and tenacity never deserted her. With a still flourishing television ca- reer, Leder shot nine pilots and exec produced six series. In 2015, though, Leder was hired to guest direct a first-sea- son episode of HBO's The Leftovers. Series creator Damon Lindelof looked at the dailies and even before she wrapped, offered Leder a job as co-showrunner. "She elevated the show instantly—we started getting calls from the cast say- ing, 'We love Mimi Leder,'" says Lindelof, adding that she immediately wanted to fix the series' heaviness of tone. "Mimi said, 'That doesn't have to be all it is.' She started finding what I'd call this intangible grace, beauty and for- giveness. We started to find the show mid-way through season one and that's because of Mimi." Over the next two seasons, Leder changed the series' color palette and intro- duced a signature combination of big-sky wide shots and sustained tight close-ups. By the end of the supernatural fan favorite, the launching pad back into features was set. Recently, Leder, now 66, could be found in a Hollywood Blvd. post-production house, putting the finishing touch- es on On the Basis of Sex, a biopic about the early days of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, starring Felicity Jones. Fittingly, the hallway leading to the edit- ing bay was wallpapered with Ginsburg memorabilia. One photo shows a young Ginsburg on her first day at Harvard Law School, one of only nine women in the class of 1956. "She's lost in a sea of men, of gray and black and brown suits," says Leder. "That is often how I've felt in my career being one of the few. There are a lot of similarities that I relate to and why I had to tell this story."