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  "path": "/john-earlys-secret-is-total-commitment",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-19T13:01:08.000Z",
  "site": "https://defector.com",
  "tags": [
    "Arts And Culture",
    "Interviews",
    "fl",
    "John Early",
    "Kate Berlant",
    "Maddie's Secret",
    "melodrama",
    "Showgirls",
    "Conner O'Malley"
  ],
  "textContent": "John Early has one of the most expressive faces of any actor working today. You've almost certainly seen it. The 38-year-old comedian, born and raised in Nashville, has had many small breaks into the zeitgeist over the past decade or so. His voice might also be familiar to you: He's worked on a gamut of animated shows including _Bob's Burgers_ , _Tuca & Bertie_, _The Great North_ , and _Summer Camp Island_ (a personal favorite). He appeared most recently and prominently in the A24 comedy _Eternity_ , but also in Tim Robinson's _I Think You Should Leave_ , Julio Torres' _Los Espookys_ , and the wildly underrated HBO series _Search Party_. It's this latter show where I first saw Early, not by actually watching an episode, but from clips circulating on Twitter.\n\nIndeed, this is how I came to be familiar with several of Early's peers, alt comedians like Jo Firestone, Patti Harrison, and Conner O'Malley, whose brilliant, keenly observed work seems to live timelessly on the internet. But Early has always communicated an old soul, duly inspired by his friends and colleagues, but also the movement and spectacle of Bob Fosse, the melodrama of cult classics like _Showgirls_ , and, as evidenced by his directorial debut masterpiece, '80s TV movies like _Kate's Secret_.\n\nEarly's film, _Maddie's Secret,_ is not a retelling of that 1986 film, which follows a bulimic woman as she faces pressures both familial and psychological, though there are commonalities: a blonde lead, an eating disorder, the anxiety of a life lived under scrutiny. But _Maddie's Secret_ is something entirely unique and surprisingly moving, a melodrama following the eponymous Maddie (Early), a dishwasher at the fictional Conde Nast magazine _Gourmaybe_ , who is one day thrown into the spotlight when a video of one of her homemade dishes goes viral. As her fame increases, so does the burden of keeping Maddie's harrowing past trauma, and the eating disorder that manifests because of it, at bay. In _Maddie's Secret_ , comedy and severity go hand in hand. Humor lives alongside and within the very real drama performed and staged by Early and his longtime professional partner, Kate Berlant. _Maddie's Secret_ showcases not only Early's many talents as a performer, but his instincts as a filmmaker, one deeply attuned to the inner lives of women in friendship and in crisis.",
  "title": "John Early’s Secret Is Total Commitment"
}