Who Are Ya, Who Are Ya
- Paulie
- Aug 16, 2023
- 8 min read
This week, let’s talk about characters. Personas, aliases, pen names, the avatars of artists who wished to remain anonymous or conversely wanted to be much larger than life, to build a mythology of self. Read on dear rats…
Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy
Oh boy. If you haven’t heard of JT Leroy, buckle up. In 2000, Jeremiah Terminator LeRoy published a book called Sarah. The book followed a young person and their mother, a “lot lizard”, another word for a sex worker who works along the truck stops in West Virginia. The book is fairly brutal, with graphic descriptions of abuse and exploitation. It was also claimed to have been inspired heavily by the lived experience of its elusive author. A national bestseller and the talk of the town at the turn of the century, LeRoy seemed to fit into a grungey subcultural wave in the vein of Harmony Korine, Nirvana, Gregg Araki and co. Rubbing elbows with all of the contemporary stars of the late 90s/early 00s, LeRoy was revered by artists such as Courtney Love, Gus Van Sant, John Waters, Winona Ryder, you name em. All was well!
LeRoy became known for his elusiveness, often answering interview questions by whispering in the ears of people next to him who could relay his answer. His past seemed inherently connected to the plot of Sarah and rumours flew around of LeRoy being HIV positive, transgender, the protagonist of Sarah itself, but no one knew the full truth. One of LeRoy’s closest confidants was Asia Argento, nepo baby supreme of giallo king Dario Argento stock. Asia Argento would go on to adapt LeRoy’s second book, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things in 2004 with Hollywood heavyweights such as both Sprouse twins, Jeremy Renner and Marilyn Manson. A truly debauched blunt rotation. The book and film are also reportedly dogshit!
But why am I telling you all this? Well, it’s important to establish that LeRoy was by no means an industry outsider, with film deals being rolled out, a steady entourage of adoring celebrity fans and a bestselling debut book, LeRoy was hot shit, a known entity. He also wasn’t a real person. LeRoy was in fact, at one time nobody at all, and then three people at once. In the first instance a pen name for author Laura Albert, LeRoy was a male persona or ‘avatar’ to use Albert’s own words. JT “was asbestos gloves to handle material I otherwise could not have touched”. Just simple stuff like, being gender fluid, or a child sex worker, or a victim of abuse for example. But the JT we see in pictures is not Laura Albert, but Savannah Knoop, Albert’s relative-in-law through her husband Geoffrey Knoop.
