Jay Kelly’s ending was about the titular character deciding whether or not he wanted to make more movies. Jay was in his 60s, and yet, he was at the peak of his career. He had an amicable relationship with Ron, his manager; Liz, his publicist; and his assistants, Krista and Meg. His dynamic with his family, though, was rough, because he was an absent dad to his daughters, Jessica and Daisy, and a disappointment to his own dad, Mr. Kelly. His bond with Peter Schneider, his father figure and the director who had given him his big break, was relatively better. However, he had somehow managed to mess that up as well by not agreeing to help him out when he wasn’t doing well, financially speaking. All he needed to do was work on one last movie with Peter, but he refused to do that. So, when news of Peter’s death reached Jay, he felt extremely guilty because he thought that maybe he had indirectly killed Peter. In order to process his complicated feelings about this incident, he attended Peter’s funeral, where he ran into an old friend of his, Timothy. Jay thought that it’d be great to spend some time with Timothy because reliving the past with him would help ease his pain. But since Timothy had been wronged by Jay, he added to Jay’s suffering, figuratively and literally, which triggered the superstar’s unraveling. He decided to walk out of the film, which was about to start shooting in a few weeks or so, and go on a trip across Europe to spend some time with Daisy, because he had had this epiphany that he had wasted a lot of his life on films. Well, what did the trip teach Jay? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Was Jay A Bad Father To Jessica And Daisy?
The simple answer to that question is yes, Jay was a bad father to Jessica and Daisy. Jay admitted that he wanted to be a superstar really badly, and when it came to picking between superstardom and his family, he went for the former because that’s what he yearned for more. In his mind, he thought that he was doing a half-decent job of balancing his personal life with his professional life, but the truth of the matter was that he wasn’t. While Jay was in the thick of it and he was busy climbing the proverbial ladder, he supposedly kept telling himself that he’d finally reduce the number of movies he made every year and start spending more time with Jessica. But that day never came. When he achieved stardom, he started working more to maintain it. And then he had another daughter, Daisy, whom he treated the same way he treated Jessica. It’s only after he entered his 60s and got punched in the eye by Timothy that he understood how transient everything was. Sure, people would remember Jay for being a great actor, but Jessica and Daisy would remember Jay for being an absent father, who never loved them half as much as he loved making movies. And Jay wanted to rectify that. Hence, he stalked Daisy from France to Italy, under the guise of doing his job as Dior’s ambassador and attending his tribute in Tuscany, and pestered Jessica to attend said tribute.
Jay tried to control Daisy’s life because he was under the impression that by steering her in the “correct” direction, he’d be fulfilling his duty as a dad. He invited Jessica to this event that was solely about him in the hopes that she’d see what her dad had achieved by sacrificing all the time he could have spent with her. Both of those ventures failed, and Jay came to the realization that he had to let Daisy make her own choices and that he couldn’t make up for the last three decades that he hadn’t spent with Jessica with a tribute. He had to accept that the cost of being the kind of superstar he aspired to be was a dysfunctional family life. His daughters had made peace with that, and so should he. There was no undo or redo button in life. If there was one, Jay would have chosen to be a superstar all over again, because that was his true calling, but maybe he wouldn’t have brought two innocent lives into this world and then messed with their psyche by not being around. Well, what’s done is done, and all that Jay can do for now is listen to Daisy and Jessica when they want him to and help them on their own terms instead of imposing his will on them.
Did Jay betray Timothy?
The flashbacks in Jay Kelly were told entirely through the perspective of the titular superstar. Yet Jay wasn’t able to hide the fact that, while auditioning for Peter’s latest film, he had taken inspiration from Timothy’s idea to go off-script. I mean, when Timothy confronted Jay about that incident, he said that he wasn’t at fault. In Jay’s opinion, Peter thought that Timothy wasn’t the right person for the job and Jay was, and that was that. And just so that Timothy didn’t have any ill feelings towards him, Jay got Peter to cast him in a film, but Timothy’s role was that of a “glorified extra,” which ended up hurting him more than if Jay hadn’t done anything for Timothy at all. That anger festered inside Timothy’s heart. He probably stayed in touch with Jessica not to ensure that she had a father figure in her life, but to derive some satisfaction from the fact that Jay had failed as a father. Eventually, when the time came to confront him, he seemingly gave Jay the opportunity to come clean and maybe apologize for wronging him. When he saw Jay denying that he wasn’t living the life that Timothy should have been living, he resorted to physical violence. So, who was right and who was wrong? I am not really sure, because the situation isn’t all that black and white. During that audition, Timothy should have acted on his hunch that Peter would like some improvisation, but he didn’t take it because he was too nervous he’d fail. Jay took that chance because he wasn’t there to audition; he was just there to read lines with his friend. He felt that he had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and that allowed him to do his take on the idea that had birthed from Timothy’s mind. And that’s the important part here: even though the concept of improvising might have been Timothy’s, it all depended on what Jay brought to the table.
Timothy’s chance had passed him by anyway, and if Jay “stole” Timothy’s idea, delivered it poorly, and didn’t get the job, yes, Timothy should have hated him through and through. However, since Jay did the exact opposite, I think he should have been happy for him. Maybe Timothy was better than Jay in the acting class, but in front of the camera, Jay was better than Timothy, and that’s fine. I can say that Jay should have given Timothy more credit for essentially landing him that role, but would that have helped him in any way? If he second-guessed himself at the audition (his self-doubt could have been the reason why his girlfriend left him and went to Jay), he probably would have second-guessed himself in every role he ever got. Many great actors started off as extras. The reason why Timothy probably couldn’t make it was because he just wasn’t meant for the celluloid. I don’t know if Timothy was great as a child psychologist, given how he had held on to a grudge against Jay for stealing his girlfriend and his future for decades. But he was something, which is better than nothing. Sure, Jay could have been a better friend to Timothy, but if people lose track of their college friends after they stop living in the same town and go into different professions, can I really chastise Jay for not keeping track of Timothy? I don’t think so. It would have been great if their friendship wouldn’t have come to an end with the threat of a counter-lawsuit to Timothy’s lawsuit, but it is what it is.
Did Jay Understand Ron’s Worth?
Jay might have wronged his wife, his own dad, Jessica, Daisy, Daphne (his co-star who was probably in love with him), Peter, Timothy, and his entire crew, but the guy who bore the brunt of the superstar’s worst tendencies was Ron. Of course, Ron got paid to do it, but if payment was enough to earn somebody’s loyalty and trust, then there wouldn’t have been any issues between an employer and an employee. Ron probably saw the money that he was earning as Jay’s manager as a means to an end. He was traveling all the time to make all sorts of deals. He was pulling all kinds of threads to make sure that Jay got whatever he wanted. And he was looking after his wife and kids. Objectively speaking, he should have been getting paid more because, to be honest, he was the foundation of Jay’s whole empire. When Jay started, maybe he was his own foundation. However, it was Ron who was keeping him at the top, whilst ensuring that if he ever fell off, he had a cushion to land on—a very large cushion. Jay undoubtedly understood that, but his way of reciprocating the work that Ron did for him was, for the lack of a better word, superficial. Yeah, he asked him how his family was doing from time to time, but I don’t think he ever made things easy for him. Like, this whole France-Italy trip fiasco was a result of the fact that Jay was spiraling out. That’s understandable. However, he was so self-centered that he didn’t think about how that’d impact everyone else.
If Jay were an indie actor with no entourage, sure, such a move might have made sense. Well, if he was an indie actor with no entourage, he wouldn’t have had the luxury to go on a trip to France and Italy to make up for his past mistakes. Deep down, maybe Jay knew that he was exploiting his privilege to derail everything on a whim, and he did it anyway because he knew that Ron would handle it. In doing so, he forgot that Ron actually saw him as a friend. Ron should have been with his wife and kids, and here he was in France and then in Italy because Jay was having a breakdown. Ron was evidently sad that Jay wasn’t making any considerations for him, but he put those sentiments on the backburner because he thought that this was just a temporary situation and he’d get the chance to be with his family once Jay began working on the upcoming movie. When Jay told Ron to give that movie to Ben, Ron’s second client, that ended up being the last straw for him. Ron didn’t tell Jay that Ben had already fired him because it’d seem like he was emotionally manipulating him. Even after all that, he gave Jay one last chance to get on that plane and head home for the shoot. The sad part was that Ron’s plea didn’t change Jay’s mind, because doing that would mean that Jay saw him as his equal. It’s only after he learned that Ben had fired Ron that he walked back on his decision to not do the film that Ron had arranged for him. I know that the movie makes it seem like that conversation between Ron and Jay, prior to their trip to the tribute, is sweet and it’s proof that Jay loves Ron. Yet I couldn’t help but sense the bitter undertone in Jay’s decision to honor Ron’s request when he was at his lowest. So even though their professional relationship came to an end, they still remained friends, and who knows, maybe Ron will start working for Jay again, considering Jay wants to stay in the movie business, but hopefully, this time he will allow Ron some time off to spend with his family.
Why Did Jay Want to Make More Movies?
During the closing moments of Jay Kelly, the titular superstar sat down with Ron in a theater full of fans to watch a highlight reel of his career. The line between George Clooney and Jay was blurred as we saw snippets from some of the most iconic and popular movies that Clooney had worked in (unironically speaking, they should have included Batman and Robin). And while everyone in that room was focusing on the silver screen, Jay’s eyes wandered towards the audience, and he saw how overwhelmed they were to see such a great homage to their favorite actor. He imagined that his younger self, young Timothy, the old Timothy, his acting coach, Carter (Jessica’s therapist), and Daphne were sitting there with him and Ron, and that the short play that Jessica and Daisy had organized for him a long time ago was included in the tribute. Once the real and the imaginary reels came to an end, Jay (and Clooney) broke the fourth wall and said that he’d like another one. This was the same request that he had on the last day of shoot for Eight Men From Now because he thought he could do the scene better if he was given a second chance. However, in Jay Kelly’s ending, this can be interpreted in multiple ways.
Prior to going on this insane trip across Europe, Jay decided that he’d do fewer films, and then while talking to Jessica, he said that he’d quit acting entirely. So, maybe Jay was saying that he wanted to do one more movie before retiring. Or maybe he was saying that he wanted to keep making more films so that he’d get to see another emotional tribute like that. I mean, if 35 years of filmmaking got him that, maybe 35 more will finally fill that insatiable yearning for greatness. Or maybe he was satisfied with everything that he had achieved so far as an actor, and he wanted to have another go at his relationship with his daughters without repeating the mistakes he had made so far.
Sure, as a star, Jay had everything. He had so much immunity that he could punch his friend, tackle an intellectually disabled guy to the ground, and still be adored by millions. However, in his pursuit of superstardom, he had lost something: his friends and family. Through this European trip, he had realized that while movies were important to him, he needed the attention of his loved ones too. Is it too late to do that? Maybe, but if he didn’t try to mend every bond that he had broken, he’d end up an old man filled with regrets. He’d be successful, but Jay was unsure if success would be enough when he was on his deathbed, and that’s reason enough to try once again to strike that good old balance between family and work. I won’t say that Ben was some kind of ideal to strive for. He wasn’t one of the top stars. We don’t know enough about his family to confidently say if he had an amicable relationship with them or if they were just tagging along for the free food and drinks. Hence, Jay had the opportunity to create a new standard that budding stars could strive towards. In addition to all that, I think that Clooney, via Kelly, was speaking for the medium of cinema and asking the audience to give it another chance. A select few people have watched Jay Kelly on the big screen, and most of us are watching it on the small screen. Clooney, Adam Sandler, Noah Baumbach, and everyone associated with this movie achieved success through the theater. And now, for a variety of reasons, they are being boxed into this digital hellscape. We don’t know when that’ll change, but if it does, it’ll be great for all parties concerned.
What Does The Cheesecake Symbolize?
Here’s one last explanation for what Jay Kelly could have meant when he said that he wanted another one: he was talking about the cheesecake. So, throughout the course of the movie, Jay was giving Ron a hard time for putting cheesecake in his contract rider. Ron said that it was in there because, once upon a time, Jay had said that he liked it, thereby underscoring the fact that Ron remembered the tiniest of details about Jay’s life that even Jay forgot along the way. Jay wanted to have that part of his contract changed, but due to his sudden trip across Europe, Ron didn’t get the chance to do so. Hence, wherever Jay went, he kept getting a plate of cheesecake, and it kept going untouched. In the ending of Jay Kelly, while preparing with Ron for his appearance at his tribute, Jay absent-mindedly took a bite of the cheesecake that was in his make-up room. He liked it so much that he took another bite, at which point the movie cut to a shot of Ron smiling at Jay with an “I knew that you liked cheesecake” expression on his face. But, if we dig into this throwaway gag a little deeper, I think Ron was smiling because the old Jay Kelly was coming back.
Maybe, a long time ago, when Jay didn’t have to slip into character to maintain his superstar persona, he liked cheesecake and put it in his contract. When he became a successful movie star, it’s possible he thought that that was too much of a normie dish and he should graduate to something more sophisticated. And in his pursuit to be extraordinary, he probably lost the ordinariness about him that people found to be relatable. I mean, he loved the hustle and bustle of a crowded train because it allowed him to observe people and learn about human behavior from, which is something that a private jet ride won’t allow you to do. Same goes for the cheesecake; maybe it was one of the many things that kept him grounded and reminded that, despite all his stardom, he was human. And the further he went from that cheesecake, the less likable he became, at least to those close to him. Maybe by eating that cheesecake and asking for another one, he was shedding his superficial superstar persona and becoming an actor again. Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the film. If you have any opinions on the same, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
