Mary-Kate and Ashley on Jay Leno (2002)

They Thought I Was You

We're continuing our journey through 2002 with a type of episode we haven't done in a while-- unpacking a Mary-Kate and Ashley interview and its implications in their larger treatment in the media! Today we're talking about Mary-Kate and Ashley's appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno to promote Getting There... weird!
In 2002, Mary-Kate and Ashley were simultaneously outsiders and leading forces in Hollywood. The way Jay Leno awkwardly asks them about school, boys, and driving is a prime example of how mainstream media really had no idea what to do with Mary-Kate and Ashley. At the time, they were making their own content, had their own self-contained brand, and operated almost entirely outside of the Hollywood studio & television network system. The Hollywood Reporter named them the "most powerful young women in Hollywood," and yet, Jay Leno himself struggles to ask them a single question about their career.

To give us some context, we decided to also watch Jay Leno's interview with Kelly Clarkson in 2002, just a few months later. Sure, Kelly had just won American Idol, a dark-horse reality show that became a global phenomenon, so maybe it's not a perfect one-to-one comparison, but she was just 5 years older than Mary-Kate and Ashley at the time, and Jay Leno seems to have no issues asking her questions about her experience & career.

You can watch their Tonight Show appearance in 2002 and the video version of our podcast by subscribing to our Patreon here.
Kelly Clarkson on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 2002
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