Chicago Fire's Jesse Spencer Has A Little-Known Connection To Brittany Murphy

Jesse Spencer and Brittany Murphy are two performers who joined forces 20 years ago. Spencer is recognized for playing parts such as Dr. Robert Chase in "House," as well as Billy Kennedy in "Neighbours" and Matt Casey in "Chicago Fire." When Spencer was in the early stages of his career, he portrayed a character named Neal in the 2003 film starring Brittany Murphy, "Uptown Girls," per The New York Times.

One of the movie's producers, John Penotti, once discussed the difficulty in trying to find the right person to take on the part of Neal prior to hiring Spencer. "That's one character that we searched far and wide for. We must have auditioned 75, 100 guys," Penotti said in an archival "Uptown Girls" featurette that was shared on YouTube. Later on in the featurette, one of Spencer's "Uptown Girls" costars, Marley Shelton, spoke highly of him. "I think he really nailed it," Shelton said of Spencer's acting in "Uptown Girls." 

Amid this breakthrough role, Spencer worked well with Murphy as he and the late "Clueless" actor played romantic interests.

Jesse Spencer and Brittany Murphy carried out compelling performances as the lead characters in "Uptown Girls." Spencer played Neal Fox opposite Murphy as Molly Gunn in the film, which also featured Dakota Fanning, Heather Locklear, and Donald Faison, via TV Guide. As NBC wrote, during the movie Molly ends up dating Neal, who is a musician. Leading up to the release of "Uptown Girls," Spencer chatted with PopArtsPlace about why his character feels drawn to Molly.

"She seems really out there to Neal, and when he meets people who are totally out there, there's an immediate attraction," Spencer said. He later added, "Also, she can be crazy, but she's got a lot of integrity at the same time. He falls for her but doesn't want to go there. It's just not the right timing for him." Those around Spencer and Murphy noticed their onscreen connection. "I think they have great chemistry together — [Spencer] and Brittany Murphy," actor Marley Shelton said in her "Uptown Girls" featurette interview. Spencer and Murphy both said good things about each other following their professional collaboration.

Brittany Murphy and Jesse Spencer had a positive experience acting with each other for "Uptown Girls." In 2004, Spencer appeared on "This Morning" and praised Murphy when he was asked whether or not she was "easy to work with" during the 2000s flick. "She's brilliant, yeah," Spencer said of Murphy. "She's one of those girls that's just got loads and loads of really kiddie energy." In an archival "Uptown Girls" interview, Murphy also offered praise toward Spencer. "He's so cool, so nice, so multitalented — great musician, great actor, really good, upstanding guy," the late actor said of Spencer. "He will blow up — so huge and famous."

Additionally, in a 2003 roundtable interview, Murphy talked about her enjoyment in portraying Molly, per IGN. in "To be able to play a character trying to find herself and figure out what she's going to do with her life, a girl waking up to the possibilities and realities of life in such a vibrant and exciting way – what a dream!" Murphy said. "It was just sprinkled with pixie dust – it was very magical and felt very personal to me." Murphy would later star in movies like "Little Black Book," "Love and Other Disasters" and "The Ramen Girl." 

Spencer's latest series, "Last Days of the Space Age," doesn't yet have a release date, but Deadline wrote in June 2022 that it was planned to be a project of the Australia and New Zealand 2022/23 slate for Disney+.