In 2008, Ellen Page was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Juno. Although she didn’t take home the win for Best Actress (the honor went to Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose), she was in the audience when Cynthia Wade‘s Freeheld won Best Documentary Short Subject. The 40-minute film followed Lieutenant Laurel Hester in the last days of her life, which she spent fighting the Ocean County, New Jersey Board of Chosen Freeholders to allow her partner, Stacie Andree, to receive her pension after she inevitably passed away from terminal lung cancer.
Less than a year after the documentary win (and two years after Laurel’s passing), word came out that Ellen Page (then 21) wanted to star in a feature film based on the true story. Ron Nyswaner (who wrote the Oscar-winning screenplay for Philadelphia) penned the script, and in 2010, Cynthia Wade told AfterEllen slow progress was being made with Double Feature Films and Endgame Entertainment attached.
“I remember sitting on the bed with Laurel,” Cynthia told us, “talking to her about both the documentary, and the possibility of a feature film for a larger audience, and her eyes widened. She was excited by the idea, as she wanted her struggle to mean something to the world. But it seemed a bit outlandish to her, because she was just living her life. “
Freeheld struggled to find financing for those few years, though, and it wasn’t until 2012 that they secured director Peter Sollett who said reading the script while on a plane brought him to tears.
“Having Ron Nyswaner’s name on the front page was a big deal to me. He’s somebody I’ve known for a long time and whose work I really admire,” Peter said. “And I read it and was just really devastated. I read it in public on a plane and was crying and felt like making a mess of the trip for everyone but really just thought it was gorgeous and immediately wanted to get involved and told everybody, right away, that minute.”
The next big step was securing Julianne Moore to play Laurel, as Ellen was already in place as the younger mechanic, Stacie.
“I think Julianne agreeing to do the film and then the combination with the sort of dramatic center of the film being Juliane and Ellen, I think that was irresistible, along with the screenplay,” Peter said. “That’s what triggered our financing, and sent us into making the movie and attracted [Steve] Carell and Michael Shannon.”
Freeheld joins a handful of other LGBT-themed films that have come out in 2015 after several years of laying in waiting. HBO’s Bessie (which just took home an Emmy for Best TV Film this weekend) was 20 years in the making, first auditioning Queen Latifah for the lead role of bisexual blues singer Bessie Smith when she was just 19-years-old. The Danish Girl, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival alongside Freeheld this weekend, was recast several times as attached actresses aged out waiting for production to move forward. It would seem that only in the past few years have films with out leads and these kinds of queer stories been deemed more worthy of mainstream money, despite the proven track record of others in the past. (Brokeback Mountain, Monster, The Imitation Game, The Hours and Philadelphia are just a few that grossed more than $30 million at the box office.)
“Certainly the LGBT themes as subject matter of a film are part of what define it, but it’s also a film of two female leads. It’s also a piece of social realism. It’s also a movie for grown-ups,” Peter said. “And all of these things are hard; they’re all hard to get made right now.”
While it might seem obvious to queer viewers why these kinds of films are not only necessary but extremely important to have done well, there are still the viewers in small town, America that might not come as easily to a film about two women in love. I asked Peter what he thinks might attract a white middle age Midwestern man to Freeheld.
“First and foremost, it’s a fantastic cast. I think that will bring people to the film. We have Julianne Moore, who is at the absolute height at her career; just having won a well-deserved Oscar. And we have Ellen Page, who is absolutely fantastic and at this amazing intersection between her life and her politics and her work, which I think gives everyone a lot to think about and be curious about. Michael Shannon whose the most versatile actor of his generation; Steve Carell who is a beloved comedian, playing a part who is against type,” Peter said. “So I hope that that will appeal to people. In terms of direction, my objective was to make a film that was a beautiful love story that emphasizes what is universal about the characters. And universal in a way that even that guy could relate to. I don’t imagine it’ll be top on his list of things to do that weekend-I think football season will probably have started by then-but we’ve done our best and I do think if he comes into see the film that he’ll appreciate it.”
Not that appealing to Mr. Midwest is the main objective for all involved. The story is what moved the cast and crew to turn the documentary into a two hour film. And while Oscar buzz is already surrounding them, Peter said it can only help “more people understanding the heroes that Stacie Andree and Laurel Hester were, and I hope it will help us get across the point that we’re all entitled to equal rights in spite of whom we decide to love.”
Stacie, herself, was a huge part of the film. Besides a cameo she makes during a freeholders meeting, she worked in pre-production with Ellen, Julianne and Michael Shannon (who plays Laurel’s police officer partner Dane Wells and ends up being one of her biggest supporters and greatest allies throughout the film).
“Stacie is a big part of it for me,” Peter said. “She helped everybody with their research and of course with moral support. I don’t think we would have gotten far at all without Stacie’s blessing, in all regards. And then she was available to us while we were making script revisions-checking the facts, what music were you listening to on this day, where did you guys go and how did you feel about that bar where you guys danced, who was in there, what was it like?’ I didn’t know if anybody would see her when I sat her there. And then we showed her the film two weeks ago and it was very moving and a relief and exciting and gratifying.”
Because of the documentary and Stacie’s involvement, Peter said Freeheld is “very, very accurate.” The only major difference is that Dane Wells (Michael Shannon) had actually retired before Laurel and Stacie took on the freeholders for her pension. In the film, he’s still on duty.
“So he knew everybody involved, and he did all the things that he does in the film, but he wasn’t going into the office every day anymore,” Peter said. “Things like that-telling the Dane retirement aspect of the story wouldn’t have done anything to enhance the romance or the legal drama. It would have felt beside the point.”
But the police action that opens the film-Laurel and Dane taking on criminals and making highly publicized arrests-those are all real.
“[They were] really under the boardwalk when they wrestled a gun away from that guy; [Dane] really shot out the tires of the car that [Laurel] fell out of; those are all real police events,” Peter said.
As Steven Goldstein, Steve Carell is a loud, preachy gay man who uses Laurel’s plight to help further the marriage equality cause. While it almost seems like Steve is playing a caricature at times, Peter insists this is what the real Steven Goldstein is like.
“Steven Goldstein is a political activist, a rabbi, and a professor and he’s a fascinating guy. He was somebody who has had to deal with a lot of intolerance in his life-homophobia, anti-semitism, and as a political activist, he’s used this discrimination and turned it on hits head. He realized early on that he could use these things to provoke people. You know-if you didn’t like Jews, I’m going to wear a yarmulke and a talisman and speak Yiddish to you and drive you crazy until you give me what I need. You don’t like gay people? I’m going to be so gay, you’re going to be overwhelmed by how gay I am. So this works for him, and it worked in the case. You can see it in the documentary. It’s not who he is-it’s his technique to do the work. And he’s been very successful.”
Like Stacie, Steven makes a cameo in the film (“In the scene where Steve gets his longest speech, Goldstein is sitting behind him, cheering for him, for himself, or Steve Carell’s interpretation of himself,” Peter said.) and on set, he would chide Steve Carell.
“Goldstein’s advice to Carell was always, ‘No, honey, you’re not even close. Go so much further. You’re not even doing this work. Do your job. I would have been up there, in his face,'” Peter said with a laugh. “But we needed to have the film have a consistent tone so it couldn’t get far out as maybe Goldstein was taking it, but Steve was doing a very good job of presenting him accurately.”
Every performance in the film is strong, from Julianne and Ellen’s starring roles as two women who meet at a volleyball match and find themselves on a first date at a country night at a gay bar not long after, to Josh Charles as the newly appointed freeholder that is the most conflicted about not giving Laurel and Stacie their due. Laurel and Stacie and those who align themselves with them are the heroes, while the bigoted freeholders who exerted their power just to show they had any are the selfish, money-hungry bigots who eventually relent after months of being pressed to do the right thing.
One of the most interesting aspects of Freeheld is the very normal life Laurel and Stacie are leading together up until they are forced into political action. Laurel is out in her personal life, but closeted at work, and when she introduces Stacie as her roommate or friend, it stings. But they buy a house together, and a dog, and they are attracted to each other in a way that isn’t read as explicitly sexual. They spend time together just sitting in each other’s arms at the beach; they laugh, they play, they enjoy one another, up until their final moments.
There is one sexual scene between Laurel and Stacie, and it appears early before Laurel’s diagnosis. It’s their first time together, and while it’s very sensual, it’s fairly quick and demure. This, Peter said, was intentional.
“It was to show that they had loving, caring, healthy sex,” Peter said. “I know that might sound dull but to Ellen and I, that’s important, you know? We wanted to create something that was sex-positive, and we wanted to show that they had a connection that was physical, too, and we wanted it to go there. We didn’t want the film to have an R rating because we wanted the film to be as available to as wide as audience as we can for a lot of different reasons. So we felt that doing the scene the way we did it was the right way to go.”
Freeheld is the kind of film that any human with a heart can see and be made to feel something. It’s a bittersweet love story about a couple and their community, and part of the appeal of its message is that we are not so far from this moment in time. It’s been less than a decade since this happened. In that time, the LGBT community has made great strides, including achieving that marriage equality Steven Goldstein wanted Laurel to fight for. But Laurel’s fight was for her domestic partner, because they weren’t yet granted the right to be married by the time Laurel died. To Laurel, it was all about Stacie. She wanted Stacie to be able to stay living in the home they created together, and the only way she could do that was to receive the pension Laurel had worked 25 years to earn.
“So often when, in this country, if there’s going to be a film that’s going to talk about social change or tolerance, we tend to go back a generation or two or three. We tend to turn it into a costume drama,” Peter said. “So this is contemporary and it’s a true story, and those things are rare and I think it distinguishes it. We don’t see films like this every day. I hope more are made.”
Freeheld hits theaters nationwide on October 2.
