In Full Bloom
Lee Rose nurtures the out crowd
Written by Marsha Scarbrough
(From the October 2002 issue of "Written By")
Lee Rose is a rare hybrid, a woman and a writer-director in an arena where few hyphenates flourish: made-for-TV movies and miniseries. What makes her even more exotic is that she's an out lesbian who prefers female-focused material.
Photo by Jilly WendellAccording to conventional wisdom, such qualifications are a hard sell, but Rose defies convention at every turn. An out smoker in a town rabidly against cigarettes, she flaunts her tobacco habit. Her heartfelt projects draw critical acclaim, awards, and large audiences. Her movie A Mother's Prayer, for USA Network, won a Gabriel Award, a Chris Award, and was a finalist for the Humanitas Prize. In 2000, The Truth About Jane was Lifetime's highest-rated movie in five years. It was nominated for the Writers Guild Award and the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) Media Award. Emmy, the magazine of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, named her one of the 25 best writers in the business. In November 2001 she was honored with the GLAAD Fairness Award in recognition of her long-term commitment to actively promoting the fair, accurate, and inclusive representation of lesbians and gay men. According to GLAAD, "As an out lesbian writer-producer-director, Lee Rose continues to create indelible images and programming that speak clearly and eloquently to the need for equal rights for all people, regardless of gender, race, religion, or sexual orientation. From the sensitive, honest portrayal of a teenage daughter coming out to her mother in The Truth About Jane, to an exploration of lesbian identity in the miniseries A Girl Thing, to the award-winning 1995 film A Mother's Prayer, the story of a woman dying of AIDS who is counseled by the Gay Men's Health Crisis Center, Lee Rose Productions focuses attention on the need for tolerance, acceptance, love, and community through storytelling that connects audiences to the lesbian and gay experience." In December 2001 Rose was designated number seven on a list of the Top Ten Gay Women in Show Business compiled by Power Up (Professional Organization of Women in Entertainment Reaching Up), the first national networking group supporting the visibility and integration of gay women in entertainment. She's also on Power Up's board of directors and mentored the group's 2002 filmmaking grant winners.
In September Rose finished directing and producing a special-event movie, This Much I Know, from her original script for Lifetime Network. Tentatively scheduled to air the first week of March 2003, This Much I Know is the adult companion piece to The Truth About Jane. It tells the story of a woman who falls in love with a gay woman as she's rebuilding her life after the end of a 20-year marriage. Rose says, "It's a quiet, small, personal story with no bad guys and no melodrama." Her next project will be an adaptation of the A.M. Homes novel Jack, a coming-of-age story set during the 1980s about a 15-year-old boy dealing with his parents' separation. Showtime has greenlit the project, and Stockard Channing has already signed on to head the cast.
Being a woman hurts you in every way, shape, and form. Being gay doesn't affect my career one way or the other. It makes it a little easier for me to deal with guys. I'm sort of in-your-face no matter what. I've always been that way.
One of Rose's many strengths is her knack for writing roles that attract powerful actresses. Linda Hamilton won a Cable ACE Award for A Mother's Prayer. Stockard Channing got an Emmy nomination for An Unexpected Family and a SAG nomination for The Truth About Jane. The cast of A Girl Thing reads like a who's who of Hollywood's best actresses: Hamilton, Channing, Kate Capshaw, Elle Macpherson, Camryn Manheim, Mia Farrow, Rebecca De Mornay, and Allison Janney, to name a few. Channing, who has appeared in four of Rose's projects, presented her with the GLAAD Fairness Award. Channing says that Rose "writes out of her own view of the world. She has a very distinctive voice, and it's an eloquent voice. It's so refreshing because it's her own. For better or for worse, it's a real person speaking, and that's what makes her unique. She doesn't try to use somebody else's formula. She writes out of her own heart."
Even as a child, Rose knew she wanted to make movies. She went to film school and apprenticed on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She remembers, "When I said I wanted to direct, they thought it was funny because women were not doing it at that point." She worked as a production assistant and a director's assistant until she moved up to associate producer. She decided her career was progressing too slowly and tried her hand at directing theater. Although she won the Dramalogue Award for The Triplet Collection at the Matrix Theater, she needed to find work that could actually provide a livelihood. Because she'd always had an aptitude for writing, she studied scripts and started to write. She sold her second spec script. Although it was never produced, it provided enough income for her to quit her day job and concentrate on writing full time. She managed to attach herself as a producer to her script An Unexpected Family, which was produced as an event movie for USA Network. It was so successful it spawned a sequel. Her reputation as an up-and-coming television writer attracted an unusual offer. Her agent asked if she wanted to write the true story of a woman dying of AIDS who was trying to find a home for her son.
Lee Rose: I said, "No. I don't want to get to know her and watch her die." Because I had friends die of AIDS, I didn't want to go through it. I mentioned it at dinner with a bunch of friends of mine. They said, "That's really great. You're a chicken shit. Now you're going to let some hack write it because you're scared and you don't want to get to know her." That night I said, "You're right. I have to do this movie." So I met with Rosemary and her son. I spent a lot of time with her and watched her die. The movie is really beautiful, and the rights money went to her son, but it took forever to get it made. I was fighting everyone everywhere.
Photo by Jilly WendellMarsha Scarbrough: At the networks?
Yes. First it was at NBC. They wouldn't make it, and they wouldn't give it back to me. Somehow the press got informed of that. This woman was on welfare, so the rights money was a huge deal. They gave it back to me because they were pressured by the L.A. Times. I took it to Universal and USA Network, and they greenlit it instantly. The head of Universal network programming, Barbara Fisher, who is a remarkable human being, had read it when it was at NBC. She said, "I would kill to do this kind of movie. This is the kind of legacy I want to leave." So we did it. We won a ton of awards. It did extremely well. It put me in a different category of not being just your typical run-of-the-mill writer.
Was it because of the social comment or the in-your-face emotion of it?
It was because of the emotional content of it and the way it was done as well as the success of it. Everyone knew about it when it came out. People were big fans of it and still are. It was that one movie that cracks the nut a little wider for you so you're brought up for different jobs that you wouldn't have been considered for before.
It got you on the A list and made you a viable commodity in the eyes of networks.
Yes, not just a writer who can come in and be a yeoman. There are a lot of lists.
Has being an out lesbian hurt you or helped you? Number one, as a writer? Number two, politically within the Hollywood system?
First of all, being a woman hurts you in every way, shape, and form. Being gay doesn't affect my career one way or the other. It makes it a little easier for me to deal with guys. I'm sort of in-your-face no matter what. I've always been that way. I have a foul mouth and all that, so I deal with the men in the business pretty well for the most part, but if I wasn't a woman of any kind, I would be doing far better. Simple.
You said that you originally wrote An Unexpected Family as a spec feature but agreed to do it for TV after several studios loved it but said "we don't do female leads in features." It seems like that's a real thing that is not openly admitted and talked about.
I love giving voice to people and feelings. The power of writing is extraordinary. I've been doing this an awfully long time in one form or another, and I can never get over the fact that, if I'm lucky enough, millions of people will see something I thought up in the privacy of a room.
You're absolutely right. There are four or five women right now who can open a movie, maybe. Other than those five, you're dead. So to go out with a spec female lead, unless it's one of those stupid teen comedies where you get the kids from Dawson's Creek, you're in trouble. If you don't have Sandy Bullock or Michelle Pfeiffer or Julia Roberts, you're in trouble. Few writers in the feature world are encouraged to write female-driven projects.
Why do you think that is?
The box office is dominated by men and boys and teenagers. The television audience is dominated by women, so I found my refuge in cable and television. They want to see female-lead projects, all kinds of them. They've always wanted to see women who have to go through something to show female viewers that they can get through something somehow. It's great. I've written for men as well, but most of the stuff I've had success with has been female projects or female leads with male costars. So I'm known as one of the last living writers who writes exclusively for women and women of a certain age. I usually write women over 40. I find these women so underutilized and so fabulous. Look at my cast on A Girl Thing.
There are so many brilliant actresses in that age group.
And they never get enough stuff to do that's meaty and interesting and meaningful. They are all looking for those projects. It's become my flag to carry. Not exclusively, but I certainly do it more than most writers.
When you're writing a female protagonist, are there things you consider that make the script more marketable?
Now I really don't think about that, but then again, I've been around long enough to know not to do obscure pieces or period pieces too often because you can't sell them. You're putting two strikes against you when you walk in the door. How about this: "I have a female lead. It's a period piece, and there are horses and war." You just don't do stuff like that. I do know kind of what people want to see and what people will buy. Or I think I do. Again, I've been fairly successful with it.
What do you love about writing?
I love giving voice to people and feelings. The power of writing is extraordinary. I've been doing this an awfully long time in one form or another, and I can never get over the fact that, if I'm lucky enough, millions of people will see something I thought up in the privacy of a room. That comes with a responsibility. I don't trivialize what I do. I know how lucky I am. It's a gift that's given from God. Anybody could have gotten it. A lot of people don't get it. A voice is given to you. I don't think that you create it. You're egomaniacal if you think you're in control of it and that you give it to yourself.
When you say responsibility, do you mean a responsibility to be politically correct?
Oh no. I'm never politically correct. The more people I piss off the happier I am. What I'm responsible for is putting out entertainment that's about something. If you take the time and spend that much money to make something, you ought to have something to say, even if it's a little tiny thing. It's an honor, and I don't think you should just throw shit against a wall and see if it sticks.
What are your movies about?
My biggest thing is that people do the best they can and sometimes it stinks, but if you show them taking little tiny steps to get better at what it is we do in life and how we interact with people, people appreciate it. I can't tell you how many calls and letters and e-mails I get. We have to use the power we have properly.
How did you get your directing shot?
I waited. I'm sure I could have gotten a directing job before, but I waited until I was really ready, until I understood what it was to be prepared, what it was to shoot, what lenses were, and how to think visually instead of just the written word. I also did not want to direct my own script as my first thing. I knew that I would have a struggle with my own ego about hanging onto the written word. I did not want to do that. I wanted to be as objective as humanly possible. I found a script by Kathleen McGhee-Anderson about her family, a true civil rights story set in 1944 that no one knew about. Her father looked almost white. They were the only black family to move into this white neighborhood. No one knew they were black until a few days later, at which point they tried to get them out of the neighborhood. It went all the way to the Supreme Court, and they were represented by a young NAACP lawyer, Thurgood Marshall at 28. It preceded all the huge civil rights cases, and nobody, including me, knew about it. I found that really fascinating. I knew I could be really objective because I did not have any personal connection to the script.
What was the title of that script?
The television audience is dominated by women, so I found my refuge in cable and television. They want to see female-lead projects, all kinds of them.
The Color of Courage. It was great. It went to the Chicago Film Festival. It aired on USA. I cast Linda Hamilton again, who said to me, "Any time you direct, I'll be there."
How does writing compare to directing?
The thing I don't like about writing is the solitary aspect of it. The thing I love about producing and directing is being in a family of 100 people so intensely and intimately. It gives me a different perspective. I've since directed my own scripts. Now I go, "You know what? It doesn't work if it doesn't work with actors." I have rewritten other writers that I've directed. I give them the chance to fix it because my job as a director is also to listen to actors. I know when I was a younger writer, it used to piss me off to get notes from actors. What the hell do they know? I've spent two years writing this. A lot of writers still do that. When they won't make changes that need to be made to shoot the movie, I'll make them. I've never arbitrated for credit because I don't think that's fair, but it also makes me understand, and other writers should understand, that you do have to make it work on the day, and it changes. It's a morphing thing. It's not scripture. Most writers alone in a room think that's what it is.
How is wearing the writer's hat different from wearing the director's?
It's really different. I love directing. It's the collaboration of words and image and ideas and the blueprint. As a director and a writer, I do think that writing is the only original craft, the only original voice. Everything else is alchemy. Everybody else riffs off of what the writer does. That does not mean that it is gospel and you shouldn't change stuff to make it work for you. But I don't care if directors are geniuses; if they say that they are the sole vision and creator of the project, that's bullshit. They're not. There is no question that they are as important, but they are not the original thought. The original thought is always much harder to come up with because you have no help whatsoever. I can look at a sentence or a description and bounce off that to another idea. You need that springboard, and that's what a director has. Whether they like the script or not, it motivates them to think. It certainly does that with me.
Isn't writer-director a pretty rare combination in the TV longform and miniseries arena?
Yeah. There are maybe 10 of us who work a lot. The rest are either writers or directors.
Who Needs Old Boys?
Gay Women Turn on the PowerWritten By Marsha Scarbrough
As a board member of Power Up, Lee Rose is one of a community of out lesbians serving as mentors to up-and-coming women and more-experienced filmmakers who are seeking networking opportunities. Since December 2000, the nonprofit networking support group has created an effective "new girls' club" to counter the difficulties of trying to break into Hollywood's "old boys' club."
The mission of the Professional Organization of Women in Entertainment Reaching Up (www.power-up.net) is to promote visibility and integration of gay women in entertainment, arts, and media. Membership isn't limited to lesbians. About 10 percent of the members are gay men or heterosexual men and women. The group welcomes anyone who supports its mission. Corporate support has come from Kodak, Deluxe, Panavision, Steven Bochco Productions, Power Post Audio, HBO, and Showtime. Today Power Up boasts more than 700 members and has chapters in Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago.
In addition to holding networking mixers, panel discussions, screenings, and social events, Power Up has awarded three grants a year for members to write, produce, and direct short films. The group also maintains a résumé bank and membership directory.
The first three short films were premiered in 2001 at a "gayla event" and awards ceremony at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel. A packed house applauded Breaking Up Really Sucks, written by Pamela S. Busch, directed by Jennifer McGlone, produced by A. Rosser Goodman, and starring former Baywatch beauty Alexandra Paul; Chicken Night, written by Deidre Strohm, directed by Lisa Ginsburg, produced by Pamela S. Kuri, and starring Ione Skye; Stuck, written by Kelly Sounders, directed by Jamie Babbit, and produced by Andrea Sperling and Laurie Hansen. Babbit also provided writing and directing mentorship for all three films. Honorary Premiere Awards were presented to Alan Poul, co-executive producer of Six Feet Under, and Jehan F. Agrama, vice chair of Bold New World and longtime co-chair of the GLAAD Media Awards, for their work in promoting fair and accurate representation of lesbians and gay men in the media. Laura Linney, Rosanna Arquette, and the cast of Six Feet Under were among the celebrities in attendance. Since then, Stuck was honored with an honorable mention at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival and won the Planet Out award. Breaking Up Really Sucks screened at the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.
Rose mentored the 2002 filmmaking grant winners. Those three films (Give or Take an Inch, Fly Cherry, and D.E.B.S.) will be screened November 3, 2002 at the Second Annual Power Premiere fundraising event. Power Premiere Awards will be presented to Jerry Offsay, president of programming for Showtime, and singer-songwriter Melissa Etheridge.
Writer-producer Stacy Codikow and producer Amy Shomer founded Power Up to bring unity to a fragmented community and provide a comfortable networking atmosphere for out gay women. Other WGA members on Power Up's board of directors include Jane Anderson and Jan Oxenberg.
You wrote and directed The Truth About Jane. How did that happen, and what kind of response did you get?
They came to me because they wanted to do a gay teenage girl coming-of-age story, and they could never figure out how to do it.
This was Lifetime?
Yeah. I said the only way I'd be interested would be to do it from Jane's perspective with a running monologue, an interior diary. They went, "Oh, that's great." It also allowed me to undercut how tragic it could be and how hard it is. We did it, and it was very tough. It was not without a lot of arguments.
With whom?
With the network. I'm sure they hate my guts.
Why? What did you argue about?
I told it from what I understand to be the truth. I wasn't prepared to compromise as much as network's are used to artists compromising. I wasn't going to do it on this. I didn't think it would be fair to the kids out there who are committing suicide from not being able to talk to their parents. I was a royal pain in the ass, but I was a pain in the ass for what I think are the right reasons. At the time, it was the most watched movie they had on in five years, so it was huge.
And it was nominated for the WGA Award.
And Stockard got a SAG nomination for it. But more important, we got thousands of e-mails from kids. Literally breaking your heart, you would just start crying reading them. Kids saying they thought they were alone in little fucking towns in the south, that they were glad that someone else had gone through this, and that they were glad they could get help because there were links to all the organizations. A mother wrote in saying that she had disowned her child, and after watching she called P-Flag [Parents, Families & Friends of Lesbians & Gays, a national nonprofit support organization]. That's the power of what we do. It's a power that too many people disregard, and that irritates me. I'm not trying to be holier than thou, but we have an obligation. We're breathing rarified air if we get to do this job, and we have to take that seriously. Even in a comedy. Anything. Even in an action movie, you can have a point of view. You can have a little bit of a message. The Truth About Jane was extraordinary. We screened it in the Executive Office Building at the White House.
Who attended that screening?
It was the gay liaison for Clinton and his staff, a lot of different groups, and the national group of P-Flag. It was really interesting because I spoke before the movie and so did a mother of a kid who had his head beaten in. Parents of kids who had killed themselves came up to thank us for making the movie. All we did was make a movie. They lost their children. It became amazingly clear. Until you have that contact, you have no idea how your work can impact people. Then I came out of the White House, and my cell phone rang. They gave me the ratings. They were stunned, and so was I. I thought it would do well. I never thought it would break records. Then Scott Seomin at GLAAD called me and said, "You'll be happy to know that now the right wing is going to boycott you." Then Lifetime called me and said, "You just got a death threat." I called Scott. I was very happy about it. Stockard said, "Why would you be happy about a death threat?" I said, "Because I pissed the right person off. I did something right because only extremists will do something like that."
Was The Truth About Jane autobiographical?
Yes, but it took me way, way longer than Jane. The current generation is much braver than we were. A lot of it was my own experience just pushed forward to a younger age, but the fear is the same. That speech that Stockard gives her when she finds out is the speech every mother has given every child who comes out. It's, "What did I do?" It's all about them. Then: "What will people think?" The last statement is, "I don't want your life to be harder," but it's never the first. It's always the wrong question that's the first one just because it's such an assault on what they imagined their child would be and it's so different from that fairy tale of what they thought. I got hundreds of letters saying, "Did you meet my mother?"
How's your relationship with Lifetime now? When the numbers came in, the proof was in the pudding.
They still hate me. The proof is in the pudding, but they still hate me. I didn't do it for a power play. I did it because in my heart I knew what my vision was and what was right for that movie.
Do other networks find it difficult to work with you?
I have a mixed reputation. I love Showtime. Some people love me, and some people find me difficult. I'm difficult because I stand up for what I believe. Shame on me for having an opinion and not being a hack who just goes, "Yes, ma'am; yes, sir. Yes, ma'am; yes, sir." I don't know how to do it any other way, and if I did it another way, I wouldn't have the voice I have.
Do you have advice for writers who want to direct?
Don't wait until you become a successful writer and just think you can automatically show up on a film set and do it. I've seen it happen countless times, and it pisses me off more than anything. It's an insult to the craft of directing. It's an insult to the crew. You're going to have to spend a long time preparing for it. You should know everything. You should know how to talk to actors, so go direct a play, go take acting classes. You should know what the different sizes of lenses are, what the names of the different dollies are, and everything that comes with it because directing is not only actors, it's the technical aspect. Directing is a craft to be revered just like writing. I suggest people study it, go on film sets, ask questions, and go through postproduction. Go to it with the same respect that you want people to have for your writing.
