On June 26 the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage the law of the land. It was the capstone of a lengthy war and many smaller battles along the way.
One of those skirmishes was fought in Ocean County, New Jersey, where, in 2004, a county police officer named Laurel Hester, dying of cancer, fought to have her pension bequeathed to her partner, Stacy Andree, upon her passing.
“I think that [the conversation] will just continue changing like it has,” Ellen Page, the Canadian actress and Oscar-nominee for “Juno,” said of the new film “Freeheld,” in which she portrays Ms. Andree. “I think this film is in a lot of ways a celebration of how far we have come in not that long a time.”
Miss Page, who publicly came out as a lesbian last year, recalls that even in Los Angeles, being gay was essentially illegal until fairly recently.
“When you meet gay people in their 70s and 80s, you hear their stories [and] it really is mind-blowing,” Miss Page said. “It’s mind-blowing to them that gay marriage is now legal. They’re like, ’I didn’t think that would ever even be in the conversation, let alone something that would be possible.’”
In “Freeheld,” opening Friday in the District, Miss Page’s Stacy Andree meets Hester (Oscar-winner Julianne Moore) at a volleyball game. The two begin dating and soon living together as domestic partners, although Hester maintains outwardly the two are just friends.
Then comes the cancer, and the terminal diagnosis. The Ocean County Board of Freeholders rules that only married heterosexual spouses can inherit a county employee’s pension. Suddenly, Hester and Ms. Andree’s case becomes a cause celebre for the gay rights movement.
“Stacy is one of the most humble, modest people you can possibly meet,” Miss Page said of the real-life inspiration for her performance in “Freeheld.” “She sort of was reluctant to engage in activism. And she’s reluctant because acknowledging the activism, acknowledging the pension, is acknowledging that the love of her life is going to die.
“She’s working, she’s dealing with insurance companies, the legal battle, taking care of Laurel. So it was probably actually hard for to even have a moment to feel vulnerable, to express her emotions because she really was the support for Laurel the whole time.”
Miss Page spent time with Ms. Andree in the house she and Hester shared together, as well as visited many of the locations shown in the film.
“It is always helpful [to get] an idea of just what their day-to-day life was like,” Miss Page said. “It was emotional for her to speak of this experience and [I tried] to get a deeper understanding of what this was like for her. I could obviously never, ever understand what it was like for Stacy to go through this.
“I think the thing when you’re playing a real person is … I’m never fully going to be her,” Miss Page said. “When you do spend time with someone, it’s an opportunity to [discover] how do they exist in their body, or what are the things they say frequently?”
“Freeheld” co-stars Michael Shannon as Hester’s cop partner, Dan Wells, and Steve Carell as Steven Goldstein, a flambuoyant gay rabbi who brings a negative publicity apparatus to bear on Ocean County’s decision. Both men provide moments of levity in a film rather filled with sadness.
Miss Page first learned of the trials of Hester and Ms. Andree several years ago when producers Stacy Sher and Michael Shamberg first approached her about playing Ms. Andree and showed her a documentary about the couple, also called “Freeheld.” At the time, Miss Page was still closeted, “Juno” had yet to make her a bona fide star and her role in the head-scratching sci-fi experiment “Inception” was years away.
When asked while she waited until last year to come out, Miss Page said she simply wasn’t yet ready to seen publicly as a gay person.
“I think back to those thoughts now, and it seems insane,” she said. “Right now I can’t imagine not being out, and I wish I had done it sooner. But for many people in the LGBTQ community, it’s a journey. It can be so many different factors.
“For me I was truly just done feeling sad,” she said. “I was done feeling unwell. It’s a toxic place to be. I wish no one had to feel that way. So I was ready to be done with that, to let go of whatever those fears were. And it is people like Laurel and Stacy — and many, many others — who have inspired me to come out and be a visible person in the LGBT community.”
Miss Page recalled recently being approached by a woman on the street in L.A. who had seen “Freeheld” at the Toronto Film Festival, and who was inspired to then come out of the closet.
“Really that’s a testament to Laurel and Stacy and their story,” Miss Page said of the experience. “I just happened to be an actress [and] a part of a tremendous opportunity to tell their story. It was a pretty special moment to get to have with someone you probably wouldn’t meet” otherwise, she said.
Despite the Supreme Court’s June ruling and much progress made for gay Americans in recent years, Miss Page maintains much work remains to combat prejudices and hatred against those in the LGBTQ community.
“Whenever we have these moments of progress, there does tend to be some backlash,” she said, which was also true of such other controversial rulings as school desegregation in the 1950s and the doing away of miscegenation laws.
“I really do feel that that this just comes with people who aren’t necessarily exposed to members of the LGBT community,” Miss Page added. “I think sometimes when people just perceive something as different or other, all they need is the opportunity to have a connection and realize we’re the same. And I think the more people come out, or someone’s kid’s gay, a favorite teacher is gay, I think it really helps people open up.”
Of “Freeheld,” Miss Page said that what she hopes truly shines through, in the end, is Ms. Andree’s love for Hester, even as her condition worsened and the fate of her pension remained uncertain.
“Putting trust in us and everything she offered for us to really be able to make this movie was all about Laurel,” Miss Page said. “[Ms. Andree] knew that’s what Laurel would really want — the story to continue to be told to more people.”
• Eric Althoff can be reached at twt@washingtontimes.com.
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