GLAAD.org Chat Transcript: Leslie Hope & Lee Rose discuss Lifetime's 'An Unexpected Love'
March, 2003 CHAT TRANSCRIPT

Scott Seomin, GLAAD entertainment media director, moderator: Thank you for coming to GLAAD.org's first online chat featuring Leslie Hope and Lee Rose of 'An Unexpected Love.' Lee, please tell us what this movie is about.
Lee Rose, writer/director, 'An Unexpected Love' : It's about a woman trying to reasses her life, re-enter the workforce - she's a heterosexual woman and finds a job working for a lesbian and eventually finds herself falling in love with her.
Scott Seomin: Why this movie?
Lee Rose: I did 'The Truth About Jane,' which was a huge success in Lifetime. They asked me to do an adult companion piece . That's how this movie came to be.
Scott Seomin: Leslie, why did you do this movie?
Leslie Hope, co-star, 'An Unexpected Love': Lee sent me the script with a note letting me know she'd gone out with Kiefer Sutherland to get a tattoo - that was reason enough to sign on. Then I read the script and got started
Scott Seomin: Leslie, this was a very estrogen heavy set. How did that affect your performance?
Leslie Hope: This movie was directed by Lee Rose, it wasn't an estrogen-heavy set! (lol) Lee corrected me on my naivety - it's not simply a love story. It's more important than i could imagin - voiceless women were given a voice in this movie.
Scott Seomin: This is a rarity: a romantic movie without a male lead. It's high girl line action. How did that differ for you? Was it simply about acting?
Leslie Hope: The best part about working with a female actress is when you do a love scene, you can ask them to grab your fat spots so the camera won't see it - and not be embarrassed.
Scott Seomin: Lee, is any of this film autobiographical?
Lee Rose: Yes ... There's not any realtor in me - but have I been with straight women? Yah. Have I seen them go through the discovery and shock of being attracted to the same sex? Yes.
Scott Seomin: What do you say to TV viewers who will watch it and say this will never happen in your life?
Leslie Hope: Pull your head out of your a**!
Lee Rose: According to statistics reported by the 'New York Times.' two million people are going through this in this country alone.
Scott Seomin: Leslie, I understand you knew your co-star Wendy Crewson before production began. How did you know her and did that make the process easier?
Leslie Hope: I've known Wendy for ten years. We share many friends and a manager ... and ex-boyfriends actually. She is set to star in a movie I am directing. Yes, of course it was easier to work with a friend. And IF you're going to have sex with a women, please God, let it be Wendy Crewson!
Lee Rose: With Lee Rose telling you how.
Scott Seomin: Leslie, although you have a ten year history with Wendy, I am going to guess you never made out with her before. So what was that like?
Leslie Hope: Lovely.
Scott Seomin: Both to Lee and Leslie, Leslie you go first, what other future projects are you working on?
Lee Rose: I just finished doing a movie called 'Jack,' based on A.M. Homes novel, for Showtime with Stockard Channing, Ron Silver and -- shock of shocks -- Wendy Crewson. 'Jack' takes place in 1952 and is a coming of age story about a fifteen-year-old boy, the divorce of his parents, his puberty, then the discovery that his father is now with a man. It's really funny and beautiful and different than anythign I've read in my life - which is why I did it.
Scott Seomin: Leslie, what do you have coming out?
Leslie Hope: I will star in an independent movie with Gena Rowlands and James Caan called 'The Incredible Mrs Ritchie,' a mini-series for CBC called 'Third World,' and a new Fall series for ABC called 'Lines of Duty'
Scott Seomin: Is there any plan to show support systems available for those people going through this situation during the showing of the movie?
Lee Rose: Yes. At the end of the movie we shot a public service announcement with Leslie and Wendy telling people if they were in trouble, needed help, or needed to understand this situation - to log on to lifetimetv.com -- on that site are links to GLAAD, PFLAG and the Straight Spouses Network.
Scott Seomin: Lee, how tough was this movie to make?
Lee Rose: Really, really tough. 'The Truth About Jane' and this movie - along with a movie I did years ago called 'A Mother's Prayer' - were the three most difficult things i've ever done -- which should not be true. Valuable stories should not be as hard to make.
Scott Seomin: Why was this so tough to make?
Lee Rose: Based on fear. People are frightened of doing projects about people that are different than they are - who may not understand. They pretend in bigger circles to be liberal, but when it comes down to it, they're full of fear. That fear impedes every step you take as an artist.
Scott Seomin: Then why not just make easy movies?
Lee Rose: Because I am stupid .. and I want to leave some legacy of shedding light on something that means something to someone. And I am not interested in throwing s*** against a wall to see if it sticks.
Scott Seomin: A pre-submitted question: Leslie, what did you learn about yourself or about the lives of lesbians when making this film?
Leslie Hope: I never understood this project to be a movie about lesbians. I understood it to be about two people who fall in love. What I learned has nothing to do with playing a lesbian. What i learned was I enjoyed working with Lee Rose and Wendy Crewson - and I learned again that if it's good on the page, it's probably good on the screen.
Scott Seomin: Another pre-submitted question: What was the greatest challenge in filming this as an actor?
Leslie Hope: TIME. Not having enough time to explore the scenes as fully as I like was a challenge, but I felt ably guided.
Scott Seomin: Pre-submitted question for Wendy, who e-mailed us her responses: Since Lee is an out and proud director, did you approach her for advice, guidance on the lesbian aspects of the film?
Wendy Crewson: Gosh, Lee is out? Not only did i look for advice, I actually mimicked Lee in Mac. I borrowed her swagger (which she thought was a little over the top, by the way). I used her humor, her dry wit, her defensiveness (she might try to deny this), but it's true) I even dressed like Lee and wore her jewelry. She had originally wanted me in dresses- until i asked her when the last time she wore a dress was. That put an end to that.
Scott Seomin: How accurate do you think the roles were?
Leslie Hope: These roles were not created by someone who has not lived them. Like any good writer, Lee writes what she knows. The characters are fully realized, flawed, and very real. Oh...and I've seen the movie already.
Scott Seomin: For both guests: Who do you want to watch this film?
Lee Rose: Everyone. I do this so that everyone is a little more tolerant and sees an image on a person and then says, 'Oh, it's not as bad as I thought'
Leslie Hope: Particularly those viewers who might be prejudiced or intolerant - to make the situation a little less scary for them.
ASHOPE: Leslie, in your opinion where would Lori Bayles be today, and what would she think of this movie?
Leslie Hope: Lori Bayles has dumped Andrew McCarthy and is living happily with a girl and her horse.
MELODY: Will [An Unexpected Love] eventually come out on DVD/VHS?
Leslie Hope: Yes, but please set your TiVos and VCR's Monday night -- that's when the ratings count -- but tape it to show to friends.
AMITY (Amity Pierce Buxton, executive director of the Straight Spouses Network): When a wife or husband comes out, what are the consequences on her/his spouse and children and how do these differ from consequences of a single person's disclosure?
Lee Rose: Whenever a family is involved, either a spouse or a child or a parent, it makes it five million times more complex than someone who doesn't have a responsibility or a prior relationship that has changed by a decision of the heart.
Scott Seomin: Pre-submitted question for Lee: Straight husbands of wives whose spouses come out often wonder what their spouses' revealed sexual orientation says about them and what it implies about the marriage. What are some of these concerns and why do they have them?
Lee Rose: Anytime a relationship breaks up outside of a mutual decision, the person left questions everything. It makes no difference if they leave for someone of the opposite sex or the same sex - one's ego is shattered and you look for your own blame. So there really is no difference.
CANADIAN: Leslie, Does being Canadian inform your sense of the character in the sense of being in but not of the mainstream?
Leslie Hope: Although I hugely identify being Canadian, it's something Wendy and I have spoken about a lot - it strikes me that a love story has nothing to do with being Canadian or lesbian or American - or anything else -- but simply being human.
Scott Seomin: Lee, I 'm always being told by actors that they want to play gay or lesbian, can't wait to get the script to play a gay person. Are they just telling me this?
Lee Rose: It's a lie -- they're saying it to be politically correct. I've had the same cocktail party with huge stars saying 'I'd love to play a lesbian,' but when the script is sent to them, they pass. In my experience, there are very few courageous people who are willing to do it -- they have been, in my career: Kate Capshaw, Elle Macpherson, Ellen Muth, Leslie Hope and Wendy Crewson.
Scott Seomin: So lets cut to the chase, Lee. Why don't big name, huge movie stars play gay or lesbian?
Lee Rose: Well, all I can say is that fear is fear and I don't know why they don't.
Scott Seomin: Leslie, if an actor asked you the question 'Should I play gay?' and it's a good script, what advice would you give?
Leslie Hope: The only advice is ... if it's a good script, do it. Follow the writing.
KARCMT: I don't agree that there is no difference when your spouse comes out than if they simply fell in love with someone else. I think it creates a huge amount of questions about a life based on an untruth. Granted, one that is often forced on us by society, but I do think it's different
Lee Rose: When your spouse has an affair, does that not bring the entire relationship into question as well? That's what I meant by my answer. I addressed the soul and ego and heart of a person - as opposed to the bigotry of the world.
Scott Seomin: Lee, can you tell me about viewer and fan reaction and the mail you recieved after you made The Truth About Jane.
Lee Rose: Unbelievable. The letters and e-mails and people across this country who had seen it - and who had actually been helped by it - are heartbreaking and wonderous. Kids who felt they could come out because they had seen someone do it on television. Parents who had stopped talking to their children knew they could go to PFLAG or other groups for help. All my actors and Stockard Channing, we all went to DC and did various PFLAG conventions and a White House screening. Actors tend to not believe the value and weight of a project, but when people shared with them the stories of losing their children to suicide because they were gay - or being beaten because they were gay - the actors realized at that moment, many for the first time, just how powerful this medium is.
AMITY: I guess my question was more about consequences than the 'unexpected love.' The film perfectly captures the falling in love with a person, not a sexual orientation. But when a spouse comes out, the consequences are more complicated when one is married. Mac says so herself.
Lee Rose: We do deal with the consequences of the straight spouse played by D.W. Moffett, who at first is punitive and furious, and eventually - by the urging of his daughter - remembers what he loved about his wife and the mother of his children. That is what I alawys try to get to and hope that the real world tries to get there too.
SAUR: Leslie, what was it like to move from a thriller, action heavy show like 24 to a quieter film like An Unexpected Love?
Leslie Hope: It's nice to have more than one outfit to wear. I was nervous at first to leave the comfort of the set I thoroughly enjoyed for a year - but after the first day back home in Canada, I was glad to be there.
Leslie Hope: Shout out to DaPhunk!
DAPHUNK: Hey! Hi Leslie and Lee, glad to be here. Leslie can you tell me if you developed a better understanding of this during the time you spent filming?
Leslie Hope: The unfortunate understanding I developed filming this movie is how difficult this can be - how prejudiced and intolerant people can be, and how much better our world would be if that were not the case.
SPOCKY: Does the movie talk about the spouse´s parents reaction to coming out of a marriage? I know from family experience that the partental rejection can be as bad as or worse than the husbands/wifes.
Lee Rose: Yes. Leslie's character's mother has a really bad reaction, just like many of our mothers did.
Scott Seomin: Leslie and Lee thank you for joining the GLAAD neighbor hood. Watch on Lifetime ''An Unexpected Love'' on Monday night.
Leslie Hope: Lee, Leslie and Wendy say: Thank everyone - and tell a friend, MONDAY NIGHT, 9 PM (est / pst) on LIFETIME.