Julianne Moore and Ellen Page’s new movie Freeheld tells the true story of Laurel Hester’s fight to have her pension benefits transferred to her domestic partner, Stacie Andree, after being diagnosed with terminal cancer. The film is based on the Academy Award-winning 2007 documentary of the same title.
And while the two actors hadn’t met before filming, they quickly became real friends during the process.
“It was like a blind date, and we hit it off!” Moore told Roz Weston at the Toronto International Film Festival.
RELATED: Ellen Page ‘could gush about’ Julianne Moore ‘all day’
“You can work with people who are lovely and it’s great and you have a good experience but we just really connected. I woke up every day excited to see her,” Page elaborated. “We were real partners,” Moore said.
The film is a passion project for Page, who came out at a Human Rights Campaign conference in 2014.
As the actress told Roz, she signed on to make the movie long before making that brave public decision.
“It was when I was 21,” Page said. “(Freeheld producers) Michael Shamberg and Stacey Sher contacted me, and the documentary had won the Oscar, and asked if they wanted to attach myself to play Stacie, and even before I got my hands on the documentary I watched the trailer to the documentary and I was completely moved to tears and I said yes.”
RELATED: Ellen Page opens up about coming out
And while reviews for the film have been almost universally positive, Moore’s favourite response didn’t come from the media.
“The best reaction that I heard was from Stacey, from Stacie Andree who saw the movie a while ago and obviously it’s difficult for her to watch because this is her life,” the actress said.
“She was so afraid that it was going to be Hollywood-y. And kind of blown out of proportion and it wouldn’t feel real, and she said it felt real for her and she said she felt like it represented her accurately which is really the best review that you can get.”
Comments