Ron Nyswaner Explores Love and Equality in 'Freeheld'

Ron Nyswaner is an out writer-director-producer-activist, who, throughout his career, has been responsible for some of the most significant LGBT-related film projects. His current movie, "Freeheld" is a potent addition to his ever-growing resume of equality-cinema.

In his screenplay (based on the Oscar�-winning short documentary by Cynthia Wade as well as articles and interviews) Nyswaner painstakingly penned a truthful account of Laurel Hester (Julianne Moore) and Stacie Andree's (Ellen Page) fight for justice, at a time, not so long ago, when discrimination against LGBT people in many parts of this country, was still the norm. But, groundbreaking politics notwithstanding, the heart of "Freeheld" is its love story.

I recently spoke with Nyswaner about the movie, the writing process, Kim Davis and...Jane Fonda, among other topics.

"I wanted to bring a full love story between two women to the screen", Nyswaner imparts about what drew him to the project. "The plot machinations and the politics of it are interesting and move the story forward, but what I really cared about and care about is that relationship. It's not often that in a mainstream movie we get to see two women meet, flirt, go out on a date, have an argument, resolve the argument, move in-all of those things that seem ordinary are extraordinary for us to see them portrayed because we can count on perhaps one hand the number of times we've actually seen that in a mainstream film."

No cardboard villains

It was Ellen Page (a producer on the film) who brought the idea of adapting the documentary to Nyswaner, along with the other producers.

"Freeheld" tells the true story of a tough New Jersey police detective, Laurel Hester (a brave and powerful Moore) who is diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and wants to leave her pension to her domestic partner, Stacie Andree (a moving Page). Alas, the Ocean County officials, known as Freeholders, refuse her request, despite the fact that the domestic partnership laws made it possible for them to agree if they so desired. Their reasons had everything to do with protecting "the sanctity of marriage." And once they made a decision, it was the Freeholders' cocky attitude that they never reversed it.

In a particularly notable moment one of the Freeholders defends his actions to another by proudly stating, "Why shouldn't I vote with my personal beliefs?" (A line that resonates more than ever with Kim Davis making daily headlines.)

"I wanted to make sure that the Freeholders weren't portrayed as cardboard villains," Nyswaner explains. "It doesn't serve us in any way to stigmatize people who disagree with us. I think that we all wrestle with our beliefs and how our beliefs affect our public actions. And I think the debate we're having right now over Kim Davis is what is one's moral and religious obligation? And what is one's legal obligation? Gratefully, we live in a nation of laws and our nation is founded on the separation of Church and State so I think that it's certainly a very interesting and relevant issue for all of us the wrestle with."

Faithful to source materials

As to the importance of Davis to the LGBT-rights discourse, Nyswaner offers, "I don't find the Kim Davis issue to be all that compelling. I think Kim seems to be a limited person and I think she's been grabbed on by people who have a political agenda, as often happens. Years ago Anita Bryant was forced into the spotlight by her husband and some other people who wanted to focus on getting some anti-gay laws passed. I feel that Kim is perhaps in that boat. To me it's not the most pressing issue the gay community is facing...The law is the law. The law stands and it will go through the courts. I'm not saying it's not at all important, but it's not the thing that I wake up in the morning thinking about as a gay civil rights activist."

One of Nyswaner's goals was to be as faithful to the real story as possible. "So much of the film is an historical record, in the sense that almost everything that you hear and almost everything you see in the movie, the real people said or did. They didn't necessarily do it in the order (depicted)."

As far as the Freeholder's meetings, it was slightly trickier. "There are no transcripts, but what I did is I have the documentary. And I had every article that was written during the hearings during that period so I tried very hard to honor what they really said. They might have said it during one of the hearings or to a newspaper reporter. I tried very hard to make (sure) most of the things were backed up.

"And those characters are fictionalized so they are not meant to correspond exactly to any of the real freeholders," he clarifies.

Justice and equality

The saga of Laurel and Stacy, which began in 2002, shows just how far we've come in a little over a decade in terms of marriage and equality. Are they synonymous? In the film, as in her real life, Laurel initially eschews being made (along with Stacy) the poster couple for gay marriage insisting that her fight was specifically for equality.

"That distinction was Laurel's, not mine," Nyswaner explains. "And I think there was an element of Laurel that was, in some ways, conservative. She was a police officer. She lived in a very conservative place. She was of a certain generation. She dedicated her life to justice and everybody being treated equally and that's what she wanted her theme to be. She wanted to end her life holding onto that same theme and didn't want it to be transformed into the specific issue of gay marriage. She wants everybody to be treated with justice and equality."

As is often the case, Nyswaner had little input after the film went into production, although the director (Peter Sollett) kept him looped. "I have a close relationship with Peter, so I was as involved as feature film screenwriters are, which means that I was kept informed. It's funny, I'm working in television now, Season 5 of 'Homeland' and I did 2 years on 'Ray Donovan.' And the writer is much more central to the artistic decisions that are made on television shows. In feature films, I was very much respected, but still the writer is always kept a little bit at a distance. So I was certainly kept informed, treated with a great deal of respect, but I didn't have much authority, because screenwriters never do."

Remembering 'Philadelphia'

Ron Nyswaner's first produced script was "Smithereens" in 1982, directed by Susan Seidelman. He subsequently worked on, "Swing Shift," "Mrs. Soffel" and "The Prince of Pennsylvania" (his 1988 directorial debut).

But it was the 1993 Jonathan Demme helmed, "Philadelphia," the first mainstream American film about a gay man with AIDS, that brought Nyswaner great acclaim, including an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

I asked what his thoughts were, looking back, on the "Philadelphia" experience.

"How lucky I was to be working with Jonathan Demme at that time, to have a way to respond to the diagnosis of my nephew and to other people that I loved--dear friends. That I was able to, with my art, do the thing that I get paid to do, to address the things that were changing my life. AIDS certainly completely changed my family's life, changed my life. And I got to write about it."

Nyswaner says that for 20 years people have been sharing personal stories about how the film affected them.

"I know somebody from Pennsylvania who decided to transition and for some reason attributed that to watching 'Philadelphia.' It gave her the courage to say this is just who I am. I know a young black woman for Washington, DC, who just could not bring herself to tell her parents that she contracted HIV from a drug-addict boyfriend and the family rented the movie one night and she used that opportunity to tell them."

He pauses, then adds: "I feel like it's the most significant professional event of my life. And it just continues to enrich my life. I'm the luckiest writer in the world."

About 'Soldier's Girl'

A decade after "Philadelphia," Nyswaner penned the groundbreaking Showtime drama, "Soldier's Girl," starring Troy Garity (Jane Fonda's son), the true story of a young officer who falls for someone who is transgender.

On November 7, Nyswaner will be honored along side Jane Fonda, by the Los Angeles LGBT Center at their 46th Anniversary Gala Vanguard. This absolutely delights him. "Jane Fonda was my idol back in High School. I got so made fun of. I wrote all these papers about Jane so people started calling me a commie. I was obsessed with her. And her son, Troy Garity, is the star of my movie, "Soldier's Girl" so Jane and I have met and I feel there's a strong connection there...She's so beautiful. I wanted to look like she did in 'Klute,' that's who I dreamed to be. So I get to tell her that (on November 7)."

Recently, Nyswaner has found a home at Showtime, working on the gritty and underappreciated "Ray Donovan" for two years and, now, the new season of "Homeland."

"Ray Donovan" features a character, Bunchie, played by Dash Mihok, who is a Catholic sex abuse survivor.

The writer elaborates on his involvement: "Bunchie is the creation of the show's genius creator, Ann Biderman and, interesting enough, Ann is my dearest friend and she's sort of Jane Fonda's son Troy's stepmother. So that's the small world in which I happen to currently inhabit. When Ann interviewed me before she hired me on 'Ray Donovan' she said, 'You know the star of your movie, 'Soldier's Girl,' Troy Garity? I practically raised him.' What a weird, interesting world."

His memoir

There was controversy surrounding Biderman's "exit" from "Ray Donovan: "She left the show, yeah, that's the polite way of saying it. She left the show after season 2 and I left with her, to go on over to 'Homeland,'" Nyswaner politely infers a different truth to the showrunner's departure.

"I wrote some lines for Bunchy and I certainly knew what it was like to have the traumatic experiences of childhood, to have some violence in your childhood, to feel threatened in your childhood. I was not sexually abused but I was a sissy kid growing up in coal-miner-Pennsylvania in the '60s so just getting to the school bus was life or death. So I understood that, and I understood wrestling with it and for a long time I would not let go of that stuff. That really fueled my drinking and drug problems. I've been able to move past that and get the help that Bunchie hasn't quite yet succeeded in finding."

In 2005, Nyswaner wrote a memoir titled, "Blue Days, Black Nights" that chronicled his drug and alcohol addiction brought on by a tortured childhood." "It is funny," he cheekily boasts, "I have to say, it's the funniest suicide attempt ever written down. It involves barbed wire and duct tape and watching reruns of "The Avengers."

Moved by 'Freeheld'

The openly gay writer says that LGBT-themed projects occupy about 50% of his work life. "I don't exclusively work on LGBT themes. I have. And I've written more than have actually reached the screen, as all screenwriters do. We have many projects that are either still struggling to get filmed or to find a producer, etc...I have as many unproduced LGBT-themed scripts as I do produced.

He elaborates, "What draws me to (a project) is a good story. Will it bring people in? Will people be moved by it? That's what I care about. My first question isn't, is it gay or straight? My first question is, is it a good story? But I certainly am drawn to a good story that has an LGBT character in it. That makes it especially interesting for me. And they are still harder to get made. I have a couple of TV projects out there that are really struggling. And I'm not saying that projects with straight characters don't struggle, but I do think there is a higher bar that they have to hit to get scripts with gay main characters made. I think it's a little tougher."

Is Nyswaner happy with the way his work on "Freeheld" turned out?

"Jonathan Demme said I'm the only writer who brings new pages to the wrap party. Which is true! (Nyswaner actually brought new pages to the "Philadelphia" wrap party, just in case Demme wanted to reshoot.) I'm never satisfied with my work. Never. That's my personal neurosis."

"I'm very moved by "Freeheld." I love the performances. I know that people who go to the film will have a profound, cathartic, emotional experience and that's a really beautiful thing for a film to do."

"Freeheld" is in theaters.