J: Hi Gina.

G: How’re you doing?

J: I’m well, thanks. How are you?

G: I’m really good.

J: So this is a great movie. I was sitting there sort of watching and thinking about high school in the late 1980’s and how familiar it all seemed. And obviously it’s a dramatic presentation of the kind of bullying pressures that kids who are different from the mainstream kids end up experiencing. But it really wasn’t that far from how I remember, going to a rural high school in Wyoming when I was growing up in the late 1980s, so did it ring true to you on that level?

G: I’ve got to say, I was really lucky. I grew up in an academic situation. My parents were both professors and I went to Oberlin, which is really open in general to people of diversity. And so I was really kind of protected in a lot of ways. So when I got this part I did a lot of interviews with a lot of moms and particularly moms who had actually lost sons to AIDS, because that was the time frame this film was in; people weren’t surviving, AIDS people were dying of it. And families --- coming out to your family meant so much, you know, just a profound declaration. So I really wanted to do my research and talk to women who have been through it. And what was really striking to me was I had not realized how many gay kids would kill themselves to avoid coming out. And I read the scripts, and I really love the script, as an actor. I really loved what Diana was trying to say. But it was when I started talking to these moms, when I really understood the impact and how true the script was playing to that time in America, to that time in our history. So yeah, it really did ring really true, the more and more I learned about the more it rang true.

J: How did the moms feel about a project like this? Are they noticing that there’s more, and much more inclusive, media portrayals of LGBT people and LGBT youth in particular out there than there was?

G: Oh they absolutely realize. What I did was, I got in touch with the PFLAG groups. In Colorado, but also in New York, and also my friends whose parents are a part of PFLAG. I asked them for help and I got through to their groups and I sent out this email or sent out calls or made personal [inquiries], “Do you have anyone that wants to talk to me? I’m making this film and I really want to try to be respectful and do it right.” And the thing about moms is that, these are moms as supportive as anybody else’s mom. I met women and talked to women who, you know, none of them reacted exactly the same to their sons’ coming out. None of them reacted exactly the same to finding out their child had AIDS. It was a broad spectrum of reaction. And what I really loved --- one of the moms said that she had rejected her son and he had kind of crawled away to die. And after he was gone it was she who nursed his lover until he passed. And, and what I love is that she said “I didn’t know.” She grew up in a Mormon town. She had no role [model] for this. She had no idea how she was supposed to react. She had no way of knowing, and she horribly regretted not just listening to her heart and doing what she personally felt she should do. She did what she thought she was supposed to do and she regrets it. She’s so happy that now there are more portrayals that are one truthful. But also, they kind of set up some role models of acceptance even just for moms and dads. So I thought that was really glorious because this was a woman who didn’t know me from Adam, who was willing to kind of put out her flaws in front of me to really examine and consider. And I think that was important, particularly for my role, because my role is not a perfect mom. She’s a well-intentioned mom. But she is not the perfect mom by any stretch of the imagination. You know, a very, very young mom in that time period, who would have no idea really how to actually deal, where to go. And there were so few places for them to go.

J: Well though, the idea of showing an imperfect person trying to deal with an imperfect situation turns out to be really important, because we all are imperfect, and ---

G: Well, absolutely.

J: --- it seems like, things like “Glee” and all the other mainstream portrayals of LGBT people, the really powerful ones show the parents wrestling with it and not handling it perfectly … I think that, in a way, it gives parents permission to be imperfect and just do their best.

G: Right. Because I think that’s the reality for all parents. I mean, my parents didn’t do everything perfectly, but, you know, they did their best. But it’s just really good to not like push it away and put it behind a curtain. Really examine it in all its facets.

J: So the film has a lot of different messages. On one level there’s this, “you have the right to defend yourself” message which almost masks the, “you have the right to be comfortable with who you are inside your soul before you even hit the gym and learn how to punch someone.”

G: Well that’s part of it, isn’t it? You can’t really defend yourself until you consider yourself worthy of defense.

J: Yeah. Do you feel like are people going to get that? They’re not going to just see this as “a it’s really important to know martial arts in case the bully picks on you” [message]? I certainly hope they get the underlying message. It’s definitely there.

G: I think they will, because --- certainly there will be people who come to this film because this is Bruce Lee’s god-daughter. “Oh my God, she’s so awesome. Her father’s so awesome. I want to see her kick some ass.” And Michael, who plays McClain, is just such a beautiful martial artist to watch. It’s just so beautiful to watch. It’s just ,on a visceral level you’re like, “Wow, this is awesome.” But I really do think, particularly the way the film is set up, that you’re really attached to these characters. You invest in them as humans. It’s not like we’re going to be getting McClain action figures. Her intention is relatively settled. But I think it’s pretty clear from the beginning, where we are and what this film is. And her intentions are really to change minds quietly.

J: I don’t know what your family situation is, if you’re parent or if you have nieces and nephews or anything like that, but, in terms of dealing with vulnerable youth or youth that are questioning their identity or how they fit in, did you come away feeling a little differently about how you would approach that, versus going into this, before you talked to all those mothers and so on?

G: Well I’ve got to say, after talking to the mothers, I really understood kind of how far we’ve come as a human race when we allow our love to evolve through tolerance. And that is certainly a huge message, I mean that, that can be reinforced daily. I mean, we can all use that in all things. And, as a person who’s part of a family, I see how my mother’s generation deals differently with, you know, a cousin’s who’s gay or a cousin who’s different. Particularly I’m very Italian and my family, my mother’s family is very Roman Catholic, and to see kind of how we’ve evolved as generations come up, as far as tolerance, as far as acceptance, and as far as how much that improves our love, our personal love for each other. And I think that alters the way I approach my own family and the things I expect of my friends. When my roommate came out in college she was really concerned because nobody in my nuclear family is gay, and she was like, “You know, I was really sad to tell you, I was really worried to tell you.” And I was like, “Wow, there’s no reason for you to worry because I love you, period.”

J: Gina I think that my only other question is the takeaway you’d like audiences to come away from this film thinking about --- and you mentioned families, and the interesting thing about this is, this is both the sort-of “bad guy” in this film and McClain’s character are fatherless or have incomplete family backgrounds. And I grew up with a single mother and I hear you about parents being scared of doing the wrong thing. Do you hope, or do you feel, there will be a takeaway that, even if you’re a single parent struggling with raising a kid that is different or is having trouble fitting in, that they still have the ability to send the right message and make a real difference?

G: Oh, I hope so. I hope what they see from Annie and McClain’s relationship is that ultimately no matter how flawed she is, and ultimately no matter what he’s been through, it is their love that keeps them together as a family. And it is her love for her son that is the catalyst for making all this happen. For her approaching this woman who she knows is the only person who can teach her son to save his own life. And yeah, I would like that to be the takeaway --- that ultimately love and tolerance is what’s going to get us through and help us evolve.

J: Great. Well thank you very much. I’ll let you go.

G: Great.

J: And hope this is a huge success. We’re really, really grateful you took the time to talk to us for Matthew’s Place.

G: Well thanks for all your help. You guys have been awesome.

J: It’s our pleasure. Thanks.

G: And an inspiration.

J: Great. Thank you.