Playhouse Theatre, Philadelphia
May 5th 2007
Reported by JT and Jobadge, for L-word.com

Erin: I worked with Katherine for three years work shopping before we actually shot. So I had a lot of time to actually get into Annabelle and Katherine gave me lessons on how to be gay! (lots of laughter at this point!) How to sit, mannerisms...undoing bras with one hand and things like that.

Q. Loving Annabelle is based on the 1921 cult classic Maedchan in Uniform....have you both seen it?

Erin: I haven’t seen it no
Diane: I didn’t have time before but I’ve had three years to watch it since but still haven’t! (both looking a bit embarrassed about that!)

Q. One of the key elements of the film is the great poetry throughout it. How were you able to act using the imagery of the poetry?
Diane: I loved the poetry but I was just trying to remember the lines! (laughs)

Q. You both had great on-screen chemistry. Did you work anything out to achieve this?
Erin: Even though we didn’t know who Simone was going to be, Katherine always said that if we got a Simone early on that she didn’t want me to know her until we started shooting so that the meeting was genuine. (Erin looks at Diane, looks her up and down, smiles and adds) And look at her how could you not like her?! (no arguments from anyone there!)
Diane: I felt really safe with Erin – I couldn’t have done this role, with that amount of time with anybody if I didn’t have that, you know. Erin’s so lovely and open and there’s no crap. (more laughter).

Q, Is this the first film for either of you that you have been intimate with another woman?
Erin and Diane: Yes

Q. For Diane – you delved deep into the psyche of your character of Simone as a repressed teacher. How were you able to be so convincing?
Diane: (After much thought) I think this planet is a very complicated place and I’ve had my share of a complicated existence, so I had lots to draw upon!

Q. For Erin – your character of Annabelle was so brazen and confident. How did you manage this as it seemed so effortless?
Erin: It was! It’s interesting because I’m such a shy person in life but in acting you can be who you want.

Q. Did you help re-write any of your part because you had been working on it so long?
Erin: I work shopped dialogue back and forth with Katherine, so possibly.

Q. It’s more of a question for Katherine but it’s about the religious aspect – I felt it wasn’t overpowering and that it was always a subtle backdrop. Did you find it hard not to cross that line of it being subtle?
Erin: Katherine said that she was always found something about Catholicism very sexy and she wanted to explore that. She had a priest in her life that was sort of representative of Father Harris and she wanted to show that without putting a bad light on it.

Q. Will there be a sequel?
Diane: We did an interview this morning and I said that if they shot it in Tuscany.... (laughter at this). Sequels are never as good.

Q. How did you both feel about the ending?
Erin: I liked the ending as it was realistic.
Diane nods in agreement at this.

Q. For Diane - How do you feel about the roles that you play as you seem to play a lot of complex depressing roles?
Diane: I am very happy, very very happy with the work that I do and the roles that I play.

Q. For Erin – what is involved in the workshop process?
Erin: Katherine became one of my best friends and so it was a case of going over to her house and reading through the script, all of the parts, back and forth. In the interview this morning we talked about how Katherine would get me to sit in a certain manner – instead of sitting like this (she demonstrates by sitting daintily with her legs crossed – laughter at this), and that I needed to be confident, and how to walk.

Q. Did the script change very much?
Erin: Oh yeah! The first time I read it, when Simone and Annabelle go to the beach they did mushrooms! (lots of laughter at this!) The time I spent working with Katherine the script changed a lot. Katherine worked on the script for seven years.

Q. In the scene between Simone and Mother Immaculata where she touches her hair, did you see some kind of underlying issue with this, like abuse?
Diane: It’s intentionally ambiguous so it doesn’t say what exactly happened – I can’t remember if Katherine had a decision about it. But for me, if I were to make up in my head what went on, Mother Immaculata had her own reasons for becoming a nun, and there is a very complicated relationship there. I didn’t make a decision as to whether anything physical happened but there is an energy between them there that isn’t appropriate as an older woman and a younger girl, and had probably been there since Simone had been young.

Q. The impact of your characters has touched the world – how do you feel about this?
Erin: I feel incredibly blessed (becomes emotional at this point) to have the opportunity to effect people the way Annabelle has, I’ve had lots of letters and women and young girls come up to me and share their stories with me, which is so touching and I am grateful that I can bear witness to that. Wolfe, the distribution company, and I are putting together a website for young girls to go to – like an ‘Ask Annabelle’ site that they can ask questions anonymously and we will have someone professionally to answer questions. The girls can interact with one another to share their experiences and help each other out, and build a community for themselves, as the girls that have spoken to me talk of being scared and feeling isolated. I want to create a space where women can feel that they are not alone.
Diane: I have long answers that are inarticulate that I tried to answer earlier this morning in an interview....(laughs) I am very happy and very excited that the film has reached so many people. It’s wonderful. It’s what films should do – we need entertainment, we need escape but that’s ALL we get from the main stream. This is why I run the non-profit company because I believe that this is the kind of work that is not getting made as often as it should.

Q. Did you both enjoy the sex scene?
Erin: It was the hardest thing we had to shoot and is very un-sexy - no offence to Diane in any way shape or form, but when you’re lying on top of each other and hair and make-up are coming in and the lights are moving around, and Katherine is shouting “take her shirt off”.....
Diane: Erin is very beautiful so it wasn’t very hard but if I was actually doing that scene with someone I had feelings for it would be too embarrassing because that would be me. It’s ok for the character but I would be so embarrassed if it was ME making love to someone on camera (everyone laughs at this).

Q. What projects do you have coming up next?
Erin: I’m in Katherine’s next movie Waking Madison, which is due to start shooting soon.
Diane: I have a bunch of projects lined up – I don’t know where we’ll get the money for them though – my husband and I will probably make our second feature film this fall, in Buffalo where I’m from. And a friend of mine has created a pilot that I’m attached to and it is gay and lesbian. It’s about a man and a woman who are married and admit to themselves that they are gay and finally to each other...well she gets caught... (laughter) We don’t know whether it will be an internet series or maybe a cable company will pick it up. We’re just going to go ahead and make it. It’s an interesting story as they have their own relationships and they’ve got kids, their own lives and their own worlds and their new relationships

Q. Did the school, where the film Loving Annabelle was shot, know what the film was to be about?
Erin: They didn’t tell them what it was about and then the person who was managing the location who worked at the school turned up at the Outfest film festival and Katherine is like “oh my god, they’re here!” and Katherine went up on stage and apologised, but the woman just said ‘my daughter’s gay you should have just said I wouldn’t have cared!’

Q. Considering acting is so challenging mentally, spiritually and emotionally what do you do for your downtime to ready yourself for the next challenge? I can tell you (Diane) do yoga because you are so centred and calm.
Diane: I do, but yes, acting is challenging but more so because of the voices in my head saying I’m not doing it good enough, but when I act it’s like being a child playing make believe. I don’t take it all on – I have enough of my own shit. But I do like hiking and yoga and I...
‘Drink wine?!’ JT suggests.
Diane: yes, drink wine (lots of laughter)

Q. Your character was very sensitive to Collins in regards to her cutting herself. What are your general feelings about this?
Erin: I don’t have any personal experience around this – it’s a hard question to answer. It’s in a similar vein to girls trying to come out - my heart just goes out to anyone looking for help.

Q. Do you find Loving Annabelle difficult to watch?
Erin: For the most part I don’t care but there are some scenes that I don’t like to watch, because there are scenes where I can tell that I’m not telling the truth. That bothers me because a good actor should never not be telling the truth.

Q. Are you quite self critical then?
Erin: Yeah – everyone’s their own worse critic I think.
Diane: Yeah I’m pretty much the same – there are moments where I think my voice is too high, I need to get rid of that thing (presses the creases between her eyebrows) – I mean I could get rid of that thing – I actually did try once, I had Botox and my friend said it paralysed my third eye! (lots of laughter)

Q. For Erin – did you always want to act?
Erin: Yeah – the first play I saw I was four and one of our family friend’s was in it, and after watching that I decided that that was what I wanted to do. I did my first play when I was really little.

Q. Was it difficult to work on a small budget film what with the time constraints and the restrictions this inflicts?
Erin: One of the hardest days but also the most rewarding days of shooting was when we did the sex scene, the break-up scene – we did all these really emotional scenes one after another in the same day and we didn’t have much time and at one point the three of us (one being Katherine) went outside and I was just crying because I was so happy but my emotions were on a roller coaster, having to be really happy, then seductive and then the next minute completely devastated. So it’s hard for that reason – you don’t have a lot of time and you can only use one or two takes per shot, which makes it hard in the editing room because you don’t have a lot of options.
Diane: I like working on low budget because you have more freedom – more freedom to make the film you want to make, in the creativeness sense not the budgetary sense. You can say what you want to say.

Q. It has been said that you (Erin) and Katherine were not happy with the beach scene. Why is that?
Erin: It was the last day of shooting and I made the mistake of falling into my surroundings. The whole crew were like it’s the last day we can relax, so I kind of relaxed with them – I didn’t maintain a level of awareness and focus that I did on other days and I don’t like my performance.

Q. How did your family react to the film?
Erin: My dad went to the premiere and he stood up and said how proud he was of me. (Erin gets emotional at this point.)

Q. I caught you in a few episodes of the TV show Beyond the Break and then you disappeared. What happened?
Erin: I did four episodes – I auditioned for the part. I told them that I surfed and they liked that – I told them that I was young and they liked that too. It was fun and we shot it in Hawaii.

Q, How old ARE you?
Erin: How old do you want me to be?! (lots of laughter!)

Q. What was in the Jack Daniels bottle?
Erin – ice tea I think.

Q. If you were both to play another lesbian character are you worried about being stereotyped?
Erin: Ideally it would be nice to do something in between but I’m not worried about it. My agent doesn’t want me to – at least not immediately, right now.
Diane: I’m not worried, I’ve even created a project – a short, where I play a woman who has lost her partner and we have a child. So I’m not concerned at all, no.

Q. What drew you both to the script?
Erin: Katherine came up to me in a theatre – I wasn’t in the play I was in the audience, and said “tell me you’re an actress, I have the perfect role for you”. The first time I read it I loved it and I was actually more drawn to the character of Kat and as I played with the script I loved it more.
Diane: Katherine’s manager is a friend of mine – she emailed me the script, I was hiking in Montana. I read it that night and it touched me - I actually got choked up and I could feel it.

Q So was it the emotion that you were drawn to?
Diane: Yeah and often its intuition and instinct, and I can feel it.

Q. For Diane - What has been the most challenging role you have ever done?
Diane: I did one short that my friend directed and we shot downtown where there was lots of broken glass and she wanted me to walk around in bare feet! Every role is challenging – oh god, you know the most challenging thing I have ever done was last fall when I went back to theatre for the first time in twenty years and I did Long Day’s Journey Into Night. What I was thinking accepting that role after not doing theatre for twenty years! I couldn’t get the words in my head and it IS one of the most difficult roles in theatre, It is also one of the most expensive roles in theatre – I found it really rewarding.

Q. For Diane – I read that you have a psychology qualification and are interested in the spiritual side of this. Do you use any of this to help you prepare for roles?
Diane: No I think what that gives me is an awareness - an understanding because I learn all these things, read all these books and learn these techniques, it’s just an awareness of how human we all are and an ability to not judge myself and the character’s that I play.

Q. If you could play any role what would it be?
Diane: I love working with filmmakers who are creating fresh new things - I’ve been so lucky in the past, I’m sure there are more wonderful things to come.

Q. Where would I find the ‘Ask Annabelle’ site so that I can offer that to my students?
Erin: I promise that it will be up within the next month – you can check out my website and there will be a link on it – www.erinrosekelly.com or on my MySpace.

Q. Do you have a favourite scene?
Diane: I loved everything and I really liked working with Erin but I loved working with Kevin, the priest. There was something about him, he’s in his 90’s – I don’t really know his films or anything but he has this incredible presence, it’s palpable, he’s amazing. I also liked the scene where I broke up with Michael.
Erin: My favourite scene I wasn’t in – it was the scene with Jake in it, Kat’s brother, he is one of my very dear friends and watching him up on stage playing his guitar I just started crying. Unlike when I was up on stage, that was the most terrifying thing!

Transcribed by JT
Thanks to solorcry and lchaser for the dvd footage to help me transcribe!