From left: Robert Grant, William Hurley, Judith Light and Stephen Lang
in ‘Save Me.’ Below: Chad Allen. Photos courtesy of First Run Features.
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By Dustin Fitzharris
Monday, September 08, 2008
Judith Light is never one to shy away from controversial roles. In her breakout role on the daytime soap opera “One Life to Live,” she played a prostitute by day and doctor’s wife by night. In the play “Wit,” she shaved her head to bring a cancer fighter’s journey to life. And in the “Ryan White Story,” she played the indomitable mother of the young boy fighting AIDS. And in her latest film, “Save Me,” now playing in New York City, she plays Gayle, head mistress of Genesis House, an all-male residential center that attempts to cure its guests of their “sexual brokenness” by using Christianity and God’s love. In other words, Gayle helps young men “pray the gay away.”
For Light, a long-time humanitarian of the LGBT community, the concept behind such real-life “ex-gay” ministries is one cause she does not support.
“I think it is an impossibility, which is why I think people are beginning to understand that they can’t do it [change sexuality],” said Light, probably best-known for her TV roles in “Ugly Betty” and ’80s fave “Who’s the Boss?”
“I believe that the gay community is so extraordinary and instrumental in changing the world in so many aspects,” she said. “Why in God’s name would you want to take that away?”
It’s estimated that hundreds of ministries like Genesis House across the country are devoted to de-programming homosexuality. None has any official accreditation or any set way in which it carries out its “mission.”
In fact, in 2006, the American Psychological Association issued a warning about the practices of such institutions, saying, “The APA’s concern about the positions espoused by the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) and so-called conversion therapy is that they are not supported by the science. There is simply no sufficiently, scientifically sound evidence that sexual orientation can be changed.”
Today, many of these ministries have altered their mission statements. Nowadays, instead of claiming to change their clients’ sexuality, most ex-gay ministries claim to help them get closer to God by choosing not to live a homosexual lifestyle.
“Save Me,” directed by Robert Cary, follows Mark (openly gay actor Chad Allen), a sex and drug-addicted young, gay man who overdoses and finds himself at the mercy of his disapproving family. Their solution to his problems is Genesis House. At first, Mark resists the efforts of Gayle and her loving husband (Stephen Lang), but he soon finds solace and brotherhood with the other residents, including Scott (Robert Grant of “Queer as Folk” fame), who is battling demons of his own. Soon, Mark and Scott find their bond is more than friendship, and they have to confront the teachings they’ve begun to accept. Their bond is something Gayle, whose own 17-year-old gay son died of an overdose, can’t bear to witness.
The screenplay is written by Robert Desiderio, Light’s husband of 23 years, and based on a story by out actor/writer Craig Chester (“Swoon,” “Adam & Steve”).
Director Cary, who is openly gay and lives in Los Angeles with his partner and 4-year-old daughter, said it was important to show Genesis House as a positive and loving environment.
“If the men were dumped into buckets of ice or had electric shock treatment, the audience would make up their minds in the first five minutes about these characters,” Cary said. “But, if you imagine what it was like for these young men whose parents rejected them and suddenly they find this compelling and charismatic warm woman at Genesis, you might stick around for a while too.”
In real life, Light does offer that warmth to the gay community. Growing up for a love of the theater, Light always felt different from her peers in school. But when she was surrounded by gay people, who also felt like outsiders, she felt comforted. By the early ’80s she had countless gay friends—and then they started dying.
“I began thinking, ‘How can I bring them anything at all? What can I do?’” Light said. “Then you watch that community—genius, brilliant, creative and alive—stand up to a government and create their own models of caring, feeding, nurturing, hospital care, burying their dead, and saying ‘I take nothing from you—we are unto ourselves’ you say, ‘I want to be a part of that. I want to be included.’”
And through her work, she is. She’s a Board Member and advocate for many organizations and charities representing AIDS-related and human rights issues including; Broadway Cares: Equity Fights AIDS, The Matthew Shepard Foundation, The National Aids Memorial Grove, The Point Foundation and The Trevor Project.
For her role in “Save Me,” Light patterned Gayle after the mother of her gay, longtime manager and mentor Herb Hamsher, who also served as a producer for “Save Me.”
“I love and adore her,” Light said of Hamsher’s mother. “This is a 91-year-old woman who is an evangelical Christian and reads her Bible every single day—to this day. What is incredible about having a model like that to use is it’s someone you love. I can put myself in her shoes. I know how much she loves her son.”
Though Hamsher said his mother never tried to “cure” him, he did tell her that she had to choose between her belief system, dominated by religion, and having a relationship with him.
He recalled telling her. “I will not be tolerated. I will not be condescended to. If you don’t recognize that I’m your success and you think of me as your failure, then we’re not going to have a relationship.”
Cary hopes audiences will be able to relate to Gayle the same way Light was able to relate to Hamsher’s mother.
Cary describes Light’s character Gayles as a “PFLAG [Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays] mom who took a left when she could’ve taken a right. I think a part of her wants to love these young men, and she just doesn’t know how because her religion is part of her identity. It becomes unthinkable for her to believe in another life.”
Light hopes those who watch “Save Me” will realize something she’s always held close to her heart.
“When you allow people to be who they are and when you love yourself, then you can really truly love other people,” Light said. “Human beings need to be exactly who they are—exactly the way they were made in God’s image and be able to love in the way they see fit for themselves. The rest should be nobody’s business.”
“Save Me” plays at the Clearview Chelesea Cinema, 260 W. 23rd St., 212-691-5519, savememovie.com.
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