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In
1994, Ford was a part of a program that did have a
significant amount of gay content, or at least it did when the pilot was filmed. The original premise of Monty,
starring Henry Winkler as a Rush Limbaugh type, was that his
daughter (played by Cynthia Nixon) was an out lesbian who came
home with her girlfriend.
After the pilot was made, the show was picked up and taken to
New York for presentation to network affiliates. Ford recalls
that creator Marc Lawrence quickly understood that the show
was not going to happen. "It was then sold to Fox, but
they said that we had to take that (the lesbian part) out of
it. Marc struggled with that, but he did it because he knew
he could deal with it later as a story or still deal with enough
issues that it was worth doing this character."
Ford wrote an episode which featured Monty's sister (played
by Mary Beth Hurt) and her girlfriend (played by Annabelle Gurwitch).
"It was really funny, and it was amazing how
many restrictions we had. Like we couldn’t even have them
walk off with their arms around each other. This was 1993-1994
and we could not show their 'lifestyle.'"
It wasn't just the Fox network that was limiting the depiction of the lesbian relationship.
Ford recalls, "I think it was a general restriction. It’s
almost as if you can show it if it’s a joke or have someone
come on to the straight girl or whatever. But if you try to depict
it as a realistic, matter of fact “lifestyle,” just
for a moment...It’s shocking to me that that’s what
would be offensive to people."
It wasn't until her recent work on Desperate
Housewives (created by openly gay producer Marc Cherry)
that her sexual orientation was ever even a topic of discussion
in her professional setting. "I wasn’t really recognized
as lesbian until Marc Cherry would announce it every time he
walked into the room on Desperate Housewives. (laughs)
He would say, 'Where’s Katie? Is she out fixing a truck?”
Ford had always worked with people for whom her lesbianism was
not an issue, and she admits with a laugh, “I was never
in a room where people made gay jokes or did things like that,
other than Marc Cherry.”
But the fact that so many more people in the entertainment industry
are now out as gay and lesbian is impressive to Ford. “In
the very beginning when I started, I don’t remember any
other gay people. Marjorie Gross was writing for Seinfeld,
and I guess there were a few other people, like Stan Zimmerman
(writer for Roseanne, Gilmore Girls, Golden Girls)
and his partner. But it was the minority. Women were also the
minority, and not that comfortable on a lot of other shows.
I just didn’t go work on those shows. So now that people
are out, to me it’s groundbreaking.”
Perhaps the most famous out lesbian in Hollywood,
Ellen DeGeneres, was the inspiration for the smash hit Miss
Congeniality, co-written by Ford, Marc Lawrence, and Caryn
Lucas. Ford remembers, “We were working on a TV show (Caryn,
Mark and I), and it was the day after the first time that Ellen
hosted the Emmys. And he had this idea based on how awkward
she seemed in a dress. So we originally conceived of it for
Ellen because of how funny she would be.”
Ford always believed in the project and the way in which people
would connect with it. “I knew that it said something
about women and beauty. Early on, people would say of the character,
'Well, she’s really tough.' And I would say
'You guys, any real woman would feel like a fool in high
heels and a bathing suit walking across a stage!'"
Ford never imagined the slightly butch lead character, Gracie
Hart (ultimately played by Sandra Bullock) as gay, but she has written
lesbian characters into her other scripts.
“I
have put them in pilots and stuff like that, but I haven’t
written one who’s the lead. I think it’s because
I have a problem with the storytelling, and that is I don’t
feel like we’re ready yet to have the story where she
just happens to be gay, and this just happens to be her partner.
So to me, I feel trapped in feeling that the storytelling would
have to have something to do with her being gay, and I just
don’t know that I’m the one to tell those stories.”
When asked if she suspects that general viewing audiences might
be the ones who “aren’t ready yet,” Ford replies,
“I don’t know that people would know how to deal
with it. Given how quickly things change, I do think it’s
possible that it will happen in the next little while. But it’s
funny that, because society hasn’t changed enough for
me to see it reflected there, I can’t depict a character
who is gay and for whom being gay doesn’t have anything
to do with the story.” She adds, “It is something
that I should try to do, because if I’m not going to do
it…”
As for her current projects, she’s writing
a movie for Paramount based on E.B. White’s classic children’s
novel The Trumpet of the Swan, and she’s also written
a movie for the TV department of Nickelodeon called The
Republic of Rico and Ralph. “It’s about these
two kids who find a document that ends up being a deed to their
own country, right in the middle of New York City. I love doing
the kids’ stuff. It’s where a lot of the humor is
these days.”
But perhaps more than anything, Ford is excited to soon be visiting
her original writing partner, sister Jane
(now a successful singer-songwriter and composer), in Canada
to collaborate on film and television projects. Family ties,
indeed.
Read
the full transcipt of our interview with Katie here
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