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Interview With Katherine Brooks

Consider the journey of out writer-director Katherine Brooks. While still a teenager, she left her home in Louisiana, drove to Los Angeles, and spent her first night there sleeping in her car in a motel parking lot. Eventually she landed in the world of reality television, directing and sometimes producing shows following the lives of an incoherent rocker (Ozzy Osbourne in The Osbournes), the inexplicably popular (Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey in Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica), and the insipid leading the inane (Paris and Nicole, respectively, in The Simple Life).

Thankfully, Brooks left that world and turned to writing and directing her own films. In 2006, she debuted her first feature, Loving Annabelle, the story of a rebellious, passionate and preternaturally self-assured Catholic school girl (Erin Kelly) and the object of her desire, Simone, a guarded yet smoldering blond teacher with a tragic past (Diane Gaidry). Loving Annabelle went on to win film festival awards from Long Island to Melbourne, and two years later is still a top-selling DVD with a legion of devoted fans.

Brooks recently met with me to give her first in-depth interview about her new film, Waking Madison, which reunites her with Erin Kelly and also stars Elisabeth Shue, Sarah Roemer (Disturbia) in the title role, and Frances Conroy (Six Feet Under). We also talked about what she would change today about Loving Annabelle and why she’s drawn to story lines about terribly inappropriate lesbian relationships.

AfterEllen.com: Waking Madison is set for release this fall. What’s it about? Katherine Brooks:It’s about a young woman, Madison, who suffers from multiple personality disorder. She’s suicidal and has really just given up on life. She decides to lock herself in her apartment for 30 days as a last resort.

The movie is the lead-up to the 30 days, and footage of her using her own video camera to observe her other personalities as they come out.

Brooks with Sarah Roemer on the set of Waking Madison

AE: Is it true you locked yourself in your apartment for 30 days as Madison does in the film? KB:Yes, I, too, had just kind of given up on life. I’d been in therapy my whole life, tried medication and nothing really worked. I was always really sad and felt very disconnected to the world.

AE: That sounds like it would drive you insane, rather than cure you of insanity. KB:I think that we live in an insane world. And to actually lock yourself away from that, you would go through stages of feeling insane, but you when you come through it, I think you cure yourself of the insanity of the world. [You] become sane, if that makes any sense. [laughs] I mean, it did for me. I’m not in therapy anymore or on medication, so I guess Madison was a bit of a cure for me after all.

AE: What is the relationship between Madison and Dr. Barnes? Is it a purely professional relationship? KB:It’s purely professional, but they have a very deep connection. Dr. Barnes [played by Elisabeth Shue] is sort of the light at the end of the tunnel for Madison. She understands her in a way no one else really can.

Directing Elisabeth Shue

AE: What? No lesbian relationship drama? KB:No, I think I did enough lesbian drama with Annabelle. Madison is not a lesbian movie, but it’s not a straight movie, either. It’s more of an exploration of human emotion and the effects of past abuse on our lives. But Madison does have a three-way, so there is some lesbian stuff for you. [laughs]

AE: Erin Kelly, your Loving Annabelle star, is also in the film. I read she was originally going to play a character named Alexis, but you switched her to the role of Grace, a sex addict. KB:Erin’s very good at playing a very present, focused, promiscuous seducer. And Imogen [Poots] – she’s a great actress, she could probably do anything – but I felt that Imogen would be a better Alexis. And Erin is able to take [Grace’s] fragility and turn it and spin it and be very seductive.

AE: So, Erin’s good at playing slutty? KB:Yeah, something like that.

AE: Does the Grace character have any sex scenes? KB:There are no sex scenes with Grace.

AE: Katherine, what the hell? KB:[laughs] She wears a hot slip in it. That’s good enough.

AE: There are readers out there who are going to disagree with you. KB:I know. This one is a tease.

AE: Was the casting process easier than it was on Loving Annabelle? You didn’t find Diane Gaidry for the role of Simone until three days before the start of that production. KB:Yeah, I hope to never experience that again. No, it was not as much of a nightmare as Annabelle was. [laughs] We started casting pretty early, and Elisabeth Shue and Sarah Roemer both came on about a month before we started shooting. We were very lucky that the actors really connected to the story.

AE: Speaking of Loving Annabelle – original ending or the DVD’s alternate ending: Which would you choose today? KB:If I were going to pick a new ending for Annabelle, I’d rewrite it and do [the] ending I originally wanted to do.

AE: What would that look like? KB:I intended Annabelle to be 15 minutes longer than it is. We basically ran out of time and we ran out of money. So if I could’ve had my way, I would have used Annabelle’s story with her mother, the senator, from the beginning and [in the end] have Annabelle go to her mother and have reconciliation or strike a deal.

Annabelle would say, “I’ll be this and this, as long as you can help [Simone].” You know, Annabelle would get Simone out of trouble. It would have been more of a bittersweet ending and maybe ended with Annabelle driving towards the beach. It would have had a lot more closure.

AE: The alternate ending on the DVD shows Annabelle going down to the beach, implying Simone is there, waiting for her. KB:Yeah, but to me, it wrapped up a little too neatly with her going to the beach and all. Of course, I want it to have a happy ending. Most lesbian movies have such depressing endings where the lesbian either jumps off a building or runs into the arms of a man.

It really was in my heart to have Loving Annabelle end with Simone, the teacher, and Annabelle, the student, riding off in the sunset together, but that wasn’t realistic to the story I was trying to tell. I think as storytellers it’s important to try to convey truth, and when you have an affair with someone underage, “the truth” is that you’re punished. I didn’t make the law.

Erin Kelly and Diane Gaidry in Loving Annabelle

AE: Do you think you’ll ever do a sequel? KB:No. I won’t ever do a sequel, but I’m open to possibly in the future doing a series. But it wouldn’t be focused around Annabelle and Simone. It would be like My So-Called Life for lesbians: Annabelle as an empowered senior in high school who’s gay and has a senator for a mother. The end of the first season, I would have Annabelle and Simone reconnect and bring that element into it again. But yeah, I am not going to do a sequel.

AE: Is there a real possibility of having Loving Annabelle go as a TV series? KB:Yeah. There’s been talks about it. Diane was into doing it. And Erin’s into doing it. Gus [actor Gustine Fudickar], who plays Cat, is into doing it. I think we could bring a lot of the cast back.

There are a lot of options because I do feel Annabelle has such a cool following with younger kids. People have approached me about writing a book or doing a play. There’s definitely a lot of mediums to explore with it, just not a sequel. And I’m open to them all, [but] it’s something I would just want to executive produce.

AE: Annabelle: The Musical? KB:[laughs] No musical.

AE: Where do you think it’s most likely to happen? Cable, network, a kids’ channel? KB:I’d probably want to take it to HBO or Showtime or one of the bigger networks. I’m not opposed to doing it on Logo or here! Network. I guess at this point, whomever bites first will be catching the big fish of Annabelle.

AE: What do you think of gay broadcasters like here! and Logo? KB:I think gay material is becoming more mainstream, but I still feel like it needs to go to the next level where it’s not about being gay; it’s just main characters that happen to be gay. I don’t know what it is about the community, but people that are gay really love to talk about being gay. And I’m just not like that. I’m gay, but I don’t sit around and talk about being gay. More movies need to just have great story lines where it’s about other things besides sexuality.

AE: You did a short called Finding Kate, which also stars Erin, about two female cousins who are attracted to each other. And then, of course, Loving Annabelle depicts a love affair between a student and a teacher. What is it about taboo relationships that you find so interesting? KB:I like taking topics that aren’t necessarily accepted and making them acceptable. So, telling stories where someone might be judgmental about, say, two cousins having an affair, but then show that story in a way that [the audience] might think outside the box and say, “Oh, this might be OK.” I think there’s exceptions to every rule [that] we as a society put on things, about what is taboo. I like to push the envelope with that.

AE: You’ve worked with Erin on three projects now. Do you ever write a part with her in mind? KB:I wrote Annabelle with her in mind. Well, I had already started writing Annabelle, but it wasn’t that kind of draft where you’re just massaging your characters. When I met Erin, that’s when Annabelle came to life.

AE: Do you have other actors who have been in all your films, like Christopher Guest and Woody Allen do? KB:No, just Erin. She’s the special one.

AE: She’s your muse. KB:Yeah, she’s my muse.

AE: Did you have to teach her any lesbian things for Loving Annabelle? KB:I taught her the one-handed bra unsnap.

AE: I don’t remember seeing her do that. KB:I think we ended up cutting directly to when [Simone’s] bra was coming off. I cut it too quickly to see it, but I know she did it.

AE: Please do a director’s cut and get that shot back in. KB:Yeah, yeah.

AE: You said no sequel, but what about a director’s cut? KB:Actually, our distributor asked me if I would do a director’s cut. And I really would. I would do a cut where I would put the scenes back in, I would do the different ending. Here’s the thing, and I’m going to speak for Erin and say she’d probably do this, and for Diane, too: If someone gave me 50 grand, I’ll go shoot the ending that I wanted to shoot and add it back on Annabelle and re-release the movie.

AE: I’ll give you 50 grand right now. KB:[laughs]

AE: I noticed something, perhaps you’re already aware. Your film titles: Loving Annabelle, Finding Kate, Waking Madison. I’m seeing a pattern: verb and girl’s name. KB:It’s broken now. No more. My next one is about a female jockey and is called The Boys Club. No chick name.

For more on Katherine Brooks, visit her MySpace page.

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