Few movies released in 2006 caused quite the stir that Loving Annabelle did. The oft-praised film centering on the forbidden love affair between a Catholic high school student and her teacher began making the festival rounds last spring and is now available on DVD. Though it was an independent production with a modest budget, Annabelle struck a chord with audiences queer and straight alike who appreciated the strong acting, brisk storytelling and the theme of forbidden love. Much of that buzz was due to the nuanced performances of lead actresses Diane Gaidry and Erin Kelly.

Kelly plays Annabelle, the rebellious daughter of a senator who is sent off to St. Teresa's, a Catholic boarding school. Gaidry plays Simone, Annabelle's English teacher, resident advisor, and future object of affection. What follows is a classic tale of taboo lesbian love that reaches back to the 1931 German film Maedchen in Uniform.

Kelly had no difficulties putting herself into the shoes of a rebellious teen. “It was very similar to me when I was in high school,” she said. “It's fun for me to be the rebel and be the bad girl!” The young actress was part of the project from day one, as she was actually approached by writer-director Katherine Brooks four full years before filming began. “We were both in the audience of a play, and she walked up to me and said, ‘Please tell me you're an actress because you're perfect for this script I'm writing.' So she and I started workshopping it together.” Kelly was immediately impressed with the project. “I just fell in love with the script … I spent the entire night reading it.”

Despite her youth, Kelly is a veteran of theater, film and television, having caught the acting bug before she was even through kindergarten. She recalled that her first experience of being moved by a performance was when a family friend was “killed” in a play. “I thought it was real, and I was so upset!” Kelly said. “Afterwards he came out, and I was crying and he explained to me that it was just a play. I wanted to be able to affect people like that; I thought it was the coolest thing. And so I started doing theater at a very young age, and joined a theater company when I was in sixth grade in Colorado.” She has been involved in theater ever since.

Gaidry was awarded a Grand Jury prize at Outfest for her portrayal of Simone (Outstanding Actress in a Feature Film), but ironically she wasn't even a part of the production until the last minute. In a serendipitous turn of events, Gaidry got the role only three days before shooting began. “I was out of town, hiking actually,” Gaidry said, “and Katherine's manager, who's a friend, called and asked me if I would be interested in looking at the script because they lost their lead actress just a few days before. … So they were all set to shoot, and then had no actress.”

She continued: “So, I read the script, and it really was an intuitive feeling. I was drawn to the characters and moved by what they were facing. When I get a role that just speaks to me, it's hard to articulate what it is. It's just in my chest, you know, my heart, and it feels right.”

Gaidry's fateful casting in Loving Annabelle is similar to her journey through the acting profession. Taking a decidedly artistic approach, Gaidry rejected the “normal” Hollywood path almost as soon as she embarked on it. “I knew I wanted to act when I was little, and I did a lot of the traditional stuff; I went to a performing arts high school and then studied acting in college,” she said. “But after I graduated, for a while I pursued the traditional realm — the agents, all that stuff, and then I realized pretty quickly, well, that I honestly don't think I'm cut out for it. So I quit acting for a while, or I tried to.”

But after a time, Gaidry began to get roles in independent productions, and her creative drive came back. “I guess I've just been really lucky,” she said. “I know a lot of filmmakers, and I'm married to a very talented filmmaker, and I've had opportunities to do the kind of work that I never would've had the opportunity to do if I had stuck with that traditional path.”