Movies

Unsung Heroines, Part 2: More Queer Women Who Deserve Their Own Biopics

Back in July, we tested out our casting abilities with an article about famous lesbian and bisexual women who deserve to see their stories told on the big screen. While the life stories of some lesbian luminaries have already been captured on film, such as Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas in Waiting For The Moon (1987), or are already in the works, like Joan Jett in The Runaways, there are still many tales to tell.

In our second installment in this series, we explore the lives of more lesbians who made a cultural impact, and some who are still making history. Natalie Clifford Barney (1876 – 1972) BIOPIC-WORTHY BECAUSE: The expatriate (she was born in Dayton, OH) novelist, playwright, feminist and pacifist Natalie Barney held court from her literary salon on the Left Bank of Paris for over sixty years, building a community for some of the most influential writers of the 20th century.

All the while, this unapologetic womanizer romanced some of the most sought-after beauties in Europe. Her liaisons inspired several novels, including one of the most famous lesbian novels of the last century, The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall. She was the original advocate for polyamory, and an early biography about Barney was entitled Portrait of a Seductress.

Simply put: Without Natalie Barney, there would be no Shane McCutcheon. THE SUPPORTING CAST: A film about Barney’s life would provide a bevy of juicy roles for actresses. Barney’s conquests , included (but were not limited to) dancer and courtesan Liane de Pougy, poet Renée Vivien, painter Romaine Brooks, writer Colette, and Oscar Wilde’s niece, Dolly Wilde. Literary nerds everywhere could also revel in the chance to see who might be cast in the roles of frequent salon visitors like T.S. Eliot, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Carlos Williams.

SHOULD STAR: If we were casting this movie ten years ago, the role would have belonged to Emma Thompson. Today, perennial lesbian favorite Kate Winslet is at the perfect age to play Barney in her social, artistic and amorous prime, and it’s safe to assume she would attack the role with her typical relish. Plus, it’s been 15 years since Heavenly Creatures, and she owes us a decent lesbian sex scene (preferably one that doesn’t end in bloodshed)! Emily Blunt is a natural pick for Barney’s beloved de Pougy, both for her physical similarity to the woman and because she’s already proven she knows how to break a lesbian’s heart. (Need evidence? See her in My Summer of Love.)

  For the role of the tragically addiction-riddled poet and heiress Renée Vivien, we’d cast Kristen Stewart (Twilight, The Runaways), who has already perfected the faraway haunted gaze present in many of Vivien’s photographs and seems to have the necessary depth to play the difficult part.

Finally, how about Rachel Weisz as Barney’s long-term lover, painter Romaine Brooks? She already has the hat! PLOT POINTS: It’s a moment built just for an opening scene in a movie: At the tender age of six, Barney meets fellow famous gay writer Oscar Wilde as he helps her elude an annoying pack of young boys. (Ever helpful to the family, Wilde later convinces Barney’s mother, Alice Pike Barney, to pursue art, for which she becomes famous in her own right.)

By the age of 12, Barney knows she’s a lesbian and doesn’t intend to hide it.

In Paris, 23-year old Barney spies the 30-year old de Pougy at at dance hall, and later shows up on her doorstep wearing a page costume, claiming to be sent by Sappho and intent on seducing the popular courtesan. She succeeds, and two years later their stormy affair is the subject of a scandalous book by de Pougy, Idylle Saphique, that is so popular it’s reprinted 69 times in its first year of publication.

That same year, 1899, Barney meets another great love, 22-year old poet and heiress Renée Vivien. Vivien had long been in love with a childhood friend, Violet Shillito, but lost interest in their unconsummated relationship when Barney entered the picture. A year later, the young Shillito died unexpectedly and Vivien’s guilt over abandoning her for Barney would be the depressive, addiction-ravaged poet’s eventual undoing.

Barney and Vivien split after only two years (Vivien didn’t share Barney’s enthusiasm for polyamory), though Barney temporarily won her back The two were long separated by the time Vivien died at the age of 32.

Other pivotal plot points would include Barney’s meetings with the women with whom she would have the most lasting relationship, socialite and bon vivant Dolly Wilde and painter Romaine Brooks. Of course, all of Barney’s affairs would take place against the backdrop of her (literary) celebrity-studded weekly salon meetings at 20, Rue Jacob in the Latin Quarter of Paris.

TAKE A POPCORN BREAK: During the five year period in which Barney and Vivien are “on” again, but Vivien begins to lose her battles with alcoholism and anorexia, and eventually attempts suicide. Though tragic movie scenes are usually Oscar bait, who of us really wants to see another lesbian self-destruct on film? Besides, can anyone do it better than Angelina Jolie already did in Gia?

SHOULD BE DIRECTED BY: Sofia Coppola (Lost In Translation), who deftly directed another lush French period piece, Marie Antoinette, and is seasoned in telling the stories of impossible complicated love affairs.

Angela Davis (1944 – present) BIOPIC-WORTHY BECAUSE: Before taking her post as a professor of history of consciousness at the University of California (she recently retired), the controversial author and political activist Angela Davis twice ran for the Vice Presidency of the United States, was connected to The Black Panthers, and has long been an advocate for race and gender equality and gay rights. Davis has already been the subject of a documentary (Angela Davis: Portrait of a Revolutionary) and the character Laureen Hobbs in Network is loosely based on her, so it’s time to make her the subject of a feature exclusively devoted to the very dramatic Davis’s life.

Plus, not since Raiders of the Lost Arc (1983) has anyone managed to successfully depict an academic with an action-packed and exciting life. Professors deserve their due!

THE SUPPORTING CAST: Davis’s contemporaries in her long career as an activist include philosopher Herbert Marcuse, her presidential running mate (on the Communist Party ticket) Gus Hall, Nation of Islam representative Louis Farrakhan (whose Million Man March she opposed on the grounds of sexism), and her friend, lesbian activist and author Bettina Aptheker, who has the distinction of being named one of the “The 101 Most Dangerous Academics in America” by conservative writer David Horowitz.

SHOULD STAR: Zoe Saldana has already established herself as an actor who can pull off conventional big budget movies (Star Trek, Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl) and, with Avatar, can now add “action hero” to her resume. But she’s a compelling actress who could work some serious magic with the role of Angela Davis.

In the past, Saldana has resisted labeling herself a feminist, but something tells me that learning about Davis life and slipping into her cinematic skin have the potential to revolutionize Saldana’s own consciousness.

Finally, she’s played lesbian love scenes before (After Sex, with Mila Kunis), so let’s be generous and give her the chance to do it again! PLOT POINTS: The film should open with Davis’s childhood years in Birmingham, Alabama, where Davis experienced racial segregation, then quickly hustle along to her transfer to the racially integrated New York high school where she first discovered Communism.

While much of Davis’s early life is focused on academia (she studied at Brandies, the Sorbonne in Paris, and the University of Frankfurt, just to name a few), it’s her extracurricular political activities that have made her famous. In 1970 she joined the Black Panthers in their efforts to free two men (the “Soledad brothers”) from prison. One of the prisoner’s brothers disrupted the trial in Los Angeles, staged an escape attempt, and took hostages, including a judge who was killed with a gun registered to Davis.

As a result, Davis was on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List for conspiracy, kidnapping and homicide. Davis fled authorities, who later captured her in New York. After almost two years in detention she was tried and acquitted of all charges. After that, she briefly visited Cuba and was given a hero’s welcome.

In 1980 and 1984, Davis ran for Vice President on the Communist ticket with labor leader Hall (but she eventually split from the Communist Party USA and helped found the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism).

In 1997, Davis publicly came out as a lesbian in an interview with Out magazine.

TAKE A POPCORN BREAK: From 1975-1955, when Davis takes interest in Jim Jones‘s Peoples Temple, even participating in some rallies and addressing Temple members in Guyana via radio a year before Jones ordered his congregation of nearly 1,000 people to commit mass suicide. Considering the tragic outcome, Davis probably wouldn’t mind if you didn’t focus on this part of the story anyway.

SHOULD BE DIRECTED BY: Terse action movies like Strange Days and The Hurt Locker have defined the career of Kathryn Bigelow to date, so why not give her an opportunity to add a biographical slant to her oeuvre? Besides, after Point Break-ing us, she owes the world a smart and serious film about a very smart and serious woman.

Dorothy Arzner (1897 – 1979) BIOPIC-WORTHY BECAUSE: One of the few female directors working steadily in the Golden Age of Hollywood (the late 1920s to the late 1950s) was also linked romantically with some of the biggest female stars; was the first person to be professionally credited as an editor onscreen; wore ties and vests to work on the set; and created the prototype for the boom microphone.

She was also the first woman to be inducted into the Director’s Guild of America.

And you thought Ellen DeGeneres was the hardest working woman in Hollywood. THE SUPPORTING CAST: In her 15-year career as a director, Arzner made 17 films (three of them silent) and worked with some of the biggest names in Hollywood. She secured actress Clara Bow’s standing as the “It Girl” as she transitioned from silent films to talkies in The Wild Party (1929), butted heads with Katharine Hepburn on the set of Christopher Strong (1933), became fast friends with Joan Crawford on The Bride Wore Red (1937).

When she wasn’t breaking ground for female directors (and editors) in Hollywood, Arzner was tending her 40-year long relationship with dancer and choreographer Marion Morgan. On the other hand, Arzner was widely rumored to have had affairs with some of the best known actresses in Hollywood, including Billie Burke (Glenda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz) and bisexual Russian star Alla Nazimova (most famously of Salome and herself a good candidate for a bio pic).

SHOULD STAR: In I Shot Andy Warhol, Lili Taylor as raging lesbian feminist Valerie Solanas proved she can rock butch clothes and attitude (not to mention a Newsie cap), and she excels at playing stalwart iconoclasts. It’s been too long since we’ve had the chance to see her in full force, and the Arzner biopic would be a perfect fit. As she was largely regarded as a “woman’s director” (go figure), an Arzner biopic offers the rare opportunity to cast a feature with many supporting roles for women. Our casting choices include: PLOT POINTS: The film should open with some foreshadowing, with a young Arzner serving lunch to the celebrities who frequent her father’s German restaurant in Los Angeles. She goes to medical school at USC, but drops out to serve overseas in World War I, taking the only job permitted to women at the time: ambulance driver.

When she returns to the U.S., she meets film director William C. DeMille and is inspired to pursue a career as a director. She makes a few fortuitous connections, lands a job as a writer and is quickly promoted to the position of film editor by the age of 25.

Arzner impresses her peers and is promoted to director, directing two other hit films before helming Paramount’s first “talkie,” The Wild Party. The film stars silent film star Clara Bow, a beautiful starlet whose thick Brooklyn accent has never been heard by her movie fans. With her star terrified about making the transition from silent films, Arzner taps her handy dyke side and creates a portable microphone using a fishing pole. The invention (later evolving into the modern boom mic) makes Bow’s job easier, and the film is a huge success for them both. Depression-era pay cuts at Paramount incent Arzner to go freelance, and she lands a job directing Christopher Strong (1933). Arzner clashes with her star, Katharine Hepburn, who plays a very, um, androgynous looking aviator. Hepburn complains to the studio, they refuse to fire Arzner, and the two have to work it out. Was sexual tension the underlying problem? We’ll probably never know.

Arzner goes on to direct a slew of hit films, including Craig’s Wife (in 1936 and starring rumored lover Billie Burke), The Bride Wore Red (1937) starring Joan Crawford and Burke again, Dance, Girl, Dance (1940), starring Lucille Ball and Maureen O’Hara.

In 1943, Arzner helps the war effort by directing training films for the (notoriously lesbian-heavy) U.S. Army’s Women’s Army Corps (WACs), but is soon is diagnosed with pneumonia. The illness takes her career off-track, and by the time she’s well enough to work again, the post-War employment drought for women has taken root in Hollywood too. Arzner is forced into retirement and adapts by teaching at USC, where one of her students is future Godfather auteur Francis Ford Coppola.

TAKE A POPCORN BREAK: In addition to teaching at USC, Arzner also supplements her income by directing Pepsi commercials thanks to the help of old friend Joan Crawford (then married to the chairman of PepsiCo).

While it might be fun to watch Richards as Crawford visit the set and terrorize production assistants (all the while sipping demurely from a bottle of Pepsi), it’s downright depressing to see that the feature film window closed so quickly (and unfairly) on the brilliant Arzner.

SHOULD BE DIRECTED BY: Mary Harron directed Taylor in I Shot Andy Warhol and in another biopic, The Notorious Bettie Page. She has just the right blend of cynicism and admiration to capture the beauty, sophistication, and sexism of the Old Hollywood system.

Sheryl Swoopes (1971-Present) BIOPIC-WORTHY BECAUSE: The first player to be signed in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) upon its creation, powerful forward Sheryl Swoopes has also won three Olympic gold medals and has been called the “female Michael Jordan” and is arguably one of the best collegiate basketball players ever.

But more importantly, when Swoopes came out in 2005 she joined the very small number of openly gay professional team athletes. (Minnesota Lynx player Michele Van Gorp was the first active WNBA player to come out, in 2004, and former New York Liberty player Sue Wicks came out in 2002 after she had already retired). THE SUPPORTING CAST: Swoopes had the privilege of sharing court time with some of the most amazing female athletes of our time, including Lisa Leslie and Rebecca Lobo.

SHOULD STAR: Gorgeous and naturally athletic Gabrielle Union showed her athletic prowess years ago in the amazing cheerleading epic, Bring It On, and was an all-star point guard while playing basketball in high school. Learning some new offense moves shouldn’t be a challenge for Union, and she can wear lifts to stretch her 5′ 7½” frame to Swoopes’s imposing 6 foot stature. For fun, let’s cast some real-life WNBA players as themselves in the movie. I know that actors need work, but women athletes simply aren’t offered the the exorbitant riches awarded their male counterparts. The Swoopes story should garner all of those female champions some SAG cards and residuals. (Think of it as their belated signing bonuses.)

As Swoopes longtime partner Alisa “Scotty” Scott, we’d cast Chandra Wilson of Grey’s Anatomy. Playing the part would help the talented Wilson avoid typecasting (her Dr. Bailey on Grey’s Anatomy can be a bit … blunt), and give the gay-friendly actress an opportunity show even more support for the anti-Prop 8 movement.

  Plus, we’re sure that they make apple crates tall enough to elongate the 5 foot tall actress to the believable height of a former-basketball player.

PLOT POINTS: Swoopes was born and raised in Brownfiled, Texas, and showed early promise when, at eight years old, she went to the nationals with her Little Dribblers team. Swoopes played ball in high school, and though she is initially recruited by the University of Texas, she ends up playing at for the Lady Raiders at Texas Tech. The Raiders win the NCAA women’s basketball championship in her senior year (1993), and Swoopes’s jersey is retired by the school in 1994.

In the doldrums before the WNBA formed, Swoopes is referred to as “the Legend Without A League.” Any male player who has dominated the sport as she would be the toast of the NBA and earning millions. But Swoopes heads for Europe, isolated from her family and earning little just for the privilege of continuing to play the game at which she excels. She garners national attention when she wins the the gold medal with USA Basketball Women’s National Team at the 1996 Olympics.

It is during this period that Swoopes marries high school sweetheart (1995-99). Their son, Jordan Eric Jackson, is born in 1997.

When WNBA launches, Swoopes is recruited for the Houston Comets in their first season (playing ball only six weeks after giving birth) and the Comets win the WNBA Championship, and will go on to become the first three-time WNBA MVP.

Swoopes is the first women’s basketball player to have a Nike shoe named after her: the “Air Swoopes,” and it’s a coveted endorsement than many assume will be compromised when Swoopes publicly announces that she’s a lesbian in October 2005. She also announces that she’s been involved in a serious relationship with former Comets assistant coach Alisa “Scotty” Scott (who resigns her post a few months in advance of the announcement). Swoopes’s coming out story is scandalous news, but she keeps her Nike endorsement and gains an endorsement from lesbian travel company Olivia. In the end, the WNBA announces that Swoopes’s “lifestyle choice” is a “non-issue” for them.

In October 2007 Swoopes has back surgery, and in March 2008 (after 11 years with the Comets) Swoopes signs with the Seattle Storm. But by February 2009, the Storm waives her, and once again Swoopes is a “Legend Without A League.”

For now, she’s keeping busy by working at her local Boys & Girls Club as a girl’s basketball coordinator and spending time on the courts in women’s leagues basketball with other former players. She’s even considering starting a basketball academy in Seattle.

But if the release of this biopic is timed right, it should come out right after Swoopes makes her return as a pro basketball champion with whatever lucky team is smart enough to scoop her up. After all, nothing plays better on the big screen than the triumphant return of an underdog.

TAKE A POPCORN BREAK: When Swoopes is told, via phone call, that she’s been waived by the Seattle Storm. She deserved better, so let’s all boycott that moment together by calling a timeout and making a mass exodus to the concession stand.

SHOULD BE DIRECTED BY:Writer-director Gina Prince-Bythewood brought heart to a sports movie in Love & Basketball, so there’s no doubt she could shoot and score all over again with the Sheryl Swoopes story.

That’s it for the first installment of our biopics series, but stay tuned for future articles which will include development plans for films about playwright Lorraine Hansberry, musicians Wendy & Lisa and more!

Lesbian Apparel and Accessories Gay All Day sweatshirt -- AE exclusive

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button