Judith Light finds her mission
In 'Save Me,' the actress strives to create a character who can speak to both the gay and the conservative communities.
SO WHAT'S a glamorous, Jewish, gay rights activist doing playing a dowdy, evangelical Christian homophobe? For Judith Light, who stars in "Save Me" as Gayle, the founder of an ex-gay Christian ministry that specializes in curing "sexual brokenness," you could say it was a leap of faith.
"You can't judge your character and play them," said Light by phone from New York, where she's shooting her second season as Claire Meade on TV's "Ugly Betty." "Gayle isn't evil, she's just misguided. I think you have to show that in order to give people a way in to see someone," Light says of her judicious approach to the hyper-vigilant Gayle.
"We felt it was extremely important not to vilify anybody. To, in fact, be even-handed in our portrayal of these people. You can't have a conversation if people are taking sides," said Light, who signed on to the independent film, written by her husband, Robert Desiderio, more than six years ago.
In the film, Gayle, who runs the small, financially strapped Genesis House with her second husband, Ted (Stephen Lang), employs a style that's strong on religious devotion but low on hellfire and brimstone. Not uncoincidentally, she started the ministry after the death of her own gay son, a poignant twist that, along with Light's well-calibrated turn, gives Gayle even fuller dimension.
Perhaps most widely known -- despite a formidable stage and telefilm résumé -- for her eight-season stint opposite Tony Danza on TV's "Who's the Boss?," Light became involved with Craig Chester's original "Save Me" script when it was a gay-conversion satire in the vein of "But I'm a Cheerleader." After participating in a staged reading, Light, along with producing partner Herb Hamsher and actor-producers Chad Allen and Robert Gant (and their producing partner Christopher Racster), eventually agreed the material was worth filming -- that is, if retooled as a serious look at the issues of bigotry, prejudice and, as Light noted, "people trying to 'change' other people."
The elements all quickly came together, with Light starring and producing along with Allen and Gant (who play two emotionally wounded men who meet and fall in love at Genesis House), and Robert Cary directing from a new script by Desiderio, a screenwriter and veteran TV actor who met Light in the early 1980s when they were both appearing on "One Life to Live."
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