With the Supreme Court’s decision to make same-sex marriage legal around the country, Freeheld looks like a timely release. The film, starring Julianne Moore and Ellen Page, is about a New Jersey police officer’s fight to get her partner pension benefits after being diagnosed with lung cancer.
The true story, written by Ron Nyswaner (Philadelphia) and directed by Peter Sollett (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist), features Moore as Laurel Hester, a police detective diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. She hopes to leave her benefits to Stacie Andree (Page), but she has to fight the county governing body. Laurel, who died in 2006, became an activist in the process.
“It’s not often in the movies that we get to talk about our heroes. And to me, Laurel Hester is a hero — I knew that as soon as I came to know her story,” Sollett told Buzzfeed, which first posted the trailer.
Nyswaner’s story follows two tracks: on one side, Freeheld follows the love story, while the other track shows Laurel’s fight.
The other members of the cast include Michael Shannon as Laurel’s detective partner and Steve Carell as an LGBT activist.
Freeheld will be Moore’s first serious dramatic role to follow-up her Oscar-winning performance in Still Alice, in which she played a professor with early onset Alzheimer’s.
Freeheld hits theaters on Oct. 2 and nationwide on Oct. 16.
Check out BuzzFeed's exclusive trailer for Freeheld, the movie starring Ellen Page and Julianne Moore as a real-life New Jersey couple fighting for same-sex rights.
Posted by BuzzFeed Entertainment on Wednesday, July 22, 2015
The film is also based on the documentary Freeheld.
image courtesy of Phil Caruso/Lionsgate