Interview: Rosie O'Donnell Saves America, Part 2

Former daytime queen Rosie O’Donnell’s most recent project is the Lifetime Original Movie called America, which premieres on Lifetime Television on Saturday, Feb. 28 at 9 p.m. ET/PT. In it, she plays Dr. Maureen Brennan, but Rosie also is an executive producer and co-writer on the movie. Based on E.R. Frank’s book of the same name, America follows the touching journey of 17-year-old America as he traverses the foster-care system.

Rosie explains how she assembled such a stellar cast, which includes Academy Award-nominee Ruby Dee (American Gangster): “When I read the book, I knew that was Ruby Dee’s role right from the beginning. For six years, that had been the vision in my mind. I’m friends with Attallah Shabazz, the eldest daughter of Malcolm X, and she is like family with Ruby. I was telling Attallah for years about this movie. So when we got the green light, I called her up and said, ‘Attallah, will you tell your aunt?’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah, no problem.’ So, we got her that way.

“It was the biggest thrill to be in Detroit on Election Day with Ruby Dee, talking all about Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, and (her late husband) Ossie Davis giving the eulogy (at the latter’s funeral). It was pretty astounding to hear her talk about her life, and just the reality of being there with her on that day was fairly overwhelming.”

There are also a number of new faces, including star Philip Johnson, to help round out the cast of young characters. “We purposely tried to get young actors who you didn’t know, so it wouldn’t take the viewer out of the movie.

“For instance, I’ll be watching a movie with my kids, and they’ll be like, ‘Isn’t that the guy from The Wizards of Waverly Place?’ It takes you right out of the film.

“So we found all new actors. The young girl who plays Liza (Raquel Castro) is from a town right close to where I grew up. And the young boy who plays Marshall (Logan Huffman), I think he is fantastically talented and absurdly handsome. He reminded me of all the boys I used to pin up on my bedroom wall as a kid from Teen magazine, the kind of boy you would have loved when you were 14.”

To top off the stellar cast, Rosie found an even-more-stellar director for the project. “The director, Yves Simoneau, is unbelievably gifted. He is a true artist. Working with him was the most fulfilling experience on a movie, because he was so open to new ideas and so full of life. He knew exactly what he wanted to do and how he wanted it to look. I think that visually it is absolutely captivating.”

At the end of the day, though, this movie is about the forgotten children who are shuffled through the U.S. foster-care system. Rosie hopes that her film enlightens the audience and provokes them to take action.

Rosie explains: “I hope people get an understanding of these kids. With our nation becoming more and more economically depressed, the numbers are going to grow in foster care. We need to do something right away. It is an emergency; it is an epidemic in some capacity. If we were losing that many kids a year to a disease, there would be fundraisers and telethons. But these kids are invisible, and will remain so until we give them a voice.”

Interview: Rosie O'Donnell Saves America

Rosie O’Donnell is best known to daytime audiences as the host of her popular talk show The Rosie O’Donnell Show (1996-2002), as well as a co-host on The View (2005-2007). But she is also known for her child-welfare advocacy. Rosie has teamed up with Lifetime Television to help bring to light some of the flaws in the U.S. foster-care system by writing, producing and starring in the movie America, which is based on the book of the same name by E.R. Frank.

America follows the touching journey of a 17-year-old boy, America, as he traverses the foster-care system. Rosie stars as a therapist who gives America the support he needs to deal with his troubled past and helps him find the courage to live.

Rosie explains how the project came about: “I read the book in 2002. I was going out to L.A. I needed a book for the plane, and an intern handed it to me. I read it on the plane to L.A., and I wrote the script for the movie before I got back.

“I am such a big fan of books, and a big reader, and so often you come across a book you really like but someone has already bought the rights to it. When I first read this book, I didn’t even ask — I just started to write. I could see the movie in my head; the book was just so well written. It just came to life in my head, so I wrote it anyway and just hoped that it wasn’t sold already.”

To Rosie’s relief, the rights to the book had not been sold yet. Rosie says: “I called the author, E.R. Frank, who was a young woman, a 35-year-old social worker. I met with her and told her it would be hard for me to make this, but I would do my best to get it made. So, it’s been seven years in the making.”

A key part in making this movie was getting the right actor to play the part of America. “We had seen about 500 kids for the role, and I knew that if you didn’t love that child and relate to him, the whole movie would fall flat. We had two actors that we were going to put on tape that day, and we had stopped at a restaurant to eat. There was a family sitting at another table; they were the only other people at the restaurant.

“I saw Philip (Johnson) sitting there and said, ‘That’s the kid who should play America.’ I kept trying to make eye contact with anyone at the table, and his uncle finally asked, ‘Are you Roseanne Barr?’ and I said, ‘Close enough,’ and I got up and walked over to them. I explained the movie I was doing and asked Philip if he had ever acted. I told the father it was a heavy subject — it’s about foster care and abused kids — but your son has the stillness and intensity that just drew me to him.”

Rosie admits that the movie can be hard to watch. “Most people who I’ve shown the movie to say, ‘I had no idea it was like this.’ Until I became a foster parent back in 1998, I didn’t know either. It was an education that I got.

“Did you know that 80 percent of prison inmates were at one time in foster care? That’ll tell you a little bit about how we do as a state raising children; it’s not really what we do best. The foster-care system was originally established for war orphans around the time of World War II. We need to reconfigure the system to accommodate the needs of today’s kids.”

Check back next week for part two of the interview, where Rosie talks about working with Ruby Dee, filming the movie and how we can get involved in helping foster children. America premieres on Lifetime Television on Saturday, Feb. 28, at 9 p.m. ET/PT.