When We Rise (LGBT History Miniseries): First Trailer!
When We Rise is an eight-hour, seven-part ABC miniseries documenting the history of the gay rights movement in America, starting with the Stonewall riots. The series was written by Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar for writing the screenplay to Harvey Milk biopic Milk (he is also engaged to British Olympic diver Tom Daley). The two-hour series premiere will be directed by Milk director Gus Van Sant. Milk co-producers Laurence Mark and Bruce Cohen join Black and Van Sant as executive producers for When We Rise.
Today (3/21) it was announced that Guy Pearce, Mary-Louise Parker, and Rachel Griffiths will star in the series.
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Pearce will star as LGBT activist Cleve Jones, who joined the gay liberation movement in 1972 and was befriended by pioneer gay rights leader Harvey Milk. He founded the Names Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and led the National March for Equality in 2009. Parker will play women’s rights leader Roma Guy, who co-founded the San Francisco Women’s Building, and as a Public Health Commissioner worked with others to bring healthcare access to all San Franciscans. Griffiths will play her wife, social justice activist Diane, who joined the Women’s Movement in the 1970s in San Francisco, co-founded the Women’s Building and has worked as an HIV/AIDS nurse and social justice activist at San Francisco General Hospital for 33 years.
Also cast are Austin McKenzie (“Spring Awakening”) as the young Cleve Jones; Emily Skeggs (“Fun Home”) as the young Roma Guy; newcomer Jonathan Majors as the young Ken Jones; and Fiona Dourif (“The Master”) as the young Diane. Still yet to be cast are the roles of African-American community organizer Ken Jones and transgender activist Cecelia Chung.
UPDATE: 5/17/16
The Hollywood Reporter has ranked When We Rise the second-best program coming to ABC this season!
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When We Rise - It's interesting and provocative to see a seven-part miniseries about the rise of the LGBT movement ending up on ABC, with Gus Van Sant directing the first two hours, when I'd have expected an HBO or a Showtime or an AMC to be all over this. How will that impact the content and execution? No clue. But with Guy Pearce, Mary-Louise Parker, Rachel Griffiths, Whoopi Goldberg, Rosie O'Donnell, David Hyde Pierce and more, it sure looks like as good a cast as you could get anywhere. The trailer looked emotional and powerful and not bogged down by the cheap-o hair, makeup and costuming that sometimes infect network period pieces.
Update: 11/21/16
The series will debut in February 2017.
I think it would be nice if at least one actor was gay, but it's never personally mattered to me. It's not like a white person being casted as a person of color. The character can still be gay regardless of the actors' looks, so representation can still be made.