Defying Hollywood: lesbian writer Jane Anderson may be a big-shot Hollywood director now, but theater is still in her blood.(05 THEATER SPECIAL: 05 Playwrights & Performers)(Interview)

Curve, December, 2005 by Lo, Malinda

"I think that a lot of my work hinges on the concept of forgiveness," Jane Anderson says contemplatively. It's the day of the San Francisco premiere of her latest film, The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio, and the petite writer-director is a bundle of enthusiastic energy. "I suppose my other [theme] is marriage, relationships," she adds. "Stamina in a relationship is as essential as stamina in a career."

Anderson, 51, has been with her partner, Tess Ayers, for 24 years. They and their 10-year-old son, Raphael, make their home in both Los Angeles and Marin County, California. Prize Winner--starring Julianne Moore as Evelyn Ryan, a 1950s housewife who makes ends meet by writing contest-winning ad jingles--certainly falls squarely in Anderson's favorite thematic...