L: Tonight, it's a three way, made in Hollywood. The one and only Sharon Stone is has been making time with the uniquely funny Ellen DeGeneres, and Ellen's soulmate, Anne Heche who's been giving them directions to their own mix on Larry King Live.
Good evening, welcome to another edition of Larry King Live. A big show coming on HBO, premieres on Sunday night and they'll show it about 720 times for the rest of the year. It's call, "If These Walls Could Talk 2," which means they did one once. Sharon Stone will be joining us in a while. She's on her way over. With us now is Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche. Anne directed and wrote one of the segments of this production and Ellen of 'coz co-stars with the other two.. give me a little history of how this came about.. you, Anne, Sharon, HBO..
E: Well, first of all, they...actually HBO went to Anne first and asked her to write and direct one segment and...
L: Do you know what they wanted to do.. that it would be "If These Walls Could Talk 2" and it would be about lesbianism?
E: Yes, yes, they knew that ahead of time and but they didn't say this is the subject matter, it was just a trilogy of what lesbianism throughout, you know, through different..
L: History..
E: Yes, and er.. well not the entire history but 3 different time periods, so then they came to me shortly after that, asking do you wanna be the executive producer on this, thinking that I'd be sitting at home, with nothing to do, not realizing that Anne was gonna write it for me which I didn't realize it either. So the same time I jumped on it as the executive producer for the project for all 3 pieces. There are 3 shorts, 3 half hours..
L: That's the concept of these series, right, there will be 3 half-hour stories as they did in one...
A: Exactly, they all happened in the same house, in 3 different times...
E: Well, the first one was about abortion so everybody had very strong opinions about abortion one way or the other. And this is about lesbianism which is, I guess, also very controversial, not to us.. it is to other people.
L: How did Sharon come on board, Anne?
A: The interesting thing was I had obviously written it for Ellen and I was trying to think of a partner that'd be the same strength as Ellen is, I mean, someone who'd be able to do some things that complimented what her performance was, something that I wondered if the relationship between the two actresses needed to be strong, and both of them needed to be strong women. So I just thought Sharon would be fabulous and I picked up the phone and called her on a whim and said, hey, how do you feel about this? She said send me the script and within 3 days said yes, I'm on it, c'mon, let's do it.
L: There were 3 half-hour segments, and it's all in the same house, right?
A: Right..
L: But different people living there, you're playing different people in each segment
E: Yes,
L: Segment one is in the 60s...
A: '61, that one starring Vanessa Redgrave, and it's about 2 women living together, and one of them dies, and how that affects her life..
E: Well, and in '61, she was closeted, so when her partner dies, it shows the heartbreak of not being able to grief and express.. no one cares, they think she was just a roommate,..
L: Are there other characters in all these stories, not just 3 character-pieces, right?
E: Right. And the middle piece which is set in 70-something,
L: Sharon's not in the first piece..
A: Neither is Ellen..
E: No, no..
A: They have theirs separately..
E: 3 separate half-hours, and the 2nd one, Chloe Sevigny, who just got nominated for "Boys Don't Cry," which is amazing..she's in it. Michelle Williams from "Dawson's Creek" is in it also, which is a brave move for her, to play that kind of character in "Dawson's Creek" and then go and play a lesbian..a lot of people would say, don't do it..
L: And what's the genesis or the concept of segment 2?
E: Feminism, when it was first started and women trying to just get equality and how lesbians were kicked out of the feminist movement. They would not include their rights and...
L: Because they were too far..
E: Right..
L: On the side..
E: First we have to start with ours , and then we'll include you, which was interesting..
L: And the 2000 which you wrote (looking at Anne) and are in?
A: No I'm not in it..
L: Sharon and Ellen..
E: Mmm.hmm..
L: What's the concept in 2000?
A: It's 2 women, 2 lesbians, who've been together for about 5 years and now they want to have a baby and the process that they go through.. I wanted a universal theme and that was one of the things that reached out to everybody and certainly some of our crew members and so many source. We got a lot of crew becoz they've related in their husband and wife have gone through the same experience these 2 girls feel. It's about life, and a romantic comedy. Its expands out in a hopeful time which the first "If These Walls Could Talk" which was the one I was in ended so tragically and with this, we wanted to end it with hope and..
L: A lot of writings are sort of biographical, two of you want a child?
A: We talked about it when we were going through it, I think I was kinda became a little obsessed with it because I had to be, and I wanted to know, and I wanted to give the people who're going through this honor, so I think we did get a little obsessed and now..
L: I mean, do you two have a child.
.E: Well, after seeing the picture of your baby, yes, yeah, yeah..
A: Exactly.
.L: Right, we take him right now..
A: We would..
E: Yeah, if he looks like that, we would..yeah.
L: How do lesbians adopt?
E: Uh..
L: How do they get a child?
E: Well...
L: Is it one of them sleeps with the man and gives birth..
E: Well, you can adopt, like you said, although some states you cannot adopt, but some states, you can adopt, and you could go to somebody you know, you could go to a sperm bank.. This is what ours.. the whole subject matter deals with.. It's like do you want to go to somebody you know, do you want to know the father of your child, do you want to go to a sperm bank, how weird is that, you don't know what you're getting, and uh.. do you adopt, so many different..
L: You like writing (to Anne)?
A: Oh, I love it. I love it, yes..
L: We'll be right back with more on Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche. Sharon will be joining us.. "If These Walls Could Talk 2," it's an HBO special. We'll be right back..
[A short clip of "2000" & Commercial Break]
L: By the way, since this is the current matter, it airs on Sunday, and election's coming up this Tuesday. We have this widely discussed proposition in California that would recognize marriages only between a man and a woman. Are you very involved in this battle?
E: Yes, we're very against it..
A: We're very against.. yeah, no, no, no, no on Knight..
L: What does it say?
E: Here's the thing. First of all, we're not against No on Knight, we're for No on Knight. It's very confusing because it's Yes on Knight that we're against.
L: Proposition 21, right?
E&A: 22
L: 22, alright..
E: It's No on 22.. and I think it's confusing and they're appealing to a lot of people in a very misleading way saying that if you vote Yes on 22, you're protecting marriage. Now who wouldn't wanna protect marriage, that's obvious. But what you do when you're saying Yes on 22, you're saying that we will never ever get the right to have the same legal right as any other couple, and I think people take it to the extreme, saying that it's supposed to be a union between a man and a woman. But it's a union, that's what it is..
L: The church groups are the ones doing most of the battling to see that it stays man and woman, right?
A: Which is so ultimately confusing to me because what they're actually saying is that, we wanna take away somebody's dream of being together. So for the entire future of this country we're trying to say what our union is will never be recognized..
L: Legally..
A: Legally. Now our relationship in union is about joining in love and why so many people, and this is where I have an issue with religion and certainly it's not every religious person. They're saying, your love doesn't count and we're gonna try to make it very clear to you by continuing to forward these laws to say that your love doesn't matter. Why is it any group, or any individual trying to do that to anybody? It's confusing to me..
E: Well, that stuff they said when it was said in the bible it's between a man and a woman. Well, in the bible it was used to justify slavery. We've learned that we let go of certain things. You also can't round the edges of your beard in the bible. You can't... there's so many things that you cannot..
L: The world was flat..
E: Yeah, Galileo was put away because he believed something different.. I mean, it's just crazy how..
L: But the union... the main reason you fight for is not just for recognition, you want the State to pay health benefits, to.. I mean, a lot of companies do it now.. Time Warner does it, Disney does it..
E: Right.. it's just not being treated as a second class citizen. That's all it is.. it's just how would you wanna be treated. It's just because of our love, that we'll be condemned..
L: Do you want to marry? Is that one of the things you want to have the right to go down to the City Hall as any 2 people want to do..
A: Absolutely just as anybody else is able to do! I mean, consciously, we are married. She's my wife, I'm her wife. But if we can't go and do what every other couple in the country in this world can do, is ludicrous to us. And until that right is allowed to us..
L: We've lived in this society long enough to know that the hardest thing to do is change. People have accepted a lot of change. I was in South Africa. You talk about accepting change, they've accepted change very quickly.
A: Yeah..
L: It's hard, Ellen.. hard for someone, very focused, very nice, who cares about people, to say that health benefits, to say, ok, do you take this woman to be your wife, do you take this woman to be your wife..
E: Sure, it's a different language. When you're not used to a certain language, it's frightening to people, and I think that's what we're trying to do and this piece, "If These Walls Could Talk 2".. is to put a face to something that people fear. And when you fear something, you tend to either attack it, or hate it or don't even wanna.. I mean, watch this piece.. when you watch Vanessa Redgrave lose the woman she loves and what she goes through when she lose her home. I mean, we have to go to our attorney to get certain rights if something happens to Anne, I would be able to go to be with her because legally I don't have that right.
L: The show on HBO is "If These Walls Could Talk 2." Ellen DeGeneres & Anne Heche, and we'll be joined by Sharon Stone as well. This is Larry King Live, don't go away..
[A clip from "1961" and Commercial Break]
