Gloria Steinem did not write “Better Off Dead,” the Lifetime movie airing at 8 p.m. Tuesday. But it is her enduring spirit, her incisive intelligence and her unique perceptions of women and their role in the world that shape the contours of the film.
As co-executive producer, Steinem developed the project with her friend the veteran producer Rosilyn Heller. She helped with the casting: Tyra Ferrell (“Boyz N the Hood”) portrays a lawyer; Mare Winningham (“Hard Promises”), the daughter of a white supremist who shoots and kills a black policeman.
She also helped select director Neema Barnette and writer Marlane X. Meyer.
The movie’s controversial subjects-racism, capital punishment, abortion-grew out of her years as an activist for the women’s movement.
It had always struck Steinem as odd that people who are anti-abortion are-for the most part-in favor of capital punishment. She cultivated a story that made this particular point:
“It makes sense when you understand their logic: Who makes the decision is more important than the decision,” Steinem observes. “As long as the state or the church makes the decision, it’s OK. If the individual does, it’s not OK.”
Anyone who has read Steinem’s tribute to her mother, “Ruth’s Song (Because She Could Not Sing It),” will find that essay reflected in the flawed but poignant relationships between the three mothers and daughters in the film.
“Better Off Dead” sees this bond as our deepest and most sustaining connection. An interracial friendship between a black woman and a white woman provides the crucial spine of the story; the inspiration for this relationship also stemmed from Steinem’s personal history.
In the introductory essay to her book “Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions,” she pays homage to three black feminist partners who traveled the highways of America with her to broaden national understanding of the feminist movement. The activist makes it clear that their support and wisdom kept her going during tough times.
Steinem acknowledges that the film indirectly honors these women of color who were her sisters in the fight for women’s equality.
“I’m sure that’s why the portrayal of that friendship mattered so much to me. If I hadn’t experienced it myself, I wouldn’t know how much it means, and that it’s possible,” she said.
This unusually strong and redemptive relationship lends a spiritual grace to a movie that pulls no punches. “Kit (Winningham) is someone who is deadened to life,” says Steinem. “She comes alive through her friendship with Cutter (Ferrell). Her voyage is from unfeeling to feeling, from being completely detached from life to being open to it.”
“Cutter is not in such dire straits, but she has grown callous to her original purpose in becoming a lawyer. As a black woman in a white male system, she has inadvertently made small compromises. She realizes she’s become something she doesn’t like. In coming to love and support a woman who starts out as a racist, she realizes a more compassionate kind of power. It comes from connecting to the individual, not some abstract idea of justice.”
At first, the race of the characters was stereotypical-a black woman on death row aided by a white female lawyer. Steinem and co-executive producer Heller reversed the races to avoid stereotypes and focus attention on the issues.
This sensitivity to racial proprieties prevailed in all of their decisions. Traditionally, Winningham, a star well-known to television audiences, would receive top billing over Ferrell, a film actress. But Steinem and Heller fought for equal billing.
“This is a co-equal project, and it would have looked wrong,” says Steinem. “So we gave them equal billing. Mare supported that decision.”
They hired a racially-mixed crew that included African-American production designer Keith Burns, the artist behind the designs for John Singleton’s new film “Poetic Justice.” To direct the telefilm, they chose award-winner Barnette-the first black woman to direct a primetime sitcom-who recently signed a three-picture deal with Columbia Pictures.
Barnette’s credits include “American Playhouse,” “China Beach” and “The Cosby Show.” But it was her CBS Afterschool Special “Different Worlds”-nominated for Humanitas and NAACP Awards-that captured their attention. The story of interracial love convinced the producers Barnette could do the job.
“It had to be a black woman director,” Steinem explains. “Because the powerful group doesn’t know the least powerful group as well as vice versa. Blacks know whites better than whites know blacks; women know men better than men know women. So we thought a black woman director was much more likely to empathize with both the white woman and the black woman.”
Barnette took the reins with the stipulation that she could rewrite portions of the script to develop the black female character.
“She was very underdeveloped. You don’t see a woman of color of Cutter’s status on television. There was a problem with Lifetime in the beginning. They agreed to the changes. But it’s one thing to agree to it and another to see it happen. They were looking for an image of a black woman that is usually created by white people. I was giving them the truth, and they had never seen it before. But eventually they came around. I got most of what I wanted.”
Throughout the production, Barnette worked with Ferrell in a continuing quest to create an image of an African-American woman that would make them proud.
Ferrell welcomed the challenges of the role. “In the beginning, Cutter is in favor of the death penalty because she believes in free will. Later she realizes she was a pawn to make the system appear to work justly. This is the first time I’ve had to go through so many changes with a character.”
To ensure authenticity, the actress consulted with her husband, Don Jackson-a civil rights activist and speaker on the criminal justice system. Jackson provided her with essential know-how on the internal workings of the legal system.
Barnette shot the film in 20 days, short even by television standards. This meant no rehearsal time for actors. “It’s very difficult in a complicated, highly emotional story for the actors to be on the set for the first time. But once in a while you get a group of people who somehow understand what you’re doing. We all had one thing in common: We wanted this film to leave an imprint on society.”
That common goal kept Barnette going as she walked the many fine lines drawn by cable executives as they viewed the daily footage. When Barnette needed Steinem to negotiate the conflicts that come with controversial material, she was always there.
“She easily understood our struggle,” says the director. “She was very instrumental in helping Lifetime understand the need to keep a balanced and a fair point of view.”
In her first book, Steinem wrote of the rewards she reaped in her fight for women’s rights:
“As an itinerant organizer, my own two biggest rewards are still a sense of making a difference and the birth of ideas. The first would be enough in itself, for that is how we know we are alive, but the second is magic. On a good night, a roomful of people can set off a chain of thought that leads us all to a new place … “
Steinem’s “Better Off Dead” promises to both make a difference and set off new chains of thought.
