Lights, Courage, Action: Lee Rose's Directorial Odyssey

Send us Fan MailLights, Courage, Action: Lee Rose's Directorial OdysseyLee Rose: In-the-Face Storytelling, The Truth About Jane, and Refusing to DisappearHost Quincy interviews writer-director-producer Lee Rose about her career and approach to storytelling, highlighting The Truth About Jane as a project that enabled parent-child conversations and drew intense reactions, including death threats, a White House screening, and a fight to dedicate the film to Matthew Shepard. Rose traces her path from theater and production work to writing and producing TV movies, learning ruthless editing from Stockard Channing, and making her directorial debut with The Color of Courage, a civil-rights story she pushed to greenlight with Linda Hamilton’s support. She discusses being raised by a Black housekeeper, sexism in directing versus being gay, the shrinking pipeline for new diverse directors post-COVID/strikes, and advice to persist through shorts, grants, festivals, and DGA mentoring. Rose also reflects on coming out later in life, separating work from news, and currently writing a novel about generations of women and slavery.00:00 A Rebel Builds Her Own Table01:08 Welcome to Cocoon After Dark01:25 Rapid Fire and The Truth About Jane02:52 From Theater to TV Sets04:06 Learning to Let Words Go07:19 Becoming a Ruthless Editor09:14 Directorial Debut The Color of Courage13:56 Raised by Johnny and Identity15:18 Women Gay and Power on Set17:01 Who Gets Hired Now19:29 Advice for New Directors21:24 When Representation Catches Up24:46 Writing for Everyone Strong Leads26:39 Origins Late Bloomer Lessons29:23 Chores and Tough Love30:39 Truth About Jane Fallout33:07 Culture Backlash Today34:18 Staying Focused Creatively35:28 Mentoring Women Filmmakers36:38 Two Ideas at Once37:59 Coming Out at 3841:21 Parents and Upbringing47:37 Exes and Adulthood49:52 Martinis and Quitting Smoking51:09 Cruise and FarewellSupport the showhttps://linktr.ee/CocoonAfterDark