Jeanne Tripplehorn talks about the making of Lifetime’s breast cancer anthology “Five”

On Oct. 10, Lifetime will unveil the newest effort in its 17-year-old “Stop Breast Cancer for Life” initiative — one that may be, according to the network’s president and GM Nancy Dubuc, “the most important film we’ve ever done.”

Simply titled Five, the anthology features, yes, five emotional, frequently funny and complexly interwoven short films about women dealing not only with the physical effects of breast cancer and their ensuing treatments, but also a part of the diagnosis often left undiscussed — how such a deeply personal disease affects their sense of self, how they relate to others and how others relate to them.

Jennifer Aniston on the set of Lifetime's "Five"

The project is the brainchild of superstar actress Jennifer Aniston, her producer pals Kristin Hahn (The Departed) and Marta Kauffman (Friends) and Mission Impossible franchise producer Paula Wagner. The group sought out impactful female directors to join first-timer Aniston in bringing each vignette to life, landing Demi Moore — who co-produced HBO’s Emmy-nominated 1996 abortion anthology If These Walls Could Talk — plus singer Alicia Keys and veteran directors Patty Jenkins (Monster, The Killing) and Penelope Spheeris (Wayne’s World).

To embody their key characters, they brought aboard Emmy-Award winner Patricia Clarkson — personally invited by Aniston to star in her segment, “Mia” — Sin City’s Rosario Dawson, How I Met Your Mother’s Lyndsy Fonesca, Jeanne Tripplehorn and her Big Love costar Ginnifer Goodwin.

“[Breast cancer] runs in my family,” Tripplehorn explains of her passion for playing the role of a woman driven to become an oncologist by the loss of her mother to breast cancer. “My grandmother had it, and my aunt — who actually lives with me now — she had it, I guess, 8 years ago now. So this project is clearly very near and dear to me.”

As is, she says, the approach the anthology takes to the breast cancer experience — a welcome island of honesty in a television landscape that largely ignores cancer’s prevalence in society or reduces cancer patients to stereotypical or fantastical characters.

Tripplehorn says Kauffman read The Emperor of All Maladies, Siddhartha Mukherjee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “biography” of cancer, and was struck by the one constant in the staggering evolution of cancer and cancer treatments — the determination and humanity of the doctors and patients locked together in the fight. Thus, rather than delve too deeply into the complex and ever-changing realm of breast cancer treatment, Kauffman and her team of writers focused on the personal, capturing how the women and their relationships are transformed.

That philosophy also allowed the writers and directors to infuse the project and the sets with a steady stream of humor — something most patients and survivors (I am a brand-new one) know is crucial to surviving the surreal and sudden life change of a cancer diagnosis.

“I had a particularly great experience with Patty Jenkins,” Tripplehorn says of the woman who directed the final vignette that revisits cancer’s personal impact on Pearl. “We laughed a great deal and she really tried to punch up the humor with the context of it being a dramatic or stressful situation. I was a little scared of the project because I didn’t want it to be this very dark and dramatic dirge — because it’s not. I’ve experienced cancer with people in my life and you better believe we tried to find the humor in it!”

Jeanne Tripplehorn stars in Lifetime's "Five"

Plus, she didn’t have much time to let fear take root — though Tripplehorn’s character is vital to all five films, she was actually one of the final players signed on to Five.

“It was very important that they set their directors and get that together — because [matching] each director and the tone of the piece is so important. It was really about finding the right fit, and also to find women to direct. Penelope Spheeris was the last person to be fit as a director — but it was a perfect fit. Her piece is about a stripper who is diagnosed, and it just fit perfectly with who she is as a person and what stories she likes to explore. Demi was set right after I was set and it was about three weeks before we began.” At which point Tripplehorn’s life became a steady cycle of prepping and shooting with an ever-changing roster of actors and crew.

“They filmed one after the other,” she explains, “and two of our producers, Francesca Silvestri and Kevin Chinoy, work really well in the short-film format, so they had a great system where you have a week of pre-production on one film and then you would film that and then the following week you would have a week of pre-production on the next film and then film that. It was just a machine.”

One for which she was more than prepared.

“I had just come off of Big Love which was a good 6 or 7 years of working with a different director every week and a half,” says Tripplehorn. “New director, new story, but my character stayed the same throughout — so this was very similar to the working process I’d been doing for years. It felt normal.”

Asked if there was any particular moment, on-set or off, that stood out from her time on Five, Tripplehorn cited the experience as a whole. “I felt part of a really great, really incredible community of women and that was so nice to deal with and so nice to be around. Every single director. Every actress. Every producer. It was a really unique experience and that’s what I’ll take from it. That it was a true effort of women coming together for women, unified, and it was very powerful.

“I’ve been working a long time and I’ve never had this kind of experience!” she says happily, “and I want more! I want more of them!”

The 5 Films of Five:

Demi Moore directs a segment of Lifetime's "Five"

“Charlotte”
Directed by: Demi Moore
Stars: Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Holloway, Jennifer Morrison, Annie Potts, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Bob Newhart
What It’s About: On the eve of man’s first moonwalk, the family of dying young mother Charlotte (Goodwin) struggles to cope with her illness, even as her small daughter devotes herself to curing the disease.

 

Lyndsy Fonseca stars in Lifetime's "Five"

“Cheyanne”
Directed by: Penelope Spheeris
Stars: Lyndsy Fonseca, Taylor Kinney
About: A young, newlywed stripper (Fonseca) facing double mastectomy can’t fathom life, love — or a career — without breasts.

 

Musician Alicia Keys directs a segment of Lifetime's "Five"

“Lili”
Directed by: Alicia Keys
Stars: Rosario Dawson, Tracee Ellis Ross, Jenifer Lewis, Jeffrey Tambor
About: Fiercely independent career woman Lili (Dawson) must overcome issues with her headstrong mother and accept her family’s support. Tambor costars as a male breast cancer patient.

 

Patricia Clarkson stars in Lifetime's "Five"

“Mia”
Directed by: Jennifer Aniston
Stars: Patricia Clarkson, Kathy Najimy, Tony Shalhoub
About: A quirky woman (Clarkson) decides to plan and attend her own funeral — and ultimately a wedding with the love of her life.

 

Jeanne Tripplehorn stars in Lifetime's "Five"

“Pearl”
Directed by: Patty Jenkins
Stars: Tripplehorn, Newhart, Clarkson, Shalhoub, Tambor, Dawson, Ross, Lewis
About: Devoted oncologist Pearl (Tripplehorn) — Charlotte’s now-adult daughter — faces her own cancer diagnosis and comes to terms with the turmoil her family experienced back in 1969.

 

What Jeanne’s Reading
As part of her research — and to bolster her own defenses as a woman in a family with a history of breast cancer — Tripplehorn says she watched the TLC documentary Crazy Sexy Cancer by self-described “wellness warrior,” Kris Carr, who is beating an incurable form of liver cancer, and read her “Crazy, Sexy” books. “Her diet book was really great and really informative — just a really great approach,” says Tripplehorn. “I’ve been recommending it to everyone.”

 

Read more of our exclusive interview with Jeanne Tripplehorn in the October issue of Channel Guide Magazine.

Photo credits: Melissa Moseley © 2011 Lifetime Entertainment Services, LLC
Book image:  © Copyright 2010 Crazy Sexy Life.

2 Comments

  1. Jeanne should be right in her element after playing such a dark character in Big Love
    her ability to slide into such sad roles will ensure that this becomes a very interesting show for her.

  2. Looking forward to the movie. I’m a one year survivor of breast cancer. I had two surgeries for stage 1 triple negative breast cancer. I had chemo and radiation because their is no targeted treatment for triple negative. My doctors told me at the end of my treatment that I’ve done everything I can to fight this disease. Their message was to continue living and I heard them but it’s very sobering to sit back and think….that’s it. I’ve done my best, the doctors have done their best, and now it’s up to me to make the most of my life and hope that it’s a long one. I’m 51 and feel reborn because I know that if my cancer comes back, the odds are not in my favor so I have to be the best that I can be. It may sound strange but I’m a happier person because I know that life is short and should be enjoyed. Fill your life with love and joy everyday. Thank you.

2 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

  1. "Everyday Health" takes on breast cancer - Channel Guide Magazine
  2. Call Me Crazy continues Lifetime's Five project

Comments are closed.

About Lori Acken 1195 Articles
Lori just hasn't been the same since "thirtysomething" and "Northern Exposure" went off the air.