Emotions and hope are strong in Lifetime’s ‘Living Proof’
The power of Lifetime’s “Living Proof,” airing at 9 p. m. Saturday, hits viewers in waves.
The first emotion is just bracing yourself: This is the cable station’s annual film to promote awareness of breast cancer. Viewers know it’s going to be a weepy movie, and unless your pulse has stopped, you will cry. Still, the overriding sentiment of this film is hope.
Hope comes from an unsung hero, the very real Dr. Dennis Slamon (Harry Connick, Jr.) of UCLA. Despite the odds, lack of money and others’ belief in his life’s work, Slamon discovers the drug Herceptin to combat breast cancer.
Connick, who had the opportunity to observe Slamon in his lab, was intent on conveying “his energy level and his passion,” he says. “Obviously the work stands on its own. He is a brilliant doctor, and he has transformed the way people think about treating cancer. The reason he got the idea through was because he was so diligent in his presentation of it. He did not stop shoving it down people’s throats. They kept telling him no, and he just didn’t stop.”
Watching Slamon toil away in a lab that looks like a high-school science room in an underfunded district, viewers can expect another emotional wave to wash over them. They may become incensed over why more funds are not allocated to combat breast cancer.
For Connick, that’s the main message of the movie.
“Research is where the cure is going to come from,” he says. “Without tremendous amounts of money, that research can’t take place.”
Slamon is embarrassed when Lilly Tartikoff (Angie Harmon, “Women’s Murder Club”), widow of Hollywood executive Brandon Tartikoff, decides to become the doctor’s fundraiser. He initially balks, but Tartikoff ignores his protests, gets Revlon to donate millions and raises money through creative galas.
Like Connick, Harmon spent time with the person she portrays. “It was very, very intimidating playing a person who is still living — not to mention everyone knows and is adored by the Hollywood community,” Harmon says.
With funding ensured, Slamon develops the drug, then calls together a disparate group of women to participate in a study of the drug. One is a young mom, another a middle-aged mom; some are older. They are black and white, thicker and thinner, which is precisely the point because breast cancer knows no boundaries. The actresses portraying these women do a marvelous job.
It’s heartbreaking to watch both Trudie Styler (“Empire”), wearing the scarf so common to cancer patients bald from chemotherapy, begging to stay in the study, and Swoosie Kurtz (“Pushing Daisies”) fighting for the life of her daughter.
“I loved the script, and I loved the character even more,” says actress Regina King (“Ray”), who plays one of the women battline cancer in the movie.
Others, including Bernadette Peters and Tammy Blanchard (“Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows”), who give terrific performances, are in the film because of producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (“Chicago,” “Hairspray”). They went through their electronic address books and told their friends they had to do this, despite the pay.
“There was no money to pay those people,” Zadan says of the 20-day shoot. “We had to go to all of our friends and say, ‘Come be in this movie, and we are going to pay you horrible money, and we are all going to do this for the cause.’ ”
Zadan and Meron were initially unsure about committing to a Lifetime movie, especially one with a bleak topic.
“We were struck, initially, that, oh, my God, this is going to be breast cancer and going to be very depressing,” Meron says. “But we weren’t expecting how inspirational and inspiring this story is. We think it is a very, very hopeful story, and it goes beyond the issue in the movie, which is breast cancer. There are people that are unidentified that are walking among us that could potentially be discovering Herceptin and save your life.”
On the cover: Harry Connick Jr.
