'Showtime Offers 'What Girls Learn' '

October 11, 2001

By: Lynn Elber

Elizabeth Perkins sounds tentative as she begins to talk about her role in Showtime's ``What Girls Learn.''

It's not the film's subject -- a mother and her family coping with breast cancer -- that she stumbles over. Her uneasiness is about promoting a project, any project, in the shadow of terrorism and war.

She decided to go ahead, she explains, because of the health issue's importance and because the film can help draw attention to the fact that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

``Women are still going to die of breast cancer,'' Perkins said bluntly. It's the second-leading cause of cancer death in women, after lung cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

Early detection is crucial, Perkins said, reminding herself aloud to schedule her own mammogram. She noted that Friday, Oct. 19, has been designated National Mammography Day, with discounted or free tests offered by participating radiologists.

The actress (``Big,'' ``28 Days'') was drawn to ``What Girls Learn'' in part because she recently lost her best friend of 20 years to cancer.

Her friend was much like the buoyant character Perkins plays in the Showtime film (8 p.m. EDT Sunday, Oct. 14). ``She was incredibly filled with life and cherished every day she had,'' the actress said.

``What Girls Learn,'' drawn from a real family's story, focuses less on disease and more on the relationship between a young mother, Frances (Perkins), her daughters Tilden (Alison Pill) and Elizabeth (Tamara Hope) and the new man (Scott Bakula) in their lives.

It's a tender, delicately etched coming-of-age portrait of the oldest girl, Tilden, and of the complicated relationship that even the most loving and devoted parent has with a child. It's skillfully directed by Lee Rose (``A Girl Thing,'' ``The Truth About Jane'').

Based on Karin Cook's book ``What Girls Learn,'' about her mother's illness and its effect on her and younger sister Jennifer, the film is airing under the ``Showtime Original Picture for All Ages'' umbrella.

The monthly movies are intended for family viewing and discussion.

In the drama, set in early 1980s on New York's Long Island, single mom Frances has uprooted her girls to start a new life with Nick (Bakula). She's an unusual fictional mother: Supportive of her children but not self-effacing.

``It was exactly the kind of mother these girls needed if they were going to lose her, because what she taught them was you can stand up for yourself; it's gonna be OK,'' said Perkins. ``You are strong people.''

It's hard for Tilden, 13, struggling with adolescence and her mom's illness, to believe that: She makes her kindly new stepdad a target for her sullen anger. Jennifer, 12, with an optimistic heart to match her mother's, turns to prayer.

``The little one wants to grow up just like Frances and believes all the magic their mother tries to weave,'' Rose said. ``Tilden is madly in love with her mother but doesn't buy all that. She just can't get beyond her brain to accept everything her mother says at face value.''

The mom tries, bravely, to shield her children from the disease's cruelty. Perkins understands her character's effort.

``It's like the way I'm dealing with the issue of the attacks with my 10-year-old daughter,'' Perkins said. ``You need to decipher what they can handle.''

Unlike her character, however, Perkins said she wouldn't be able to hold back so much about an illness.

``But I think it was reminiscent of the time that it took place and how little we knew about chemotherapy and cancer, how little we knew about communication. In the 1940s, people used to whisper when they said the word cancer.''

In one scene, a discomfited Frances hesitates when daughter Tilden asked to see her mastectomy scar, then finally complies.

Director Rose said she wanted to make sure the film's tenderness was coupled with the tough reality of illness and grief. In other scenes, the daughters are wracked by sobs.

``I want it to be as painful as the experience is,'' Rose said. ``I want the mourning to be as painful as mourning is. We had debates about this. Some of the men thought I may have taken it too far ... I said `No, I didn't. I want to see that.''

Like Perkins, Rose finds world events and tragedies uppermost in her mind. She said she hopes the film provides a chance for a good cry -- and more.

``What the movie reminds you of, and what we have to be reminded of, is to remember people and how they lived, not how they died. What we need to remember is we're lucky to have people in our lives, however briefly.''

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