Cloudburst, directed by Canadian Thom Fitzgerald (The Hanging Garden), will open March 8 in Toronto after a long and winding road on the festival circuit. Olympia Dukakis, who plays Stella, will be in attendance for the 7pm and 9pm screenings.
The film is about two older lesbians who make a break from a nursing home in the US to go to Canada, where they want to get married.
“Thom [Fitzgerald] says [the role of Stella] came from me,” Dukakis says. “He says that this rebellious combative person — I have a stretch of that in me.”
Dukakis says that even though lead roles for women-of-a-certain are few, she doesn’t feel slighted. She points out that the biggest market for film is young men. “It’s not morality — it’s a market thing,” she says.
Dukakis will join Fitzgerald for a question-and-answer session at the Carlton Cinema.
Below is a video interview with Dukakis done earlier this year. Also interviewed are director Fitzgerald and actor Ryan Doucette.