Kathleen Turner and Emily Deschanel Talk to SheWired About 'The Perfect Family'

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I love the line, “I don’t have to think, I’m Catholic.”

Turner: That was a tough one. We could have played that sucker just for laughs, because the laugh is inherent. So you almost have to play against the line. Eileen was completely sincere, but that’s acting.

Do you think Shannon was able to reconcile the religion she was raised with, with her wife?

Deschanel: I choose to get married by a Catholic priest. I choose to wear a small cross - well the character does. So, for Shannon it is still a part of her and she has found a way to reconcile those things. By the end, let’s say that. Because why hadn’t she come out to her mother if she didn’t have any issues with that?

I was thinking of Serial Mom’s Beverly Sutphin for part of the film.

Deschanel: She came into my mind. I think because of the suburban housewife motif. Good lord knows, I would never confuse the two, let’s say. The idea that they both are nonworking, family-oriented, and their mission in life is the children, or in Eileen’s case is service through the church. There are some similarities but that’s as far as it goes.

So, it’s not like Beverly found religion?

Turner: (Laughs) That’s a horrific thought. Who would she kill then?

Who wouldn’t she kill? One of the things that’s so refreshing about the movie is that it’s told from the vantage point of a woman. And not a 26-year-old woman looking for love in the big city. Why is it so hard to find stories of people and families? Not to discredit films like the upcoming blockbuster Battleship.

Turner: Well, why not? Commercially speaking, the most tickets we know are sold to young people, between the ages of 16 and 25. Or young men around that age group. They buy more tickets than any other demographic in our country. So of course the industry is going to cater to them. It’s not very interesting. But this is where it’s very exciting — the independent filmmaking allows us to make this quality of film without needing the huge investments of a studio. The problem is the distribution. 

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