If you can't find a man, why not try lesbianism? Film writers Heather Juergenson and Jennifer Westfeldt discovered in their research that lots of women do. Steve Pratt reports.

THEY'VE seen the rights to their off-off Broadway play fought over by movie producers. They've seen the film go on to win both audience and critics prizes at festivals, and now reach the screen backed by a major distributor. But Heather Juergensen and Jennifer Westfeldt have yet to make any money from the offbeat romantic comedy Kissing Jessica Stein.

"At every stage we ran out of money," says Westfeldt, during a trip to Newcastle to promote the film about two women who, unable to find suitable boyfriends, decide to dabble in lesbianism.

"We had opened the production office, assembled the crew, chosen the locations - and were still a little bit short. We had, like, $50,000 to raise in a couple of days. This is the stuff they don't teach you in acting class," adds Juergensen, whose mother lives in Hexham.

They weren't looking for blockbuster sums with a budget of just under one million dollars, but finding the money still proved a problem. When the production was on the verge of shutting down, family and friends rallied round with cash. Westfeldt's parents even liquidated their pension to help keep the project afloat.

The good news is that all the investors have recouped their money. The two actress-writers deferred their script fee, and have received nothing so far. "We have yet to find out if we'll make a dime out of it," says Westfeldt.

The Hollywood scene seemed a long way away when, in 1997, the pair debuted in a play they'd written, Lipschtick. The original idea was for a series of vignettes exploring dating hell. "Once we wrote this one scene about these two women, who were desperate to become lesbians in this clueless way, that became the lynchpin for that night. It morphed into a linear piece where bad dates and bad experiences between men and women made these two women take this leap," explains Westfeldt.

The play got noticed by Hollywood scouts, with the result that "the studios were beating down the door". The first deal they signed plunged them into development hell for two years.

"We were going in a direction we weren't happy with," recalled Juergensen. "We didn't think the film was going to happen in the near future, so two years in we took the risky decision to buy the rights back and make the movie ourselves in the independent spirit we did the play."

There was no way the actresses were going to relinquish roles written for themselves. Westfeldt plays Stein, who replies to a newspaper ad in the women seeking women section out of desperation and confusion. Juergensen is Helen Cooper, who tries going out with a woman because she's bored with men. It's a novel twist on the sex and the single girl theme but, as time dragged on, the pair realised that an idea that was fresh when the project began was becoming increasingly unoriginal.

"We felt we were a little bit after the curve. Ally McBeal, Friends and Sex In The City all appeared with the same themes," says Westfeldt. "We thought, 'we have to get this out before it's all over'. We had an urgency about feeling we were tapping a nerve in the culture, and getting the film made sooner rather than later.

"We decided to do it our way. Even if we did it for ten cents, it would be ours. We had to let go of the idea that it was new. You can't be first but you can be original in your story and how you do it." The pair fought to retain control over all aspects of the movie and make it on their terms, without compromises.

"When Jennifer and I began collaborating, it was talking about dating and how hard it was. As for two women trying this relationship, it was a big leap of imagination for us," says Juergensen. "Once we began the writing process in earnest, we began interviewing women and doing some research. We found there is a spectrum of experiences out there like this, where women might try something in college, having previously been identified as straight. They might be married for 25 years with kids, then get divorced and become involved with a woman. We realised that we might have had a flight of fancy, so to speak, but for some people it was very real."

Westfeldt adds: "Most women who've ever had a tender, deep friendship with another women has, at one point or another, especially when they have a terrible time in the dating world, thought, 'this works in so many ways, if only this one last component can be added. If we can just get our heads around that, it might be a brilliant relationship'.

"We interviewed women for three years before we shot this film and were amazed to hear stories where people were not concerned with labels but just trying to go with their gut and connect with people. Every permutation you can imagine, we heard."

* Kissing Jessica Stein (15) is showing in cinemas now.