Susan DeRose is expanding beyond being the co-owner of OK Cafe, Bones and Blue Ridge Grill.
DeRose has written and directed her own period-piece movie, which is coming to selected movie theaters and video on demand Friday: “Charming the Hearts of Men” starring Kelsey Grammer, Anna Friel and Sean Astin. It was shot in Madison and Athens in 2019.
Set in 1964, the film is a fictional account based on real-life events centered on a character named Grace Gordon (Friel), who challenges the discrimination faced by women in the 1960s, with help from Grammer’s Congressman character. The movie website said it “plays out in juke joints, fading plantation life and the Halls of Congress.”
DeRose and her business partner Richard Lewis sent an email to restaurant patrons Tuesday, calling the film “a romantic romp through a political time.”
Friel starred in the ABC show “Pushing Daisies” from 2007 to 2009. Grammer is best known for his role as Frasier Crane on “Cheers” and “Frasier.” Sean Astin was a key part of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and was featured in season 2 of “Stranger Things.”
DeRose did not return a text for comment.
Last June, during the Black Lives Matter protests, she briefly unveiled a banner at her OK Cafe location: “Lives That Matter Are Made With Positive Purpose.” The cryptic message resulted in critics writing hundreds of negative reviews online, DeRose wrote a week later.
“We have been told, kneel, or go out of business,” she wrote. “If loving America is wrong, I don’t wanna be right. And our great and mighty team stands with us on this point.”
The list of theaters that will make the film available this weekend are on the film’s website including places in Marietta and Athens. It will be available to stream on iTunes and Apple TV for $12.99.
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