#Freedom fries long beach movie#

It was definitely life imitating art at that point.' While at the museum, the actors met with some of the same Holocaust survivors who had met with the real Freedom Writers over a decade earlier.ĭid any of the real Holocaust survivors appear in the film? We bonded strongly over how those stories affected us. 'Similarly, when we were first getting to know each other during the first week of rehearsals, we went to the museum and it was the exact same experience for us. It proved to be a huge bonding experience for them,' explains Swank.

Hilary Swank commented on this experience in an interview, 'When Erin took the kids to the Holocaust Museum, The actors in the film also visited the Museum of Tolerance. The museum also features exhibits on civil rights and contemporary human rights violations that exist in the world today. As we see in the film, the museum focuses largely on helping visitors understand the true impact of the Holocaust. In real life, Erin took her students to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles. Listen to a Zlata Filipovic Interview (22:03)ĭid Erin really take her students to a Holocaust museum? Her book is titled Zlata's Diary: A Child's Life in Wartime Sarajevo. Like Anne Frank, Zlata spent her days couped up in a room (of an apartment), often never seeing daylight. When Zlata was only 11-years-old, she lived through constant bombings and snipers, not to mention severe food and water shortages. Zlata Filipovic has been described as the new Anne Frank. Which were eventually compiled into the book 'The Freedom Writers Diary'. In reality, this is what prompted Erin to encourage the kids to write their own diaries, Erin and her students persuaded Zlata to fly to Long Beach, California to visit them at Woodrow Wilson High School. Erin also wrote to Zlata Filipovic, a Sarajevo girl who published diaries that dealt with the war in her homeland from September 1991 through October 1993. I could not save Anne's life.'ĭid Erin Gruwell invite anyone else to speak to her students?

'People sometimes call me a hero,' says Gies. She came during the 1994/1995 school year. Miep was 87 when she came to speak at Woodrow Wilson high school in Long Beach, California.

#Freedom fries long beach movie#

She turned 98-years-old in February of 2007, just several weeks after the movie Freedom Writers was released in theaters.Īs depicted in the film, the real Miep Gies did come to speak to Erin's students after they raised enough money to fly her from Amsterdam. However, the real Miep Gies is remarkably still alive today. The woman who hid Anne Frank, Miep Gies, was played by veteran stage and screen actress Pat Carroll. Erin Gruwell and her husband did divorce for reasons similar to those presented in the film ( pluggedinonline).ĭid the woman who hid Anne Frank play herself in the movie? 'I'm living a life I didn't agree to.' This part of the movie is true. Eventually, the two divorce with Scott telling her, In the film, as Erin Gruwell becomes more devoted to her teaching, her husband Scott starts to feel neglected. In the movie Freedom Writers, Hilary Swank's character lives with her husband Scott, played by actor Patrick Dempsey ( Grey's Anatomy). Was Erin Gruwell's husband in the film based on a real person?