Role emotional for Lauren Graham

Actor Lauren Graham burst into tears on the set of her new film "Flash of Genius" recently when she received a visit from the family of the late Robert Kearns, whose life is the focus of the biopic.

"I was bawling," Graham, best known for her role as Lorelai on "Gilmore Girls," confessed in an on-set interview this week in Toronto, where filming of "Flash of Genius" is due to wrap up on Saturday. "I was verklempt."

The film, directed Marc Abraham, profiles Kearns's lengthy court battles against Detroit automakers to prove that he was the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper - battles he eventually won after much heartache and legal bills.

Academy Award-nominated actor Greg Kinnear plays Kearns while Graham plays his ex-wife Phyllis with whom he had six children.

Phyllis Kearns, who is now in her 70s, was married to Kearns for 29 years but was troubled for much of the time over his obsession with the trials that at one point drove him into a mental hospital.

During a three-day visit with her children to the film sets in Toronto and Hamilton, Ont., earlier this month, though, it was obvious "that she never stopped loving the guy," said Toronto-based executive producer J. Miles Dale.

"We had basically our festival of catharsis here with everybody," Dale said outside the studio, where Kinnear and Graham were shooting a Michigan courtroom scene with co-stars Dermot Mulroney and Bill Smitrovich.

"Greg (Kinnear) has actually come to really embody the guy just in terms of the way he speaks and the way he acts, and all of the kids said that they thought they were watching their dad."

Kinnear said the Kearns siblings - who are now adults living in Detroit and parts of Maryland, where their father died in 2005 - reacted "pretty strongly" during the on-set visits.

"I think for the family to be here on a movie set where a story is ultimately being told about what their father ... did is kind of the promise that he made to them ultimately being delivered, but after his death," said Kinnear in full makeup and wardrobe in his trailer, his dog sitting at his feet.

"It's kind of emotional for them, certainly, and I think it's kind of touched all of us making the movie as well."

Kearns, a former Wayne State University mechanical engineering professor, represented himself as he went up against big automakers in the 1970s and '80s - including Ford and Chrysler - and is looked upon as someone who fought for inventors' rights.

Graham said it was the first time she'd ever come face-to-face with a real-life character she was portraying.

"I've just never been in that position before. I've never done something that's based on a true story," the Golden Globe-nominated star explained inside her trailer during a break.

"It was very emotional. You feel indebted to this family to have shared their story, and they've been very helpful and supportive ... so I felt kind of shy and it was just nice to meet her," she said, sitting on a couch with a simple hairdo and makeup for the role.

"I really was emotional. I just said 'hi' and 'thank you' and that's it, mainly because of the work day but also I just was really speechless to meet her."

Abraham, who co-wrote the screenplay with Philip Railsback, said Phyllis Kearns "was in tears every day" while on set, "and a good portion of the time she was just fighting back her emotions, trying to keep them under control."

"It's clearly a David vs. Goliath story, it's clearly about the little man fighting against the system, but it's also about how expensive these battles are emotionally and the toll they take, and I think that for this family it took a big toll," said Abraham, an acclaimed film producer who is making his feature directorial debut with "Flash of Genius."

"And when they came here and saw it all being re-constructed, you know, the dream that they never ... got to realize completely in real life was suddenly happening in the movies."

"Flash of Genius" is expected to be released in fall 2008.

Source: Jam!