GRACIE IS A SHUE FAMILY AFFAIR

Sibling actor Elisabeth and Andrew Shue got their home family involved with the making of Gracie based on their life.

Elisabeth and Andrew Shue, two acting siblings, she of Leaving Las Vegas fame and he the heartthrob Billy Campbell from Melrose Place grew up in New Jersey with soccer in the forefront of their lives. Their father was a college soccer captain, and their oldest brother Will championed his high school team until he died tragically.

Gracie is the Shue’s love letter to their family, the story of a teenage girl loosely based on Elisabeth who overcomes the loss of her brother and fights the odds to achieve her dream of playing competitive soccer at a time when girls’ soccer didn’t exist.

“This is something we’ve been working on a long time. Our brother passed away about 20 years ago so it’s something that we have been about thinking about doing for a while. So I think we kind of got the guts up to do it, to talk about something that’s very personal. But I think in the end anytime a family does something together that’s really meaningful there’s gonna be growth and I think we felt that. We really owe a lot to Davis Guggenheim, my husband who was the one that helped us realize that we could go a little closer to home and make it more authentic and at the same time we trust that he would do such a beautiful job that we would feel proud of the result.”

Gracie was shot at local haunts where the Shues spent most of their childhood.

“We shot at our high school. We shot on Floods Hill where we used to sled and it overlooks where we all played soccer. Andrew: We went back to the town where I saw my first movie ever, when I was five years old National Velvet. Actually the premiere is gonna be there in Maplewood so it’s very exciting.”

Gracie which opens Friday in theaters features cameos of Mr. & Mrs.Shue, their other sister Jenna, brother Harvey, and youngest brother John who helped solve financial issues but was too camera shy and only appears in home movies used in the film.