Philomena tells the true story of Philomena Lee‘s search for the son that the Catholic Church took from her as a teenager in the 1950s. Lee (played by Judi Dench, who was just nominated for the Best Actress Oscar) spends years trying to find out what had become of her son and, with the help of journalist Martin Sixsmith (played by Steve Coogan), tries in vain to hunt him down. Once Lee and Sixsmith find out her son’s, Anthony, whereabouts and identity, the information leads to more heartbreak — Anthony, renamed Michael Hess, who was a closeted lawyer working for the Republican National Committee, had died from AIDS complications several years earlier. Hess, like his birth mother, had contacted the Catholic Church to find his family and had been lied to by the nuns who had given him away. “I was really very sad that he had actually passed away without me ever, ever finding him,” Lee told Uinterview exclusively. “All I ever wanted to do was to find him.”

Lee was a fan of Dench’s acting in the film. “She portrayed me so well, she did a wonderful job, she really did,” Lee told Uinterview. “She actually got the essence of what I was like and we found we had quite a few things in common as well, so that helped.”

Lee spoke to uInterview with her daughter Jane Libberton about the movie and her heart-breaking story.

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