John Lithgow may be an American acting institution but you don't often see him in leading roles. The former 3rd Rock from the Sun sitcom star's latest supporting turn is in Christopher Nolan's Interstellar as Matthew McConaughey's father-in-law. In the movies at least - he's long been a fixture on the Broadway stage - he's been a supporting character actor kind of guy.
But in acclaimed independent drama Love is Strange he's one of two leading men opposite Brit Alfred Molina. The pair are a gay married couple who are forced to live separately when Molina's George loses his job teaching music in a New York Catholic school because of their recent marriage.
"We don't regard it as a niche film," Lithgow says. "We regard it as a film about love in many forms and it's certainly about family.
"It's about the little dramas of life that happen to all of us, losing a job, losing an apartment getting in financial trouble and having to live with relatives.
"These are very domestic crises but they're very painful and funny and they're treated with a kind of gentleness."
