Now and Then is one of the best friendship movies that revolves around a group of four women reminiscing about growing up with each other in the 1970s. In that group of friends was tomboy Roberta, played by Wednesday cast member Christina Ricci, who has a close bond with the naïve yet cautious Chrissy. Now, Rosie O’Donnell, who played the grown-up version of Roberta, revealed that her character was originally a lesbian, however, that piece of the character's identity was cut from the movie.
When Now and Then came out in 1995, lesbian relationships on-screen were not portrayed as frequently as straight relationships. Due to this lack of representation, studios were hesitant to include LGBTQ+ relationships in their movies. Now and Then was one of those movies, as Rosie O’Donnell revealed on Now What? with Brooke Shields podcast. She went on to explain that her character, Roberta, was originally written as a lesbian who intended to be in a romantic relationship with her childhood friend Chrissy until it was decided to change her sexual orientation to heterosexual.
