Another Gay Movie: Exclusive Interview
We recently sat down with Todd Stephens, director of this summer's hilarious new film "Another Gay Movie" (opening August 11th at Midtown Art Cinema), to talk about MySpace, Richard Hatch, and Matthew Rush's cameo "performance."
How did you come up with the concept for this movie?
I had made this movie called "Gypsy 83." The distributor liked it, but felt it wasn't gay enough. So I said I was going to make the gayest movie ever. I really wanted to do something different--and kick all the other gay movies in the ass!
You reference a lot of other films in this movie like "Die Mommie Die!"
Yeah, I was really influenced by funny movies like "Airplane", "Revenge of the Nerds," "American Pie" and "Scary Movie." In this film there are nods to "Carrie" obviously, the softball scenes were a nod to "The Broken Hearts Club," and the scene where one of the characters come out to his mom was exactly the same scene in my other movie "Edge of Seventeen." It was even the same actress who played the mother.
This movie is pretty explicit and really pushes the button with the amount of male nudity. As a filmmaker do you find scenes like that are getting easier or harder to include for release in theaters?
I think they're getting harder to include. We released this movie as unrated because if we tried to make it an R or lower it would have never been released. I sort of looked at it as an act of protest against the right-wing conservative Bush agenda. I wanted to flip censors the bird.
Richard Hatch has been in the news a lot lately. How do you think his prison sentence will affect this film?
What's funny to me is he won "Survivor" like six years ago and he's still in the headlines. I feel bad for him because he's a great guy. He may have screwed up, but five years doing hard time is ridiculous. People get less than that for murder.
What did you think of Matthew Rush's performance in the movie?
Matthew has a great comic sense about him. We brought him in for a stage reading and I was really impressed. He's very funny and just had a great attitude about the whole thing.
Is it getting easier for porn stars to cross over into mainstream work?
It definitely requires some natural acting ability. There have only been a few who have been able to do it, like Traci Lords and maybe Jenna Jameson. But I think they should all be able to cross over!
I thought James Getzlaff from the Bravo reality show "Boy Meets Boy" was pretty good. Were you impressed with him as an actor?
It's funny you ask that. I didn't even recognize him or know who he was when he came in for the audition. But we were all very impressed with how good he was an thought he was perfect for the role.
Talk a little about the setting. Why did you choose L.A.?
We originally wanted to shoot the movie in Asbury Park, New Jersey, but our money came in during the winter. So obviously we couldn't shoot a summer movie in New Jersey in the winter. Plus, I wanted the movie to be like John Waters meets "The Brady Bunch" in a perfect candy-colored world, so we ultimately chose Los Angeles.
This movie is different from other gay movies because its so ideal. The high school is accepting, the kids are accepting, the parents are accepting and everybody pretty much gets along. Did you want this to be a fantasy world viewers could escape into, or do you find it actually reflects what's going on high schools today?
Well my boyfriend is a high school teacher, and he tells me about how much has changed since he was in high school when he observes his students. The cool kids in his school are gay and so much is changing with things like gay-straight alliances. I really just wanted to project an image of "gay is ok" and "gay sex is ok." It's hopefully what gay life will be and should have always been. We're not there yet but I think we're on our way.
You've used MySpace to help promote "Another Gay Movie." Has that helped?
I think it has. I know a lot of the people on MySpace are really young, so I'm not sure if they'll be able to go see the movie, but I think it's helping to get the word out.
What do you say to critics who say it doesn't project a positive image of gay people?
I respect that. People have said every gay movie should be like "Brokeback Mountain." It was a great movie, but I mean hello--the main character died because he was gay. I wanted to capture a world where no one is teased or attacked.
Is there a specific message you want viewers to take away from the movie?
I just want them to laugh--and perhaps see how far we've come as gay people because we're now able to laugh at ourselves.
- Visit the film's MySpace page at MySpace.com/AnotherGayMovie.
* For more gay Atlanta tips, tricks and insider secrets get the book ATLANTAboy: An Insider's Guide to Gay Atlanta on Amazon!
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