ALL OVER THE GUY
Question: Is this just another film about gay people?
Answer: (SASHA ALEXANDER) Absolutely not. It’s not another film about gay people. One, I’ve never seen a movie sort of like this, that approached a gay relationship. Part of the response that the film has been getting from a lot of people that have seen it is that they haven’t seen a gay relationship portrayed this way in a movie yet. So it’s very refreshing it’s not like a stereotypical sort of…
(ADAM GOLDBERG) It’s not like the film that Dan’s character can’t stand, that you go see at the NUART…It’s nice that it explores relationships and that there are things about their relationship that you could apply to your own relationship or life regardless of your own sexual inclination.
(SASHA ALEXANDER) Especially when you look at the movie and our two characters and their two characters, we’re all sort of interchangeable. It’s just a different set of issues and different people but really there’s not that much difference.
(ADAM GOLDBERG) Here we get to play the solid straight couple supporting the main theme of the movie, which is the gay couple, which is a nice sort of twist.
Question: Tell me about your support for the fight against AIDS and for the Gay and Lesbian Civil Rights Movement.
A: (DORIS ROBERTS) Several years ago someone asked if I was gay and I said, "no, I’m Jewish, it’s the same thing.’
Q: Tell me about your role in this film as Esther.
A: [Esther] represents a good old Jewish woman, mother, sweet human, wonderful (take no bullshit) with a mouth like a truck driver.
Q: Is this your first time using flagrant language in a film?
A: No
Q: How did you attempt to write this story without stereotyping?
A: (DAN BUCATINSKY) I stayed away from stereotypes mainly because of the way in which this happened. I wrote a play called "I Know You Are, But What am I" and when I adapted it to a screenplay and made the female character into a male but kept all the issues the same and all the themes the same. It became a story just about relationships and in doing so I think I was inadvertently able to….I was able to achieve a story that was just about people, 4 friends and that could have been about a gay couple a straight couple, (or a) lesbian couple. I tried really hard to make it about the people that happen to be gay or happen to be straight or happen to be Jewish or happen to be neurotic. Without it having a particular gay agenda or straight agenda and I think that we achieved that because it’s sort of WHEN HARRY MET SALLY or "When Harry met Larry" kind of story.
Q: You play an overly macho character that’s not so stereotypically gay. Did you have to push it forward to make a point against that?
A: (RICHARD RUCCOLO) I just played it "forgive the pun" I played it straight. I played it just human, I thought. Because it wasn’t a movie about a gay couple. It was about a romantic comedy about a couple that happened to be gay. It was clear from the script… Dan didn’t even have to tell me that there were no stereotypes in here and he was avoiding that. It was so clearly written that it was an easy choice .. there’s both characters There’s the stereotype. Sean Hayes character of WILL AND GRACE, they’re out there. They’re funny, they exist and they’re great. But there’s also the other side, the very straight acting what society would call normal people. The gay friends I have are more on that side and I’m more or less emulating friends I have that are gay that aren’t as flamboyant as other gay men.
A: (DAN BUCATINSKY) I think the misconception is that and the reason why there are stereotypes is that people believe that straight people act a certain way and gay people act a certain way and the truth is there’s as much variety in every community. There are a lot of straight guys that are more effeminate and a million gay guys out there that you couldn’t tell one way or another. And I think this movie sort of dispels all of those stereotypes. I mean, Jackie’s character mistakes the Bret character played by ADAM GOLDBERG. She instantly thinks he’s gay because he designs furniture. So everyone’s dealing what people’s misconceptions are. I think it’s just two guys that happen to be gay.
A: (RICHARD RUCCOLO) Especially in this industry, I think more times than often it comes to you, "Oh he’s gay, I didn’t know that." It’s so rare for me to know instantly. It’s not like the character of Sean Hayes is walking into a room every time. That’s just not how it is and there fine and they’re great but it’s just not always like that. I just played it as if I was in a romance with a woman.
Q: Have you guys gotten any feedback from the gay community and how they’re taking this kind of relationship. Do you feel like it’s a realistic kind of relationship?
A: (DAN BUCATINSKY) One of my best compliments that I ever got was last night because we closed Outfest. It was the premeire of the movie and somebody came up to me and said that this film, whether you like it or not or whether your want it this to be the case or not, is groundbreaking. It’s groundbreaking in the fact that it’s matter-of-fact. The fact that we don’t treat it as groundbreaking is what in a sense makes it groundbreaking. And I was really touched by that. I thought that if in fact we’re starting a whole new level of Hollywood films or independent films that just tell stories where characters are one way or another. The gay community is embracing the film as sort of being just a reflection of themselves just as the straight community could look at the same movie and see a reflection of themselves.
A: (RICHARD RUCCOLO) and on the other side of that a gentleman obviously straight man, about 60 to 70 years old, I only bring up his age because it’s just a different way of thinking as far as age. He came up to me last night and he was a friend of one of the actresses in the movie and he said this was the first film I’ve ever watched with gay characters. When the kiss happened it was the first time I didn’t feel uncomfortable. And from somebody in that age group and in the straight world that’s a huge compliment that something that was done right in the script. It was a huge compliment.
Q: How did your girlfriend react to the kiss?
A: (RICHARD RUCCOLO) My girlfriend reacted just like if I was kissing a woman. She doesn’t like me kissing women on screen. It makes her feel uncomfortable. It makes a lot of people fell uncomfortable. It had nothing to do with male or female it was the exact same reaction when I had to kiss BO DEREK on my show….I think it’s becoming a lot more assimilated and I’m glad the WILL AND GRACE crowd and the popularity of that show has actually helped us in a way. Because if you dig WILL AND GRACE you’ll dig ALL OVER THE GUY.
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