Hitting theaters on August 31, the raunchy sex comedy For A Good Time, Call… sees two unlikely Manhattan roommates launch a successful phone-sex line to pay the bills.
The film’s screenwriters, Katie Anne Naylon and Lauren Miller (who also stars) based the film on their real-world relationship: Two two met in college, when Naylon actually worked as a phone-sex operator.
Actor Justin Long (He’s Just Not That into You) plays Jesse, a big-screen version of Miller and Naylon’s real-life mutual gay best friend. (As Graynor puts it, “you’re seeing an homage.”) And even though Long has played a gay-porn star opposite Brandon Routh in Zack and Miri Make a Porno, and one half of a same-sex married couple in the Funny or Die short “Devin & Glenn,” he wanted to do the character justice.
So he shadowed Good Time’s openly gay director, Jamie Travis. “He asked if we could have dinner,” recalls the Canadian-born filmmaker, “and said he wanted to record me reading lines from the script on his iPhone.”
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Travis (left), who’s making his feature-directorial debut, wasn’t immediately thrilled with the idea: “Of course I was very nervous—the last thing I wanted was for this character to be a caricature of me,” he says. “But Justin brought so much to [Jesse]—I see so much of him in it.”
Fortunately Long focused more on small mannerisms than creating a cinematic doppleganger. “On set, he was sort of shadowing my movements, the way I put my hand on my hip, the way I would stand at the monitor,” says Travis. “I think it was less shadowing my personality and more my physicality.”
Indeed, if you watch the film and then meet the director, you’ll notice unmistakable resemblances—from Jesse’s elegant but masculine speaking voice to his posture and predilection for bow ties.
And while the idea of a straight actor affecting a gay man’s mannerisms may be troubling to some, Travis believes that Long’s interpretation stays on the respectful side: “It was very important for me that Jesse not be an oversexualized, over-the-top gay male stereotype,” he recalls. “Originally the character was envisioned in a different way, and I was so happy when, through the process of casting and rewriting, it became more and more like, well, me!”
Below, a trailer for For a Good Time Call…, which also stars Seth Rogen, Nia Vardalos, James Wolk and Mimi Rogers.
pscheck2
When oh when will the entertainment industry use actual gay actors playing gay characters?It pi**s me off that they use str8 (well, so-called str8) actors for these parts! What’s the problem? I read a posting to one of these Blind gossip columns, from a casting director (20 years) that it has been in his experience in casting that about 80 to 90% of these hunks who are actors, are gay! I know that sounds over the top but he was adding his two cents to a previous comment that claimed 70% of the male actors are gay! As I mentioned, the BG columns seem to validate these percentages in that they have column after column hint that some of the b iggest names (B=-A+) in film, are gay! So,. again, what’s the problem? O.K., I know what it is (closet), but many twinks are trying to be actors and would give their right tit to get a part in a gay theme movie! Are these gay producers/directors afraid of the str8 fan base by boycotting these films with actual gay actors? Me thinks this is the case. (MONEY!,MONEY!)
jmmartin
I wish he’d stalk me.
DuMaurier
@pscheck2: I’m a little confused by your post; you’re mad that gay characters aren’t being played by gay actors, but the (unofficial) statistics you cite seem to indicate that the vast majority of the time they probably are.
Aidan8
1. I admit I have a Justin-Long-tying-me-down-and-fucking-me-fantasy.
2. Why does it matter that str8 actors play a gay character? Should gay actors only play gay characters?
kurt_t
I have SUCH an age-inappropriate crush on Justin Long.
There. I said it.