The film Freeheld currently boasts a lackluster 46% on Rotten Tomatoes, chalked up to “cardboard characters and by-the-numbers drama,” and screenwriter Ron Nysawner knows where things went wrong.
Nysawner, who also wrote the Oscar-nominated script to 1993’s Philadelphia, says his original creation was “de-gayed” by producers who feared offending mainstream straight audiences.
The film follows Laurel Hester, a police officer diagnosed with a terminal illness played by Julianne Moore, struggling to secure her pension benefits for her domestic partner, played by Ellen Page.
Nysawner addressed the on-screen blandness at the LGBT Center’s Vanguard Awards in Los Angeles:
How about we take this to the next level?
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One of my recent gay-themed projects had a lot of potential. But the producers became fearful. The gay characters were idealized. Their edges were smoothed out.
The conflict between them was softened. Over my vigorous objections, by the way, for the record.
God forbid, someone might think we were making a movie about a couple of dykes.
Out of fear, they were normalized. We must remember — and insist that others honor — our history and our very specific gay culture. We are the inheritors of a culture that was created from pain and invisibility. From being different.
He added that LGBT filmmakers, “need to have the courage to insist that our gay characters are created within the fullness of their humanity with all their flaws, just like straight characters,” and that he intends to create work, “that features LBGT characters who are fearless, powerful and scary motherfuckers.”
Nysawner vowed never again to hand over creative control of his movies. “We must be careful – as we become mainstream – that we don’t forget we’re the descendants of outlaws and rebels,” he said. “We must resist the tendency to be de-gayed.”
His next announced project, Man Made Man, is described as “the true story of two sex changes, one love affair, and a twentieth-century medical revolution.”
h/t: NNN
AtticusBennett
the same exact thing was done to Stonewall by its filmmakers, too; “let’s add some STRAIGHT to this story of nonconformist rebellion!”
http://www.nextmagazine.com/content/straight-stonewall
CWM85
No wonder the kids are alright was mostly about the power of a mans dick over a rather happy two mom family… I saw that movie was like isn’t this about a lesbian family?
Masc Pride
Artists always look for someone to blame when their projects flop. Singers blame labels. Actors blame writers and producers. If Man Made Man tanks, he’ll be saying it was because they “de-transed” the story line.
He says LGBT filmmakers, “need to have the courage to insist that our gay characters are created within the fullness of their humanity with all their flaws, just like straight characters,” yet he went along with the “de-gaying” of at least two projects? Seems his bank account doesn’t mind the “de-gaying” so much.
AtticusBennett
@Masc Pride:
Masc Pride, i can explain this process to you: a writer doesn’t have control over the final cut of the film. You submit your script, and then producers at a certain point, and the director, can take it away from you, reshape it, alter it and add their own spin. it happens all the time.
that’s the reality of what happens to screenwriters. they submit the script, the film goes into production, and then they have no say over what the producers and/or director does to that material, what they omit, and what they alter.
i hope this clears it up for you.
but hey, you’re Masc Pride – one of this site’s most pathetic closeted cowards. so it’s to be expected you’d say something stupid.
Masc Pride
That was an almost civilized reply from you, Atticus. You ALMOST made it without personal attacks. Keep working on it! I’m semi impressed.
However, this story even states that Nysawner has, “vowed never again to hand over creative control of his movies.” If he had absolutely no control over his projects, he wouldn’t be able to make such a claim.
AtticusBennett
@Masc Pride: i can explain further – this means he will likely only be producing his own material from now on.
there’s no sense begin civil with you, you’re an anonymous internet trolling wimp who can never show himself because you’re not the Masc man you wanted to be. you’re a troll. semi-impressed; something not even your father ever felt about you.
Masc Pride
Your speculating what he may or may not do in the future is not further explanation of anything but your opinion. It’s also crazy to keep starting conversations with people if you know you can’t be civil.
AtticusBennett
@Masc Pride: you have no intention of being civil. you’re a wimpy closet case who comes here to troll. you’re not “masc”, and you’re not “proud” – you’re a troll with no spine whom nobody loves.
his statement is pretty clear, having control over your work means you produce it yourself so you’re not bound to someone else’s finances and therefor claim. this is what happened with Buffy the Vampire Slayer – joss whedon wrote an acclaimed script, it was misdirected and misproduced into a film that bore no relation to what he’d written. so he took the reigns himself, lo and behold, a TV legend was born with him in control of the material.
Masc Pride
Your speculating what he may or may not do in the future is not further explanation of anything but your opinion. It’s also crazy to keep starting conversations with people if you know you can’t be civil.
Brian
The studios are always afraid of offending the mainstream audiences. But let’s not forget that the actors are often a party to this.
Masc Pride
@Brian: Exactly. Studios are generally afraid of anything that may not make as much money. At the same time, money-hungry gay producers and writers also have a hand in it because they’d rather try to appeal to mainstream for bigger profits instead of maybe doing smaller indie projects that will allow them to tell the story as is but may make less money.
There’s also the likely possibility that these movies would have flopped even harder if they weren’t de-gayed.
Alistair Wiseman
@AtticusBennett:
Mr. Rainbows, you forgot to tell MascPride that his Dad hates him and he comes from a shitty family. At least you said, “you’re a troll with no spine whom nobody loves.”
The depth and maturity of the Left.
lauraspencer
@Masc Pride:
As someone who has worked in Hollyweird for years, you are correct in this statement.
I like Ron’s work, but if he wanted to protect it he could have produced and directed. He has enough clout to have done so.
Ron also re-wrote MILK after a bad version or two from Dustin Lance Black and was happy to take a pay out and not be credited on the film. He’s done things for money before.
Cam
So in other words, what he said was true, and then folks reached out to him and said they wouldn’t hire him in the future if he didn’t take it back. So he did.