Actor Harry Hamlin has opened up about starring in the groundbreaking gay romance Making Love, and how the film almost destroyed his career.
Hamlin spoke to People as part of the 40th anniversary of the film, which debuted in 1982. It followed a Los Angeles writer, Bart (Hamlin), who falls for a closeted man named Zack (Michael Ontkean), who is married to a powerful TV executive named Claire (Kate Jackson).
The film hailed from romance master Arthur Hiller (Love Story), and gay writers Barry Sandler and A. Scott Berg. Berg and Sandler partially based the script on their own relationship.
Looking back, Hamlin recalls the painful reception to the movie and the dire effect it had on his career.
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“I was told by a lot of people, you can’t do that movie,” he said. “I think it had been offered to pretty much everybody in town and everyone had turned it down because they thought it might be damaging to their careers.”
“I didn’t see it that way. I was looking for something serious and something meaningful, rather than doing a movie about vampire bats invading a small town in the Midwest, which is the type of fare I was being offered at the time.”
Hamlin said it was his agent who really encouraged him to take the risk.
“He said I was somewhat Teflon because I was out in the press having had a son with Ursula Andress,” he explained, referring to the couple’s son, Dmitri, who is now 41. “And he said, ‘Everyone knows you’re straight so you’re going to be okay.’ But I didn’t really pay much attention to any of that noise. I thought it was interesting and bold. I was attracted to that.”
Upon release, Making Love scored mixed reviews and mediocre box office sales. According to Hamlin, his agent turned out to be wrong and taking the part almost ended his career.
“For years, I’d think was that the reason why I stopped getting calls? And finally realized that was the last time I ever did a movie for a studio,” he said.
“As far as the film business sort of shutting the door, I think it just had to do with the fact of the studio system being a closed system and once they saw there could be some confusion about my sexuality, then they just said they didn’t want to take the chance.”
He added, “If they were contemplating having me be a love interest to a young female star, the thought was, ‘How is the audience going to react?’ Even though I was straight, I think the perception at the time was that anybody who could play gay must be gay.”
Lucky for Hamlin, he would later score his best role on the small screen in the legal soap opera LA Law. The show revitalized his career and made him into an international sex symbol.
Now 70 and married to reality TV star Lisa Rinna, Hamlin says he’s proud of the film, despite the initial reaction. In the 40 years since release, Making Love has found a devoted audience who see it as an overlooked early gem in queer cinema.
“Regardless of the effect it had on my film career, I went on to have a great career — and I still do. I’m very proud of having done that movie,” Hamlin concludes. “Now a gay love story can be told freely. There’s been a Teutonic shift since 1981 in people’s conscious and how they approach human sexuality.”
For our dissection of Making Love, check out our anniversary interview with writer Barry Sandler, who shares his own memories of making the movie, its effect on his own career, and its reemergent legacy.
Watch the trailer for Making Love below…
Related: ‘Making Love’ celebrates 35 years. Barry Sandler muses on how far cinema has come.
Jim
Harry is a class act.
We owe he, Michael Ontkean and Aidan Quinn a large debt of gratitude for taking on gay roles decades ago.
That is DECADES ago when it wasn’t “cool” to be gay.
Jim
By the way while these men never won an Oscar, and as far as I know an Emmy, the saved lived both figuratively and literally.
Can Meryl Streep say that?
cuteguy
While I agree with Jim that these pioneering heroes should be lauded for saving lives, didn’t Meryl play a lesbo in the Hours? I don’t really remember except that Nicole won an Oscar for having a fake ugly nose. More and more ppl are putting less importance on awards nowadays.
ingyaom
Meryl played lez in “Manhattan” (1979).
tommyboy5023
Ontkean also saved the awful hockey movie Slap Shot. He performed a strip tease on the ice down to his protective cup.
Kangol2
Yes, Meryl Streep played a lesbian in Manhattan and Silkwood and a bisexual woman in The Hours. She also has appeared in gay-themed movies like Angels in America and played a gay icon in The Devil Wears Prada. She’s easily one of the greatest actors of all time and has probably saved more lives than you imagine.
BarryM
Harry Hamlin meant tectonic, not Teutonic. Plus, Michael Ontkean, who I thought was a much more handsome man (Anybody remember “The Rookies” from the ’70s?) than Hamlin, has given interviews recently that he thought that this film destroyed his career. I guess success – like beauty – is in the eye of the beholder.
cuteguy
The only thing Harry Hamlin should be embarrassed of is being married to that fake skank Lisa Rinna and being on a gutter reality show. Harry may also be gaslighting bc there are many rumors re: his own sexuality and his mysterious “camping trips”. Then again, being married to Rinna would make any man question themselves. But thank goodness for pioneering films like these and Brokeback Mountain. And for the record Michael Ontkean was so hot in a little known film called Maid to Order. So dreamy. And let’s face it, fame is fickle and luck plays a large part. Even if Harry hadn’t done this film, he prob wouldn’t have had a successful film career. His claim to fame came with LA LAW. Acting is a tough business and luck plays a huge part but that doesn’t take away from the bravery of the few that took roles back then that was deemed as controversial. Thank God we have evolved into a more normal society and not like the crap from yesteryear. The previous generations starting with Gen X and before were ignorant morons. Thank goodness that mess is in the past
stan2015
Listen the film was toned down. I would love to see what was edited out. Keep in mind that this film was made when the “AIDS ” epidemic hit. Now AIDS was known at the time as “Gay cancer”. I am happy that Harry Hamlin did go on to a great career. The unknown hero of this film is the studio executives who helped get the film made and released.
Troyfight
Hamlin has said much of this before.
D10
FFS, Queerty, it’s TECTONIC shift, as in tectonic plates, not “Teutonic”, as in ancient German warrior tribes!
Carabalda
Nobody bothered to tell very Handsome Harry that the phrase he meant to use was “Tectonic shift” – meaning “having a strong and widespread impact, such as ‘a tectonic shift in voting patterns'” according to Merriam Webster dictionary – not “Teutonic shift”, which means (maybe) being more attracted to German/Germanic culture, norms or identity.
As a 20-something gay boy in 1982, I adored this movie. I fell in love/lust with both Michael & Harry, and Kate forever became a goddess to me. Kudos to everyone involved.
Ste211
Meryl Streep and Cher played lesbians in Silkwood (1983).
jmodgaard
Meryl Streep did not play a lesbian in Silkwood. Cher did, she was in a relationship with Dianna Scarwid in the movie. Streep’s character was in a relationship with Kurt Russel in that movie.
Ste211
I stand corrected. Didn’t hurt Cher’s career. She won an Oscar four years later.
s b
Bull. He wasn’t used in a “studio picture” for years because he’s just plain not that good of an actor. He should be glad he’s worked at all, and put the blame where it truly lies: his lack of acting ability.
SDR94103
In San Francisco we loved that movie.
BarryM
We loved it in NYC, too. 🙂
Mack
I don’t think he lost anything because of it. It might have slowed his career some in the beginning but he went on to a very successful TV career with LA Law. Perhaps it has something to do with how he is to work with.
Nancy Joyzee
Michael Ontkean’s career took a hit also
Joshooeerr
It’s interesting that even Queerty will happily buy into highly questionable myths like “playing gay ends movie careers”. I can see why this is the narrative Harry Hamlin (“I could have been BIG”) prefers. But the truth is Hamlin was not a movie star. He’d been in precisely two decidedly B-grade movies and certainly wasn’t a name on everyone’s lips. So the failure of Making Love did not de-rail a burgeoning movie career. Moreover, a quick check of IMDB will show you that Hamlin never stopped working. He was in another dud movie the year after Making Love, and that was last movie he did in some time (why wasn’t that the one that de-railed his career?), then his TV career took off, big time. It would be just as accurate to say Making Love led to him becoming one of the hottest TV stars of the late 80s. Either way, the guy has worked constantly for the past several decades. The notion that Making Love derailed his career is nonsense.
Diplomat
Making Love did derail his career with the big studios. However he has said in the past he never wanted to become a big “movie star” so it all fit quite well for his desires as he has said he has no regrets.
CityguyUSA
While it’s somewhat sheik now for these “Indie Films” and some TV shows with gay as a back story there’s already pushback against the court decisions and some signing statements that have moved to normalize gay.
Already we’ve heard some pushback of that when the Orange Buffoon was President of the country and he reversed the ability of transsexuals to serve in the military. This is the problem of signing statements.
Just like capitalism which was tightly regulated in the post 1929 crash and the legalization of abortions in the 70s becoming normalized both have been attacked. The corporate pushback against regulations began in the 50s and 60s and was exacerbated by Reagan’s attack against the unions and other business re-regulating. Along came Bill Clinton as the 1st and hopefully the beginning of the end of the Corporate Democrats that totally destroyed Wall Street regulation that protected Main Street.
Now the noise is about the change in the composition of SCOTUS by refusing to let Obama have an appointment by the conservative controlled Senate and the death of Ruth Bader Ginsberg there has been a change in SCOTU’s composition to the conservative end. Now the rumblings of the repeal of Wade have started. We’ve already had two cases from the south that are flouting the federal law and most likely one of those cases, the Texas or Mississippi case, will make it to SCOTUS.
Now we have a retirement of another Democrat from SCOTUS. Justice Breyer most likely doesn’t think he’ll live long enough to be replaced in an environment that would assure his party would be able replace him with another Democrat so Justice Stephen Breyer is retiring now hoping that the Democrats will be able to get a Democratic judge seated on SCOTUS where they don’t hold the majority in the Senate. We know of 2 that could be infiltrators or very right-leaning members of the Democratic Party that are DINOs at best that could easily block any appointment by Biden.
At the state level there’s already starting to be legislation from ALEC that is pushing to against equal rights for LGBTIQs. It won’t take long to push us back to the dark of our closets. LGBTIQs are going to find they thought the fight was one and somehow it was all over. Trust me it’s not. That fight only began when the Federal Government said we had some rights to marry, have security in our jobs, a right to serve in the armed forces, etc. Everyone assumed that was that but that’s not that.
It was only 20+ years ago that President Clinton enacted “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” and Obama got elected not really believing in the equality of the LGBTIQs but somewhere changed his mind. Most likely during his re-election where he was struggling to get reelected for failing his promises of first campaign like Health Care for All failing hearings in public which ultimately allowed the Health Care Industry to right their own laws behind closed doors. It was very expensive with the government subsidies being less than needed to give people “real” health care
stealing from Medicare some $8 billion that it desperately needed. Along came Trump who piece by piece dismantled most of Obamacare and took another $6 billion from Medicare. Wall Street is already feeding on our money that has been locked away from them for many, many years and now they actually have managed to get seniors to buy-in to private corporate health care which is currently over subsidized but at some point the rug will be pulled out from underneath everyone that is dependent on those Advantage Plans that have largely replaced the standardized government plans once know as Gap Policies which have been unsubsidized to the point that they are no longer affordable.
This is how quick this entire LGBTIQ rights can be turned around on a dime no matter how many have believed they were given something that couldn’t be taken away. Without those willing to keep up the fight those that oppose us will repress us in the end.
CityguyUSA
Apologies for the grammar and spelling it didn’t give me time to correct everything as I would have liked.
inbama
I hope you’re wrong, but what the Supreme Court giveth, the Supreme court can end. (They can’t constitutionally revoke the marriages, though).
THAT Steve
Why doesn’t anyone mention Rinna being so awesome on Days Of Our Lives?
IvanPH
This movie is groundbreaking.
And I thought that Michael Ontkean was more ravishingly handsome than Harry Hamlin in this movie.
ManCanBemuse
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