Recap

Of triumph, talent and representation: Our 2020 Queerty Interview Highlights

Well, we made it. This year has almost come to an end.

Thank goodness for the entertainers, artists and activists, then, that have kept us occupied and amused this year, not to mention the folks that have worked so hard to make sure 2021 sees an end to COVID-19, Trump, social upheaval and general craziness.

With that in mind, we'd like to present some highlights from our ongoing series The Queerty Interview to share the insight and wisdom of some of the most talented and transgressive people working today. All helped make 2020 tolerable, and gave us hope that next year can be even better.

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Well, we made it. This year has almost come to an end.

Thank goodness for the entertainers, artists and activists, then, that have kept us occupied and amused this year, not to mention the folks that have worked so hard to make sure 2021 sees an end to COVID-19, Trump, social upheaval and general craziness.

With that in mind, we’d like to present some highlights from our ongoing series The Queerty Interview to share the insight and wisdom of some of the most talented and transgressive people working today. All helped make 2020 tolerable, and gave us hope that next year can be even better.

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We get ‘Freaky’ with queer/nonbinary star Misha Osherovich: “I’ve come into my own”

(from left) Nyla Chones (Celeste O’Connor), Millie Kessler in The Butcher’s body (Vince Vaughn) and Josh Detmer (Misha Osherovich) in Freaky, co-written and directed by Christopher Landon.

Actor Misha Oserovich on coming out as nonbinary:

We are very lucky to work in a business that, for the most part, skews progressive by nature. That has only served me in coming out. I’ve been getting amazing scripts that have fleshed out queer characters that are complicated and messy. I’ve received nothing but appreciation meeting producers, casting directors, whomever. It makes me feel free to present as my non-binary self, and not “masc for masc Misha,” if you will. The flip to that, on a larger scale, is that for me, I grew up in an incredibly conservative family of Russian immigrants. Being masculine, straight, male dominating was very big in my family. I carried a lot of that weight on me until this year. I sat down during quarantine and said to myself Misha, you’re not just gay. You’re not just queer. You really don’t like he/him labels. I get goosebumps every time I tell this story. It was a weight off my shoulders to say the words “I’m nonbinary.” I could feel myself get lighter. I danced around my apartment naked. It was a celebration for me, and in that moment, I realized how important it is for people to be able to express their gender however they damn well please.

Anthony Rapp talks landing -two- roles of a lifetime in ‘Star Trek: Discovery’ and ‘Rent’

Actor Anthony Rapp, on why sexual assault and harassment of men is so rarely discussed:

There’s a weird notion that because you’re a man, you’re more physically strong, that you can fight someone off. I think maybe that’s part of it. Not long after I came forward, a friend of mine who’s in good shape was working as a server in a restaurant. And a friend of a friend came in and got really drunk and grabbed his crotch. And my friend was still like did I do something? He somehow couldn’t even name it himself that he’d been assaulted. I think, in the gay community sometimes, because of so much suppression and oppression for so many years, that sexual expression is seen as a piece of liberation. So some of these norms were fuzzy, but I think there has been a reckoning in the gay community too that is assault. Consent is vital for everyone. So to be grabbed in a non-consenting way is assault. And it needs to be named, called out, and accounted for.

Juan Pablo Espinosa on playing romantic leads and a straight dad in ‘Half Brothers’

Juan Pablo Espinosa (left) stars as “Flavio” and Ian Inigo (right) stars as “young Renato” in director Luke Greenfield’s HALF BROTHERS, a Focus Features release. Credit : Richard Foreman, Jr. / Focus Features

Actor Juan Pablo Espinosa, on his decision to make a public statement coming out:

I’ve lived a perfectly out life, even when I started working on TV there with the macho situations and all that stuff. Producers, directors, the networks have only been so loving. I’m so grateful to work with them. It wasn’t until social media that things started to change. At home, I would go to gay clubs and interact with friends. I’d take pictures [with fans]…Then I started wondering who I needed when I was growing up, and was like I was a homosexual growing up in Colombia. I experienced a lot of homophobia, a lot of negativity toward the community associated with disrespectful words. And I tried to look for a reference, and I couldn’t, as a kid, look up to someone gay living a normal life. So when I did the meditation, [I realized] I had a platform to make contact with my fans. And I realized I was keeping my private life private, so I figured why not integrate? And hearing from fans who were contemplating suicide and all these things that were heartbreaking, I realized I [couldn’t] keep it to myself. I was out, but maybe people who know my work have no idea about my personal life. I didn’t have to; I chose to. And it’s been beautiful.

Pulitzer Prize winner Jonathan Capehart wants to help queer kids everywhere with ‘The Sunday Show’

MSNBC Anchor Jonathan Capehart on surviving the Trump era:

It has not been easy, David. The way Jon Snow asked me that question, it hit me right in the tear ducts. I didn’t expect it. And yes, I cried on national British television. I was frightened. I was scared for my friends and family and for my country. You’re right: we made it through these four years. But it has been a rough ride. I liken it to those bad flights where there’s such rough turbulence that you’re gripping the armrests. It seems to last forever. It feels like it will never end. But you get through it. I look at the first and only term of Donald Trump as a really bumpy flight. The election was us getting through it. That doesn’t mean that all of the problems that have been unleashed by him will disappear. But at least we have competent leadership, leadership with empathy and heart in the White House.

Kate Bornstein on the beauty of cowboys in love and the power of non-binary gender in ‘Two Eyes’

On the correctness of using “transgender” and “gay” synonymously:

I came out when the word “gay” was the umbrella term. I was gay. I marched in gay parades. It was a big deal to call something gay or lesbian, or later, gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Holy smokes. Then to finally add “trans” makes your heart overflow. But words…gay is a homonym. It sounds and is spelled exactly the same but it has different meanings. Gay then doesn’t mean what gay means now. The context for gay as an umbrella term has changed. It doesn’t fit. One thing I loved in those days is that everybody called themselves “queer.” We laughed at all the letters. Now it’s important that there is a letter for you and me. That’s the context of the world today, and it will change. The trick is to change with it. If you’re not changing with it, there’s a lot you need to learn unless you want the world to pass you by. Which it will.

Director/writer David Freyne unveils the year’s most unusual romantic comedy with ‘Dating Amber’

Director David Freyne (right) with Fionn O’Shea

Freyne on why he wrote a buddy comedy about a gay man and a lesbian:

We watch all these queer films, and it always feels like gay men and lesbians are in hermetically sealed boxes—that they don’t interact. That’s not the experience for anyone in the LGBTQ community. It’s just not the experience. We are a community. We’re friends. We grow up and know people that are bi or trans. And I wanted that gay-lesbian friendship at the heart of this film because it’s ridiculous that we don’t get more of that. Whoever is making those decisions—they’re not gay. We need to see more queer films that reflect the entirety of the queer community.

Can a threesome save sanity during COVID-19? Brian Jordan Alvarez knows…

Brian Jordan Alvarez on the insecurity of being an actor:

I can’t speak for other people, but I know a couple of good friends—really talented actors—who have experienced the inherent uncertainty of an acting career. I think you just have to develop inner peace about it. In this particular situation, for me, it helped me deal with it. I was already getting used to not knowing when my next job is coming, but trusting that it will. I’m lucky enough to have a lot of creative juice to put my own stuff out, like Marnie. It’s a beautiful question, because it reminds me of the kind of Zen you have to develop. You learn this practice of being at peace with uncertainty.

Emmy winner Samira Wiley spills on stepping into the shoes of a lioness of American drama in ‘Equal’

Samira Wiley in ‘Equal’

Samara Wiley on being told coming out would harm her career:

I was definitely told those things in the beginning from a lot of different angles, from people who had nothing to do with my career. It’s so confusing. Being so young when I started and not understanding what I feel like my purpose is. I feel like being an out, queer black woman is completely connected to who I want to be in the roles I want to take, where I want my career to go, how I want people to look at me. I don’t want to just play [queer] characters. I want to the world to see my community can do anything, just like [straight] actors can do anything. I’ve realized, how a black queer woman being able to give a voice to a black queer woman—we have not always been able to tell our stories. Years ago, gay or queer roles were not being played by queer people. What a gift that is, that we’re able to do that now. What a personal gift it is for me to be able to step into these shoes.

Trans actress Shakina Nayfack on curing the pandemic fatigue with ‘Connecting…’

Nayfack on the power and need to forgive:

I believe behavior transformation comes from heart transformation. So what I tried to present in that talk was a simple exercise to meditate on forgiveness in your own life to build the muscle to give and receive it in relationships. In terms of moving forward, I think we have to close our eyes and imagine forgiving the people we are really angry with, and forgive ourselves for the reasons we haven’t shown up enough to prevent atrocities. We have to learn to draw healthy boundaries around that which we deem to be unforgivable and learn how to live healthy, compassionate lives without that getting in the way. Those are big steps.

Paul Rudnick takes on Trump lovers in ‘Coastal Elites:’ “They seem terribly upset all the time”

Dan Levy in ‘Coastal Elites’ Via YouTube Screenshot

Rudnick on why sexual orientation doesn’t qualify an actor for a role:

I’m someone who’s used wonderful gay performers whenever possible and wonderful straight performers as well in gay roles. But there are actually union and legal structures in place—which I quite approve of—you don’t ask anyone, gay or straight, about their sex life. That isn’t what qualifies anyone for a role. If you’re doing it right, you’re judging people on their talent. There is, I would say, with gay performers, because of the point we’re at with the culture, there is an understanding and grasp of gay style that gay performers tend to have in their bones. That’s to be celebrated. Also, part of the reason I wrote [Mark’s character]–Dan told me he’s been through all of this—we’ve got this first generation of openly gay stars. There’s a handful of them: Dan, Jim ParsonsNeil Patrick HarrisMatt Bomer. It’s an amazing group. For years, there was the argument that we don’t have equality in casting because there wasn’t an openly gay leading man. Now we’ve got great examples.

How a wild life with Carrie Fisher fueled Byron Lane’s ‘A Star is Bored’

On the wisdom he gained from witnessing real-life addiction:

All of us are on a path trying to do our best. At the end of the day, we all want peace. All of us have our own addictions: attention, drugs, likes on Instagram…all of those things are an effort to find peace of mind. We think it will be this relationship or that cigarette or this joint. I think of addiction in those terms. People are looking for peace, and people look for it in misguided ways. At the end of the day, I hope everyone can find peace in a healthy, meaningful way. If this book helps to offer sympathy or clarity of that journey for anyone, that makes me happy.

Mya Taylor on her crash course in drag and her award-winning performance in ‘Stage Mother’

Mya Taylor. Photo by Daniel Bergeron

Actress Taylor on the limited roles for transwomen: 

I told [my agent] I didn’t want to keep getting offered roles and doing auditions for prostitutes or drug dealers. I don’t want to be a victim. I don’t want to play a transwoman that gets killed. Bring me an audition that’s just a regular person, a cisgender woman. A lot of the auditions he’ll send to me won’t even have a specific character in mind. [The character breakdown] won’t say “Latina woman,” or “caucasian man.” It’s just for a person. And the director wants to find a person that fits the role. I’ve done a lot of those kind of auditions recently. Yesterday I did an audition for a cartoon. They didn’t say they wanted a transgender woman or a white woman, they just needed a female.

Tim Zientek examines two bottoms in love in the steamy and sweet ‘The First’

Creator Zientek on bottom shaming: 

I felt like if we can’t talk about [sexual role] in this space, it creates shame. There’s nothing wrong with being a bottom. There’s nothing wrong with being a top or vers. But there seems to be more shame around being a bottom. That was the illusion of one of my friends. And I guess the story [for the show] came from an amalgam of those friends. I remember thinking I really want to do a story about this. I was writing something else, but this was my passion project on the side. But I thought it was so niche, so specific, that I didn’t think anyone would be interested in it.

David France on risking his life to reveal the horror of a queer Holocaust in ‘Welcome to Chechnya’

Welcome to Chechnya

Director France on how Americans can help end the queer genocide in Eastern Europe:

They need money and support to continue the work they’re doing. It’s very expensive, as you can imagine, even more so with the COVID lockdown. The Russian LGBTQ community relies on foreign donations. The Moscow Community Center for LGBTQ+ Initiatives needs our support. Maxim Lupinov, who you see in the film bringing the first and only criminal case against the torturers and goons in Chechnya is pursuing the case in criminal court. That initiative needs our support as well. You can help them all by going to WelcomeToChechnya.com, and clicking the button that says “Save Lives.” That will bring you to a page to give them support.The other thing you can do is just be a witness. They’ve said over and over this doesn’t happen, that nobody has ever seen anything like this, that there are no witnesses. We are now all witnesses to this. I want people who see the film to stand up and say “I am a witness.” Use that hashtag to let Russia know the word is out, and they can’t deny it anymore. They will be listening.

Quentin Lee pushes back against the lack of queer men in comedy with ‘Brash Boys Club’

Director Quentin Lee

On Lee’s continued work on personal, indie projects:

I feel like I want to find a connection with an audience with the content I put out. Obviously, I’m not interested in just directing the next Fast and the Furious or Star Trek or whatever. All my life I have wanted to create my own, original content, and to find an audience for it. As I’ve progressed as an artist over the past 20 years, with technology, with social media, I’m really close to reaching an audience that would appreciate what I’m putting out from my heart. I think that’s what every artist wants to do—to make the things they want to make but find the right audience to connect with it. Even with the themes in my films, the over-arching theme is always about somebody from outside a community trying to find a connection with a broader audience. It’s very much the same reason I wanted to do Brash Boys Club: gay male comedy isn’t part of the mainstream. All my life I’ve been trying to create art that is diverse. Finally, with technology and social media, its happening.

He helped kill her grandparents, the Rosenbergs. Now Ivy Meeropol takes on Roy Cohn.

Roy Cohn

Director Meropol on finding empathy for the killer of her grandparents:

There is also gratification and catharsis in showing people that everything is not so black and white. And maybe that’s the theme you’re getting at in all my work: I’m trying to show that Roy Cohn isn’t just evil. Neither are my grandparents just simple, innocent martyrs. It’s more complicated than that. I don’t know that I forgive Roy, but understanding more about his experience and his life I can accept him as a human being. It’s more comfortable for me now to know who he was, and that I’m not dehumanizing him now either.

Brian Tanen on ‘Love, Victor”s move to Hulu: “Hulu will allow us to tell more adult stories”

On writing a follow-up to ‘Love, Simon:’

I think there was a concerted effort to tell a different story than what had been told in the film. So as we explored what an authentic journey would be, all these things you’re describing became part of it. We loved the idea that there are different cultural pressures on LGBTQ teenagers of different backgrounds. The writer’s room was filled with a diverse group of people, Latinx and LGBTQ heavy. I think the fact that we were also a larger group, as a television writer’s room is, that we started to see people’s individual experiences reflected in the show. They became moments our characters experienced.

EXCLUSIVE: Actor J. August Richards on his spontaneous coming out and his new role as a gay dad

COUNCIL OF DADS — “I’m Not Fine” Episode 102 — Pictured: J. August Richards as Dr. Oliver Post — (Photo by: Seth F. Johnson/NBC)

On how a role changes an actor:

I think of it as my job to put something deeply personal to put on the line for myself. I have to find it, and I do with every role. This one is unique in that it pushed me up against a wall that I had created for myself. I think it served me when it had to. When I first started in the business, there were very few opportunities for a black actor. I jokingly say “I was too busy being black to be gay.” But the industry has shifted enough to where there’s more LGBTQ representation and more black representation. And I just wasn’t mature enough as a human being to walk through life as a black gay man. Now, at 46, I have the confidence and the wisdom and the knowledge to be able to take it on. The reason I ended up talking about it publicly was that I saw a huge opportunity to be observant in a meaningful way, and I just could not pass it up. It was a very person decision. I wouldn’t be true to myself if I didn’t take the opportunity to continue a dialogue—it was started way before me. Black gay men, gay families—I would not have been happy with myself if I had not chosen to talk about it.

Kristine Stolakis cracks the secrets of the ex-gay movement in ‘Pray Away’

Stolakis on why we should forgive former leaders of Exodus International:

They were adults. They made choices. But what is choice in this world when you’ve been taught to hate yourself, or you’ve gone through something traumatic like Yvette [Cantu Schneider] did? That’s very common in this movement: people go through some sort of trauma within the LGBTQ world. They have addiction. They go to church after the passing of a friend, as in Yvette’s case, during the AIDS crisis. They find comfort in Christianity, but that comes at a price. That price is that they are in this mix of adults in charge of their own actions, but managing their own trauma and internalized hate. That’s what’s interesting and really hard about this. I don’t know that I have a succinct answer. I don’t think it’s slave/master, and I also don’t think these leaders were autonomous and fully empowered beings at all. It’s somewhere in between.

Comedienne Gretchen Wylder on exploring gender, anatomy and queer dating in ‘These Thems’

Creator Wilder on how gender is both inborn and created:

I don’t know if I’m an expert, but in my opinion, it’s probably a little bit of both. I think a lot of it comes from social upbringing and the gender binary that is forced down our throats. I think it’s a bit of both. Then it’s interesting too: I also want to make sure that nobody feels like their gender isn’t valid. Gender is performance, but gender is valid. However you identify is valid. I feel like there is this mask we put on. So taking that off, being more fluid with gender presentation, could actually be good for everybody.

‘Star Trek’s Jonathan Del Arco on the fate of Hugh Borg, life as an out-actor & showbiz peril

Del Arco in ‘Star Trek: Picard’

Del Arco on Hollywood’s lack of gay leading men:

I think it’s how writers write roles. I think it’s about our stories are diminished. I think people think that nobody wants to watch romance between two gay men. I think gay actors aren’t given great straight roles to play, and the fact is there are more great straight roles. It’s the double standard: when a wonderful straight actor gets to play a gay role he’s “brave.” We don’t get to play straight roles, so we’re not brave.

Director Mike Mosallam brings gay Muslim romance to the screen in ‘Breaking Fast’

Haaz Sleiman & Michael Cassidy in Breaking Fast

Director Mosallam on living as an openly-gay Muslim:

Denying my belief in God would be equal to me living in the closet. I will not do either. I’m not going to say I’m 100% right or wrong. What I know is that I will live my life as I know it, and on the day of judgment, I will stand before my God and be judged like any other soul on Earth. It is my core belief that every ounce of the journey of this film has been guided by the hand of God. I hope the discussion you reference will be brought up many more times. I think we need to talk about it and stop trying to erase the visibility of people who have a belief in God that doesn’t fit into a box the way people tell us we should believe.

‘Disclosure’ director Sam Feder on the complicated history of trans representation

Laverne Cox in ‘Disclosure’

Feder on the continued lack of transmasculine stories:

There have been a lot of films about transmasculine people, they just don’t get picked up. People aren’t interested unless they have that “in” where they can feel bad. So there is this nuanced industry complication around that. And this is not about Kim, but I don’t need to see that violence again. So many queer people and women I know have said how deeply affected they were by the violence. The internalization of that is so vast.

EXCLUSIVE: Actor Sam Pancake on smacking down gay ageism and becoming a viral sensation

On the legacy of the AIDS crisis, and young queer people not remembering:

What we lived through back then, what we dreamed of was a better world for our people. We have that now. And I would never wish anyone—including the guy who said this—would have to go through what we did. So like a parent-child relationship, you want a better life for your child. You can’t blame someone for not knowing what we went through, because we didn’t want him to. But just think about it. And to anyone who wants to be funny about it…it was that awful. So just be respectful. Watch your mouth. Know your history.

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