La Dolce Musto by Michael Musto (NY Mirror) from the Village Voice (Jan 2002)

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La Dolce Musto by Michael Musto (NY Mirror) from the Village Voice [published Jan 22, 2002]
www.villagevoice.com/2002-01-22/columns/ny-mirr...



NY Mirror

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Now that the Sex and The City babes are dabbling in relationships—as boners around the country topple—it's no surprise that the Queer as Folk guys are also taking little stabs at monogamy instead of mononucleosis. At a Tower video event the other day, three of the show's leads told me that the new season is bringing a few dollops of maturity to temper all the penetration (if not enough to be downright gross).

Randy Harrison said his character, the chicken-y Justin, will recuperate, go to art school, and renegotiate his relationship with Brian—as we all should. Is he still a victim? "Not as much," Harrison said. "But that's how people like to see me best. I'm accident-prone." At that very moment, the darling boy all too perfectly knocked over some contraption by the cash register. But Harrison's not verballyclumsy. When I asked if his costars who moaned about having to wash out their mouths after kissing scenes have been properly disciplined, he said, "Yeah, they got a good thrashing!" Probably by Harrison; he next plays "a bad high school student" in a Showtime movie called Bang Bang, You're Dead. A victimizer? "A victimizer!" he said triumphantly.

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In another corner, that pinchable Hal Sparkssaid hischaracter, Michael, is evolving, too, "and has to deal with the fact that his new guy slept with Brian at one point." Please—who hasn't? But Sparks's biggest concern is that the show's gay ghetto comes off more West Hollywood than Pittsburgh, "and we might be the cause of a mass exodus out of the South and into Pittsburgh." But the rush of incoming queens will makeit into a gay mecca, right? "Yeah," he said, "we might germinate a huge gay community. Just one little show—look what we can do!"

And look at what Brian can do—with his mouth alone. "He's still slutty," Gale Harold, who plays him, told me. (You can't expect everything to change.) "His sexual scope has been impacted by a bit of trauma, but I think he'll get it back after he mourns and grieves." I bet beforehe mourns and grieves. Harold—who was nice enough to forgive a sliming I once gave him based on erroneous info in the Post—joked to me that there'll be a Queer as Folkanimated feature, "and I think you'reup for the voice of Emmett. I can help you out. It's from the makers of Hasbro's Spiderman that never got released." Sorry, kid, I don't do voice-overs—or relationships.



photo: Brian Finke
Boys will do boys: Queer as Folk’s Hal Sparks, Gale Harold, and Randy Harrison.

@темы: 2002

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Boy Trouble from Spin Magazine (Dec 2000)

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Boy Trouble from Spin Magazine by Benoit Denizet-Lewis [December 2000]

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Like most young actors making their television debuts, 22-year-old Randy Harrison would like the parental units to settle in and watch the two-hour premiere of his series, Queer as Folk. At least, he would in theory. But since the first episode features a very long, very explicit sex scene between Harrison's character, a 17-year-old named Justin, and a 29-year-old man, whose name Justin doesn't know, the actor is understandably anxious. "I've been trying to prepare them for what they're going to see," says Harrison, who is openly gay. "But I don't think they can really fathom what I'm saying. I'm not sure my dad's ready to see that."

Harrison's father may not be the only one. In what is being billed (quite believably) as the most daring American television program ever, Queer as Folk—which originated two years ago in the U.K., where it became a pop-culture phenomenon—begins airing this December on Showtime (clearly looking to compete with the buzz generated by HBO's Sex and the City). "People want to assume that American television won't have the guts to do what the British did," says Harrison. "But they're wrong."

Still, Harrison admits that he was not pleased when the producers decided to up his character's age--from just 15 in the British version--to a more palatable 17. "That kind of bothered me," says Harrison.

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But he was heartened once he realized it was otherwise very much like the original: a smartly written, very witty prime-time soap opera about a close-knit group of gay men and lesbians that's concerned more with personal relationships than polemics. And even though the show caused controversy here before a single frame was show (many companies have refused product placement), Harrison says he gives very little thought to any potential fallout. "I mean, I do have some nights when I worry about it," he says. "But ultimately, I couldn't care less."

@темы: 2000

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ETC New Year, New "Queer" (Jan 2002)

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New Year, New "Queer",Mekado Murphy for ETC - etcetera magazine [January 18, 2002]
Courtesy: Pfyre



Openly gay actor Randy Harrison talks about his newfound celebrity, Season 2 of "Queer as Folk" and goals for 2002

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This time last year, America was just getting hooked on the Showtime phenomenon that is "Queer as Folk." The character Justin had already given up his virginity to Pittsburgh's biggest slut Brian, and fallen in love in the process. And the saga continued up to a stunning end-of-season cliffhanger that left Justin brutally gay-bashed at the prom.

Now, devotees are planning Sunday night "Queer as Folk" parties nationwide to celebrate the new shows which started airing January 6. The inaugural season is now available on DVD, and Randy Harrison, the 24-year old openly gay actor who brings Justin to life, tries to keep his head in a world of newfound fame. The former Atlanta-area resident reflects on the transformations the show has wrought for him over the past two years and what he anticipates for 2002.

"Getting this show changed a lot of things," he says. "Suddenly being faced with the reality that potentially I could make a career as an actor completely changed my life. I had just graduated from theatre school and when I got this job, it officially began my professional career."

And what a way to jump-start a career. In "Queer as Folk"'s very first episode, Harrison exposed himself in a gay sex scene unlike any other seen on American television. He had no experience in front of the camera before the series, but seemed prepared for the challenges of the show.

"I had only worked on the stage before, but acting wise, there isn't much of a difference between stage and television," he says. "The core is there, it's just sort of about raising and lowering the levels and being aware of the audience you're communicating with."

"As far as the sex stuff, it was easier doing it at the beginning than it is now. I've done sexual content before, so it wasn't a big deal. But now that the show has become more of a job and a routine and it's the second year, it seems a bit harder to do for some reason."

During the show's hiatus, Harrison landed a part in another original Showtime program, a movie called "Bang, Bang, You're Dead." He wants to continue to diversify his acting roles and speculates on how things might be different artistically in 2002.

"The climate of the world has changed so much since September 11 and definitely the business has changed as far as the amount and the type of production that's going on," he says. "There's been a slightly conservative swing as far as programming is concerned. I'm not sure if it's going to carry over to casting. The thing that I'm sure about is finishing a very good season for "Queer as Folk" and then when I'm on hiatus, hoping there will be another good opportunity like there was last year."

With the new season right around the corner, Harrison discusses a bit of what will be going on with Justin.

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"I don't want to give too much away," he laughs. "But Justin is recovering from his attack at the end of the first season. There's sort of more development with Justin and his relationship with Brian and where he fits into Brian's life. He goes to art school. He ends up having to pay for school and figuring out how to support himself. It's just the traditional moves of becoming an adult, which is always helpful to watch."

As the New Year approaches, Harrison discusses his refusal to make New Year's Resolutions. It's a game he doesn't like to play. "I don't ever make them," he says. "Because I figure if I want to change something, I just change it at the time, and I try not to cram so much into New Year's. It's cold, you know? It's hard to be good!"

Harrison will spend this New Year's in New York City, but his best New Year's memory is from a trip in his teens.

"When I was seventeen, I drove up to Hilton Head with a friend of mine and stayed in their grandmother's condo," he recalls. "And I spent New Year's sitting on the beach. I don't know why, but it's honestly the only one I can remember right now. I've really been trying to make New Year's a memorable event for, like, the past four years. But it seems like the harder you try to make it special, the less it becomes."

Although he has no resolutions, Harrison does have some goals and ideas of what he would like to get out of the New Year and beyond.

"Beginning an acting career with as much as I have against me as well as everything I have before me is such a difficult process," he says. "And reconciling what I need financially and commercially and what I need artistically is sort of all the stuff that I'm faced with, right now. I think that if I can end up creating performances that I'm proud of, that are artistically satisfying to me and challenging to people who end up following my work at all, that's my goal."

"Queer As Folk" airs on Showtime Sundays at 10:00 p.m. repeating Tuesdays at 11:00p.m. and Saturdays at 10:00 p.m. Randy Harrison also appears in the upcoming Showtime movie "Bang, Bang, You're Dead."

@темы: 2002

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LARRY KING LIVE Interview With Cast of "Queer as Folk" (apr 2002)

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CNN LARRY KING LIVE Interview With Cast of "Queer as Folk" [Aired April 24, 2002 - 21:00 ET]

транскрипт на русском тут queerasfolk-rus.livejournal.com/27226.html
русские субтитры тут queerasfolk-rus.livejournal.com/14258.html

transcripts.cnn.com/

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.



LARRY KING, HOST: Tonight, too hot for TV? Showtime's hit series "Queer as Folk" steams up the screen. It's not another "Ellen." It's graphic, raw and controversial. And while it's produced by gays about gays, most of its stars are straight.

We've got all the key players and they'll answer your calls and criticisms. The full scope on the show that's stirring up a major fuss, next on LARRY KING LIVE.

They were supposed to be with us last week. It's good to have them back tonight. We're going to have the complete cast of "Queer as Folk" as our guests and a major discussion about that.

But we're going to begin with Harland Braun. He's on the phone. He's the defense attorney for Robert Blake. He announced today that two former "Baretta" stuntmen apparently will be witnesses for the prosecution. In what capacity, Harland?

HARLAND BRAUN, ROBERT BLAKE'S ATTORNEY: Well, I didn't sort of announce -- I confirmed their identities. So they're going to be claiming that Robert solicited them to kill his wife.

KING: And are they going to have any kind of testimony other than them saying it? Do they have recordings?

BRAUN: Not that we're aware of. I mean, these are sort of typical kinds of witnesses that come forward in high-publicity cases. They don't have anything to corroborate what they have to say and they have a story that puts them right in the center of a case. I'm somewhat skeptical because if someone ever solicited me to kill someone, I'd call the police. I wouldn't just sit around.

KING: Did Robert tell you that they're lying?

BRAUN: He told me that never occurred. In fact, I just got off the phone with him about 20 minutes ago.

KING: And what does he say? Was any conversation between them? Was anything misinterpreted?

BRAUN: He said that, you know, he would be grousing with various friends at various times bemoaning the circumstance that he had living with Bonny and what she doing and the kind of person she was. And he said, you know, these are a lot of rough and ready guys, these stunt people and all of his friends. And so, once in a while, someone would almost say in, you know, jest, well, you should kill her with a bad word. But he said, you know, no one ever seriously said anything like that. They were using it in a different context. And I certainly never asked anyone. So he's sort of perplexed with what this is about.

KING: Harland, would you describe yourself as confident?

BRAUN: I think any time you have a capital murder case, you've got to be scared. I haven't looked at all the evidence. Robert was a little shaken up today...

KING: By?

BRAUN: By the fact that Deli (ph) went into court yesterday to try to get temporary guardianship of Rose and the judge turned her down. That's really sent him into a very depressed state because, you know, Rose is the most important thing his life in addition to his other two children.

And right now, there's a situation where he can't sign for her if she got injured and Rosie can't. And I'm sure the court will straighten it out eventually next month. But right now, he's very concerned that the judge didn't just at least sign a temporary order giving Deli guardianship over Rose.

KING: And the hearing is next...

BRAUN: Next month, I think, on the 19th.

KING: Thanks, Harland, as always.

BRAUN: OK, thank you for having me.

KING: Harland Braun, the defense attorney for Robert Blake.

Now, this is what we've been talking about and is our bulk of the show tonight. And if you've seen any magazines, New York magazines with Randy Harrison -- he'll be with us in a little while -- on the cover. All these magazines out, et cetera, et cetera, regular magazines, gay magazines, straight magazines have been talking about a television show. That show is "Queer As Folk," the most successful show on Showtime.

What's it like? Here's an example.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "QUEER AS FOLK")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No matter how long they're together, even if it's forever, they can never do it raw.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Neither have we.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, but we could if we wanted.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: We begin with, here in Los Angeles, Peter Paige. He plays Emmett Honeycutt. And he's out as a gay man in real life. In Miami is Sharon Gless. You know her very well. She plays Debby (ph) Novotny, the mother of Michael. Debby is overwhelmingly supportive of her gay son. In New York is Gale Harold, who plays Brian Kinney (ph), a successful ad executive unapologetic about his feelings. Also in New York is Randy Harrison, who plays Justin Taylor. Justin is a teenager who lost his virginity to the much older Brian. And here in Los Angeles is Hal Sparks who plays Michael Novotny, the son of Sharon Gless. Michael is smart but somewhat naive.

The only two actual gay characters on the show are Peter Paige here in Los Angeles and Randy Harrison here in New York. Why did you take this part, Peter?

PETER PAIGE, ACTOR: I've always been drawn to controversial projects. I thought there was something really exciting, really dynamic here. What I think has caused so much of the controversy around this show is this combination of being about a group of gay men and women and its unapologetic use of sexuality as part of the dramatic storytelling. And I just think those are really human, human components.

KING: It's true.

PAIGE: It's true. That's exactly why. It's true.

KING: When did you come out?

PAIGE: I started coming out as a teenager. It's a life-long process. I, you know, still am, I guess.

KING: And Randy is the only other actual gay person in the show. Why did you take the part?

RANDY HARRISON, ACTOR: I took the part because I got it. You know, I was excited to do it. I wanted to work. I just graduated from school. And it was a great way to begin my professional career.

KING: Did you have any doubts about displaying the character this way?

HARRISON: Not really. I mean, I felt the sexuality especially in Justin's case was a really important part of his development as a character. So, you know, I was actually excited to do it and ready to do it.

KING: Sharon Gless, how did they get you involved?

SHARON GLESS, ACTRESS: Well, a friend of mind sneaked me the sсript. And I called Showtime and asked if the part had been cast. And they said no, nothing had been cast. And I said, well, I'd really like to have that part. So, they sent me to the producers and it was one of the most fun interviews I've ever been on.

KING: Why did you want it? GLESS: Because I smelled trouble and I wanted to be part of that.

KING: You like trouble.

GLESS: Yes. And, actually, there's been very little trouble around this show. I was surprised. But it was very shocking, very graphic. I'd never read anything like that on television and I wanted to be there.

KING: Peter Paige -- let me go to Peter. We want to get everyone established. Peter, who is a straight actor, right, Peter?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

KING: I'm sorry. You're Peter. Hal, as a straight actor, why did you take the role of a gay person?

HAL SPARKS, ACTOR: Well, the sсript was excellent. And the character was something that I really felt like I could resonate to and find a heart for. And, frankly, a lot of other actors I heard were afraid to do it, gay and straight. They just wouldn't take a lot of the roles that were offered in the show. And any time I can be 200th choice for something and actually get the part, I'm there.

But truthfully it was part of that. It was like other people wouldn't do this. And it felt important. It felt historic. And I felt like I could really bring something it.

KING: You liked the sсript you got?

SPARKS: Yes. Yes. It was impressive. And it had a lot of intelligence to it.

KING: In New York, Gale Harold, who is also straight. We have to point that out because it is unusual to have this kind of a complete program dealing with the gay lifestyle, male and female, and everyone but two on it is straight. So, Gale, why did you take it?

GALE HAROLD, ACTOR: Because it was a very interesting, challenging part and compelling for those reasons initially. And the more I thought about it and considered what the impact was going to be, I think socially, it just was a challenge I couldn't really pass up, to at least pursue, you know. And when I got the job, I got the job.

KING: Was it tough, Gale, and also we'll ask Hal the same thing, was it tough to play scenes out of natural concept for you, that is, having to make love to a man?

HAROLD: It was new and different, but it wasn't -- I wouldn't say tough. I mean, the implication there being that -- I wouldn't want to say that it was anything other than a challenge. I mean, that is the character that I signed on to play. And very much a part of his persona, his personality is his sexual life. And so, I had to be committed to that. I knew that from the time I decided to go and test for the part. And that's just part of the job, you know.

KING: In other words, it's acting.

HAROLD: Of course, it's acting.

KING: Hal?

SPARKS: I took the part knowing full well what would be asked of us. But I also wasn't necessarily prepared in any way for what it would take. And for me, it is difficult. And I have no qualms about saying that. But it's still worth doing. So a lot of things I've done in my life are very hard to do, but they're important to do.

KING: I want to get everybody's thoughts and I wanted to establish everybody. We'll have everybody correctly identified, too. I'm Larry King. The show is a hit on Showtime, a major hit, in fact.

Later, we'll be meeting its executive producers and one of its critics. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "QUEER AS FOLK")

SPARKS: I'm taking you home. Where do I turn?

HARRISON: He's going with me.

SPARKS: Oh, no, he's not.

HAROLD: Pop quiz, no talking. Here's the question. Multiple choice. Do you want to come home with me? A, yes; B, yes; or C, yes. Tick, tick, tick, time's up. Pencils down. What do you say?

SPARKS: None of the above. He's going home.

HARRISON" I'm going with him.

HAROLD: Good boy. You get an A-plus.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: You are seeing scenes from "Queer As Folk," the highest rated original series on Showtime, the premium cable network that brands itself with the phrase "No Limits." It is based on a highly successful British series of the same title, "Queer As Folk." Focuses on a group of gay men and women living in Pittsburgh. "Queer as Folk" is shot in Toronto. Returned for its second season on Showtime in January, is a major hit on that network.

Now, you know, Peter, that there are many gays complaining that they don't like the way this lifestyle is portrayed. How do you respond?

PAIGE: Well, I think they're, A, not watching the show. I think they're only responding to the press about the show which is, oh, it's provocative. There's a lot of sex in it. There's drug use in it, which is true. My mainstay of all is that it's real. This is real. This happened. This is going on.

KING: This is the gay life?

PAIGE: The people who are complaining about it are either ashamed of their own lives and mad that we're telling secrets or they're looking for some sort of politically correct best foot forward, you know, "Cosby Show" type programming, which is not what this show set out to do. This show set out to tell the story of these people's lives, warts and all. And it is pissing people off. I don't apologize for that.

KING: Sharon Gless, you're a two-time Emmy winner for "Cagney and Lacey." This is not "Cagney and Lacey."

GLESS: No.

KING: Is realism just more coming to the fore?

GLESS: I'm sorry, what?

KING: Is that what this is about, that television just gets more real all the time?

GLESS: More real? Well, I hope so. I hope so. I mean, that was the success of "Cagney and Lacey" was that it was so real, first time out for a show like that. And I say the same thing for this show. I mean, you can't get too real. I mean, it's...

KING: Can you understand where it's disturbing to people?

GLESS: Well, it depends on who the audience is. I imagine there's -- yes, there are some audiences that it disturbs. But everyone I talked to loves it because it's -- I hate that expression, pushing the envelope. But it is taking that next step towards showing the reality of the life of these kids. It is not everybody. It's just this group of youngsters.

KING: Randy, do we know who the audience is? Do we know who's watching?

HARRISON: You know, it's a huge audience, a lot of straight people, a lot of teenagers, a lot of gay people, too. I think the fact that the show appeals to so many people on so many different levels sort of is a testament to the legitimacy of it.

KING: Hal, do you know -- do you have friends who watch who are straight?

SPARKS: Oh, yes.

KING: And what do they say?

SPARKS: Yes, they're sort of, you know, as friends of mine they are proud of me for taking on the challenge, you know, and doing something that a lot of people wouldn't do.

KING: No one has complained to you? No one has said to you what are you doing?

SPARKS: No. Some guy friends of mine say, you know, I can't watch that part. I've got to turn that part off. Or, you know, I'll tape it and I'll fast forward through those things because it is hard for me. But they all agree that the storylines are compelling. The flashpoint of the show is the sex and that's what people attach themselves and go this is what it's about.

But if you watch the show, it's really about relationships. And in a lot of ways, it portrays relationships honestly, in a way that even straight portrayal of relationships doesn't do anymore. It becomes part of a cliche. So the first time you're seeing people having real arguments, and a lot of times -- I've said this before -- but I have dialogue on the show where I'm saying -- my character is saying to his boyfriend stuff that my ex-girlfriend has said to me. You know? And that's an interesting place to be in as a man, you know, and really come to terms with having those honest feelings.

KING: You play, Peter, the character you play, I understand, is really out there.

PAIGE: He's really out there.

KING: He's sort of swishy as you might say.

PAIGE: You could say swishy. I wouldn't, but you could.

KING: Danger in stereotyping there or do you know people like that?

PAIGE: I know people like Emmett. I wanted very much -- what I think is so great about Emmett is he's very effeminate. He's out there, He's unapologetically gay and he really likes himself. He's sort of figured out that he was OK. Whether or not you think so doesn't really matter to him. And I thought that was really revolutionary to see on TV.

KING: Randy, as a gay man, does Peter's part offend you in any way?

HARRISON: Oh, not at all. Not at all. It's really affirming actually.

KING: Because?

HARRISON: Because you can see someone who is so out there and in a lot of ways, is so much of what people assume is negative about being gay or what people make fun of in homosexuality or the way they view potentially homosexual behavior. And you see someone who loves himself and is loved by everyone around them. And, you know, the audience loves him. You know, it is great.

KING: Hal, did you know this show would be as controversial as it is?

SPARKS: Yes, absolutely.

KING: No doubt about it?

SPARKS: No doubt whatsoever. You could tell from the initial sсript, and from being a person out in the world and aware of how things presently are. This show is important because it pushed that envelope, and therefore it couldn't have -- even if the controversy isn't hyperverbal. You know, there isn't a lot of fighting between us and the moral majority going on. What controversy truly is there is between people and their own biases, their own homophobia that they didn't address.

KING: Gale, do you have any regrets over taking the part?

HAROLD: No.

KING: Not at all.

HAROLD: Not at all. I mean, I've had an amazing experience growing as an actor, growing with my fellow actors. I've learned and...

(Harrison: I love you)

KING: What did he just whisper to you?

HAROLD: I can't repeat it.

(LAUGHTER)

KING: OK. We'll use that as a grabber. We'll take a break and come right back. We'll include some phone calls as well. At the bottom of the hour, other members of the cast and later, we'll meet the producers and a critic of "Queer As Folk." You're watching LARRY KING LIVE. Don't go away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "QUEER AS FOLK")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are many pleasures to be found here, places that you are afraid to even think of going. I can take you there. But first you must surrender to me completely. Do you surrender?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I surrender.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir. You will call me sir.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "QUEER AS FOLK")

GLESS: So how long you been positive then?

SPARKS: Mother. GLESS: I just like to know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's OK. I'm fine with it. Five years.

GLESS: What's your T-cell count?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 600.

GLESS: Ever been hospitalized?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nope, not yet, knock wood.

GLESS: Viral load?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Undetectable.

GLESS: On the cocktail?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anti-virals.

SPARKS: What the (EXPLETIVE DELETED) do you think you're doing?

GLESS: This is the reality, sweetheart. And you're just going to have to live with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Randy, your character is 17 years old, as I understand it.

HARRISON: He's 19 now, but he began at 17, yes.

KING: When he was 17, was there criticism over that since he's a minor?

HARRISON: Some, yes, there was.

KING: Didn't bother you?

HARRISON: Not really because it happens all the time. And, you know, I was happy to put it out there.

KING: As we saw from that scene, Hal, your lover has HIV.

SPARKS: Yes. Michael's dating a character named Ben this year and he's HIV positive.

KING: Do you think this enlightens people about this?

SPARKS: Absolutely. I mean, when the episode where I meet him and all that, it first aired, Michael can't sleep with him. And he breaks up with him because he can't handle the HIV element in the relationship. And we got a lot of criticism from that. People picketed us. And then when they finally watched how the story progressed and how this relationship grows, I think it really opens a lot of people's eyes. And I'm really happy that that storyline came into the fore. KING: Peter, there are those who say Pittsburgh was a bad choice to be the city -- no, that the gay communities are more prevalent in San Francisco, Houston than in Pittsburgh.

PAIGE: Right. You know, I mean, I think you should talk about that with the producers. Obviously, that was their choice. But I think it's about being a real city. It's just about being a city with real people with people who might be neighbors.

KING: Just happened to be Pittsburgh.

PAIGE: Yes. Exactly.

KING: Tacoma, Washington, hello. Tacoma, are you there?

CALLER: This is Houston, Texas.

KING: OK. I was told Tacoma. I'm on five, but OK, Houston, go ahead.

CALLER: I just wanted to comment about the show. First of all, I love the show. Everybody is great on that show. I'm an African- American female who has dealt with discrimination in her own life and it's great to see how you all have overcome all of that.

KING: Do you have a question? Do you have a question, dear?

CALLER: Well, I just wanted to give a comment. I mean, I love the show. You're all doing great work. Keep it up. I mean, you've helped me and my family bridge...

SPARKS: Thanks a lot.

KING: Thank you. Do you hear a lot of that?

PAIGE: We do quite a about it, actually. I think the universality of the relationships, I think, it touches people. And, you know, straight people, gay people, people of color, often come up and just say, I get it. That's my relationship. I understand that.

SPARKS: A big portion of our audience is straight women. And a lot of times it is because they're seeing emotions portrayed that they don't get to see anywhere else.

KING: Gale, do you have any fear that this could typecast you in a way that, oh, he's the guy that's on "Queer As Folk"?

HAROLD: The only real answer I have to that, you know -- it is asked a lot is that I really wouldn't want to work with someone who would typecast me based on what I'm doing in this job. I mean, we're actors and we want to grow and we want to perform different parts.

So if I'm going to take a part that's challenging to me and that's feeding me as an actor, if someone were going to typecast me because of that -- I know that it has happened. But I really feel like it's 2002. Hopefully we're beyond that. PAIGE: Amen.

HAROLD: My goal is to work with people like I'm working with now that have an interest in pushing forward ideas and issues that, you know, are important and speak to people.

KING: Randy, as a gay man, are you consulted by -- by the way, are the writers gay?

HARRISON: Some of them.

KING: Are you ever consulted with questions like, does this happen?

HARRISON: No. Sometimes, yes, sometimes.

KING: No?

HARRISON: Not all the time. I mean, I think people are pretty aware that this sort of does happen. You know, in the show, it very much represents a small subgroup of the gay community. But you know, most people I know who watch the show are aware of the reality of these kinds of situations and relationships.

KING: Do you ever see a sсript, Peter, where you have to say, no, that's not the way it happens?

PAIGE: No. I've seen scripts where I said, I wonder about this. And we engage the producers in a great conversation about it. They're really collaborative and really open that way. And the only question I've ever been asked by other actors on the show was do you really do it like that?

KING: And what do you say?

PAIGE: Harder.

KING: Sharon, I know you've never shirked controversy. Did you expect what you've gotten out of this?

GLESS: I'm sorry, Larry. I couldn't hear you.

KING: Did you expect the controversy this has gotten?

GLESS: Yes. That's sort of reason I signed on because I thought -- I mean, I was up for the fight. But that's what's exciting about this show to me. There's never been anything like it. I've been getting trouble from that scene you just saw, from people writing me and talking to me on the street, how could you?

KING: There are conservatives, Hal, who are saying it glorifies a lifestyle.

SPARKS: I think TV has an opportunity to be a window. And that's what it is in this case. There are a lot worse lifestyles to glorify than a young man falling in love with a man who has HIV and persevering through that relationship, or a character such as Emmett who falls in love with a much older man and really has an enduring relationship with him. If that's what we're promoting, then, tough.

PAIGE: You know, it ain't glorifying what. These characters are flawed. They struggle. They have problems. It is drama. That's what it is.

GLESS: They're real people.

KING: It's a show.

PAIGE: It's a show. To say we're glorifying something I think is really inaccurate.

KING: Any sсript coming going deal with the Catholic church?

SPARKS: Boy, we've been really prophetic throughout. And, yes, that actually is addressed.

KING: Thank you all very much. We'll break and meet other members of the cast, four more coming. We thank Peter Paige, Sharon Gless, Gale Harold, Randy Harrison and Hal Sparks, all of the hit show "Queer As Folk." More to come and more phone calls. Don't go away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "QUEER AS FOLK")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: This card entitles the bearer to one year off to take care of the world's most beautiful baby.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: I crunch the numbers.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: But how?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Doesn't matter how. I made it work.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: I don't know what to say.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: You don't have to say anything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: The subject is "Queer As Folk." And naturally lesbians play a part as well. Let's meet our next panes, here in Los Angeles Scott Lowell plays Ted Schmidt. Ted is a gay, low key, down to earth accountant. And by the way, he's also a straight man.

SCOTT LOWELL, ACTOR: Not a lebian.

KING: Not a lesbian. In New York is Robert Gant, he plays Ben Bruchner. Ben was not part of the first season. He is a professor of gay studies, also is HIV positive, also is straight.

Two straight ladies here in Los Angeles; Tea Gill, who plays Lindsey Patterson, a university professor in a committed lesbian relationship and Michelle Clooney who plays Melanie Marcus. Melanie is a tough lawyer in that committed lesbian relationship.

Why did you take this part, Scott?

LOWELL: Mostly because of the character reminded me so much of myself in a certain stage of my life. Especially moving out to Los Angeles from Chicago. The gay club scene that's portrayed in "Queer As Folk" is exactly what Los Angeles is like. A world where youth and beauty and wealth is prized, and if you don't have those things, then you don't quite fit in, much as my character does. You end up on the rejected end of the post.

KING: Robert, you know there are some people who are complaining that heterosexuals shouldn't have been cast at all. It should have been an all-gay cast. How do you react to that?

ROBERT GANT, BEN, "QUEER AS FOLK": Well, at the end of t day, it is about who best portrays a part. The reality is we know that Rock Hudson had been playing straight roles for how many years. This has been happening back and forth since the beginning of time. It's just -- I guess now that the tables are turned, people are -- I don't know.

KING: A good point. Tea, why did you take it?

THEA GILL, LINDSAY, "QUEER AS FOLK": I thought it was a lovely role. I felt very fortunate enough to be offered such a role. I love the emotional aspects of Lindsey and her relationship with her family. And the traditional qualities.

KING: Was it hard to play that scene we just saw, making love to a woman when I presume that you prefer men?

GILL: It was a breeze. Every time I'm working with Michelle it's a joy.

KING: Are you in love with Michelle, now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are going to elope after this.

KING: No, was it hard to play that?

GILL: No, not at all. Not at all. It was very simple and it was very rooted for me. And every time I work on any scene that I am in with Michelle and anyone else in the show (AUDIO GAP)

KING: No conflicts for you.

GILL: None.

KING: Michelle, what about you?

MICHELLE CLUNIE, MELANIE, "QUEER AS FOLK": Conflicts?

KING: You are heterosexual?

CLUNIE: Yes, yes, yes.

KING: Any difficulty?

CLUNIE: No. It's just a part of the job. And to me, I see love as love. I don't think that -- I relate very much to the love that Melanie and Lindsey share. And it's very beautiful. And I think at the end of the day, you just -- it is wonderful to get to play a character that has such a strong point of view and is feisty and you don't get to see on TV very often.

KING: How do you react to all the attention it's getting?

CLUNIE: I think it's wonderful.

KING: Even the bad, even those who are critical?

CLUNIE: Well, you know I don't really listen to those voices very much. When people are critical, I think that if you listen to that how do you get out of bed and create in the morning? I hear so much positive reinforcement that critical voices, I don't know what you're talking about.

KING: Is it hard, Scott, to plaY love scene with a man?

LOWELL: No. I mean, although I do apologize to any woman I've kissed and given razor burn to over the years. That's the hardest part of it, I suppose. Is needing a good moisturizer afterwards.

KING: What's the hardest part, Robert, for you, about playing a gay person?

GANT: You know, I think at the end of the day, acting is acting. And you know, our lives -- the whole point is that there's no real difference, that we tend to focus on how we're not the same.

And what people are noticing about the show is they're starting to see our similarities. They're starting to see how we're the same. About how people at the end of the day, love the same. They argue the same. They have sex very similarly. And so really as an actor my job is to take my life experiences and to put them into, you know, into the scene that I'm playing.

You know, there was -- when I was having a love scene with -- a romantic scene with Leah Thompson or Lisa Kudrow, kissing them, it is no different than kissing Hal in that I'm not in love with any of these people. I am looking inside of myself and finding those places where I remember being in love and bring that into the scene.

KING: Thea, the first time you had to kiss a woman, was that hard? Assuming it is something you've never done.

GILL: No, same thing that Bobby was talking about. It's another human being. It's another...

KING: Feel different?

GILL: Softer and more gentle.

KING: Oklahoma City. Hello.

CALLER: Yes. My mom and I are fans of the show. We were wondering for the straight actors, do they have appreciation for gay people now that they've portrayed them.

KING: Good question. Has it changed your thinking at all, Scott?

LOWELL: No, I've always appreciated gay people. I've known many. I have some in my family. They're people just like any of us. As has been mentioned earlier, the only thing that "Queer as Folk" has taught me is how much we're all alike and that all the fuss and the nonsense people make over the differences is absurd. We're all human beings.

KING: Bob, has it changed you at all, feelings towards gay people?

GANT: I'm just really proud to be a part of this. It's revolutionary. There was a time when there was a show that for the first time was about people of color. And it was controversial and caused people to talk and argue. And this show is doing exactly that. It's historic. And I'm just so glad to be a part of it and to watch the world changing. People don't realize this is opening minds and hearts and souls and you know, in the wake of September 11, I think we're all taking a look at love and life.

KING: Affected you in any way, Thea?

CLUNIE: Michelle?

KING: Michelle, I'm sorry.

CLUNIE: To be part of it? Yes, absolutely. I think the emotions that Melanie goes through as a character and being shut out of the hospital room and not being able to be with my baby and the woman that I love and having to go through that as an actress, it's made me even more compassionate where there already was compassion, it is so much deeper.

KING: Given us all a better understanding of the parts you play and I thank you very much. We'll meet the executive producers and a critic of this extraordinary program. You're watching LARRY KING LIVE. Don't go away.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "QUEER AS FOLK")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Oh, my god.

GILL: Say hello to your son.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: Well, go on.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: When did it start?

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Around 7:00. UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Six hours later there he was.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: I wish I could have been here. How often do I get to see...

UNIDENTIFIED ACTRESS: Looks just like you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Joining us now here in Los Angeles are Ron Cowan and Daniel Lipman. They are the executive producers of "Queer as Folk". they were creators, executive producers and writers of the emmy winning network series. They earned an Emmy for writing the TV movie, "An Early Frost."

They've won a Peabody Award as well. Both gentlemen are gay and have been personal as well as professional partners for more than 30 years. In New York, is Robert Peters. Robert is president of Morality in Media, a nonprofit national interfaith organization working through, it says, constitutional means to curb traffic and obscenity and to uphold standards of decency in the mainstream media. Before we get Roberts thoughts, how was this show conceived, Ron?

RON COWEN, EX. PROD. "QUEER AS FOLK": It is based on an English series of the same name "Queer as Folk" which we saw. Showtime called, asked if we'd be interested in doing it. We said oh, absolutely. It would be a tremendous challenge, something exciting.

KING: Daniel, in England do they do it the same way, a cast of people, some straight, some gay?

DANIEL LIPMAN, EX. PROD. "QUEER AS FOLK": You mean in terms of the actors?

KING: Yes.

LIPMAN: I think that all the factors on that show, the leading roles were straight.

KING: Straight. Are scripts kind of similar stories involvement, lesbians, etc.?

LIPMAN: Actually, our show is more of an ensemble show. It has turned into that. That's what the network wanted it to be. We actually used the British template the first episode or so because it was very very seminal in terms of this Brian and Justin relationship. After that we veered in our own direction.

KING: Where did the title come from?

COWEN: I understand it is from a Welsh expression.

LIPMAN: Yorkshire...

COWEN: Yourkshire expression. It actually means there's nothing as strange as people. There's nothing as "Queer as Folk".

LIPMAN: There's not as "Queer as Folk". There's nothing stranger than people.

KING: You knew you of course you were breaking new ground here?

COWEN: Yes.

KING: Any trepidation?

LIPMAN: No, I don't think so. We wrote, as you mentioned, "Early Frost" which in its time was fairly groundbreaking. For us, I think there has been this, not by design, but this arc in our career of writing about gay characters. And where the world has gone, to go from something like "Early Frost" where we could barely have the characters touch each other to something like "Queer As Folk" is simply amazing.

KING: All right. Robert Peterson (sic) in New York, what's the rub? They're presenting a side of life. They're presenting it realistically. That's what life is about.

ROBERT PETERS, PRESIDENT, MORALITY IN MEDIA: Well, I really don't claim to be the whole expert on this program. I was asked to watch the first three episodes of "Queer as Folk" actually before they aired in order to comment on them for a television interview. And I watched them. And I could summarize my concerns with -- to make things simple, three Ps.

And the first P is an old-fashioned word. It is pedorasty. And I think some of your viewers would know that's a high-falutin' word for man/boy love. It's often used, I think, in reference to a practice that was widely existed in Rome and ancient Greece, which is initiating young attractive boys into manhood through having sex with older men. And kind of what really shocked me about watching those first three episodes was not just that this man/boy love relationship was depicted in a very explicit fashion, but it really was the centerpiece.

I mean, my second P is promiscuity. And I don't know how many people understand it, but there is still an AIDS epidemic in the United States of America that is affecting a lot of gay men. And so are -- there's an epidemic of other sexually transmitted diseases that is affecting gay men. Now, I won't go so far as to say that the program is promoting promiscuity, which I think arguably it is, but clearly it's non-judgmental. It is depicting this as the way things are. It's depicting it very erotically, very excitedly. I mean, whether it's promotion or just wallowing in something, it's there. And there was a study...

KING: All right. Robert, hold it one second. Before you get to the third P, I want to take a break and come back, and then you establish what the third reason was, and then Ron and Daniel will respond.

You're watching LARRY KING LIVE. We'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "QUEER AS FOLK")

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't get the idea that we're still a married couple, because we're not. We're not like (EXPLETIVE DELETED) straight people. We're not like your parents. And we're not a pair of dikes marching down the aisle in matching Vera Wangs. We're queers and if we're together, it's because we want to be, not because there's locks on our doors.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: "Queer as Folk" airs, by the way, at 10:00 p.m. Sunday nights on Showtime. And they repeat it Tuesday nights at 11:00 p.m. All right, Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media, what's the third P?

PETERS: Well, the third P is pornography. And pornography fits into the program in two ways. In one case, a lead character, a primary character, that's what he's into as a lifestyle. Now again, I'm not saying that the program, per se, promotes pornography. But like everything else, it is portrayed in a non-judgmental way. And certainly the sex scenes are, I think, by some definitions of pornography, pornographic.

And I have two articles that were written by openly gay men, one published in the "New York Times," the other in "The Village Voice" where those authors use the term porn in describing how the sex is depicted. I can recall some mainstream television critics saying that in a mainstream TV program, this is the most explicit and prolonged sex that's ever been depicted on television, straight or gay.

And I'm an opponent of pornography, I hasten to add, whether it is gay or straight. I really don't see any difference on that.

KING: OK, Robert. His points, Ron, on the three Ps are that you're appealing to base elements here, and that I gather -- I don't gather, he does think that you're taking this across the line. Your response?

COWEN: Well, first of all, we're on Showtime. And Showtime has lived up to its promise of "No Limits." I think they've been...

KING: That doesn't mean he can't criticize.

COWEN: Oh, no, not at all. I think -- look, everybody's entitled to their opinion. It makes for conversation. The show is absolutely controversial. But I do think that we are portraying gay people as sexual people for the first time on television. Very few people have ever seen this in their lives. And I think it's very important to show gay people as having sex lives. Up until now, they've been pretty much portrayed as clowns and eunuchs.

KING: How about the non-judgmental that he brings up? LIPMAN: Well, I do want to say that I was hoping that a couple of these would be provocative and pioneering. But as far as non- judgmental, he's correct. We do not judge our characters. You know, this is a creative venture. And being creative, it does not take a politically correct view. That does not mean that there's an intent to harm or offend. It's just our job is to tell the truth about the world of this...

KING: What, Robert, do you want? Do you want the show not to be on or do you want someone to come in and say on the show at various times what you're doing is wrong? I mean, what is your goal?

PETERS: Well, I've been asked to criticize the program or comment on it, I suppose, several times over the past couple of years, and I've done so. I haven't wasted any sleep over the program. I'm thankful at one level that it's on Showtime because for the most part that means it's a consenting adult audience.

Certainly on broadcast television, there are people talking today that whatever goes on on Showtime and HBO should be on broadcast television after 10:00 p.m. And I'd also hasten to add that from my own personal moral perspective, apart from the man/boy love thing, which is a highlight of "Queer as Folk," I don't see much difference morally from "Queer as Folk" which is on Showtime, and "Sex and the City" which is on HBO. If they're going to be on television, that's the place for them.

Would America be a better place without both? In my opinion, yes. I'm not about to start a movement trying to get them off the air. And I haven't done that.

KING: I see. You're just offering your critique.

PETERS: Thank you.

KING: Ron, what about the man/boy critique?

COWEN: Well, in all honesty, I don't see just reason...

KING: They are young boys in the scenes we've seen.

COWEN: When we started the show, Justin was about 17 and a half going on 18. He's a high school senior. I think we all know that a lot of high school seniors are sexually active. Realistically, a lot of gay men have sex for the first time with older men. It happens. Our job to portray -- is to portray this world realistically. We're not making judgments here, but it does happen.

It also happened by mutual consent. Now, when a young man is 18 years old, he is allowed to marry. He can vote. He can go in the Army. He can die for his country. I certainly think he should also be able to have sex with whomever he wants, provided that person wants to have sex with him, that it is by mutual consent and that it's done safely and that's exactly what we've shown on "Queer as Folk."

KING: Robert? PETERS: When I watched these first three episodes, I was writing down what I observed. This is very quick, but this is one of the sex scenes involving the man and boy. A man gets in the shower with boy, man sodomizes boy in shower. Man says to another male friend, we have to take the child to school. They take boy to high school. Boy wants to see the man again. He says, I just saw the face of God.

Boy at school looking at football players in the shower. Boy tells female friend that he's proud and happy that he had sex with a man and that he loves the man. Now, later in this program, that man/boy lover was in the bathroom and another man came in who happened to have -- be married with two children, and part of the reality that was depicted in that episode, the two men, the man/boy lover and the married person with two children, they had sex in the stall.

Now, undoubtedly this takes place, but is this really the kind of entertainment that uplifts the American people and the teenagers that, according to one of your former guests, watch this program?

KING: We only have 20 seconds. Does he have a point? Does it affect people?

LIPMAN: Yes. This is not an Army training film. This is not devised to send out politically correct messages.

KING: We'll do more on this. I promised we've just touched the surface. Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, the co-executive producers; and Robert Peters, the president of Morality in Media. I'll tell you about tomorrow night right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

@темы: 2002

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New York Magazine. The Post-Gay Gay Icon by Simon Dumenco (Apr. 2002)

[moveforever]

The Post-Gay Gay Icon by Simon Dumenco [From the April 29, 2002 issue of New York Magazine.]



перевод wap.queerasfolkrus.borda.ru/?1-0-120-00000004-0...

He's hot, he's talented, and he's out. No surprise that Queer As Folk star Randy Harrison has legions of fans. But who'd have guessed how many of them would be women?

BY SIMON DUMENCO
PHOTOS BY BOB FRAME

Since this is the gay issue, and Randy Harrison is one of the stars of the gayest show on TV, Showtime's Queer As Folk, we might as well get the gay question out of the way. Which, actually, is exactly what Randy Harrison has done. "I told my close friends and my parents when I was 16," he says. And then he did something else: Unlike most gay actors, he never bothered to go back into the closet.

"I had a conversation recently with these gay movie producers about how in Hollywood pretty much everybody behind the scenes is out. But the actors still aren't. In a way, it just seems like it's too late for established actors to come out, because they've been part of the illusion, this mass manipulation, for too long." The machinery is still grinding away, says Harrison. "In L.A., people's publicists package them with other people to create the appearance of a relationship — they call the press and say, 'Be outside this restaurant at this time and you'll see this actor and that actress, and they're together.' Once you're caught up in that, you're fucked."

"How many people have done what Randy's done?" asks Ron Cowen, the co-executive producer, with Daniel Lipman, of QAF. "In terms of gay history, how many actors at 24 years old are out and are as successful and in as visible a position as Randy is? I can't think of any. In a way, he's a first."

Now let's get the "is he acting or just playing himself?" question out of the way. Short answer: He's acting.

Queer As Folk, for the uninitiated, shows a particular slice of gay culture: the sex-crazed, club-hopping milieu. For this reason, it's both loved (for its frankness) and hated (by those who think it reflects badly on the gay community). But when Harrison — who lives in the East Village when he's not shooting in Toronto — first got the part, he actually had to do research on gay nightlife: He went to Splash in Chelsea, "because I really hadn't been to a lot of gay clubs. I've always felt like a dork in gay clubs. Like I don't have the body thing, and I'm not into the body thing. And the first gay bar I ever went to when I was living in Atlanta, I felt more isolated than I ever have in my life. I thought, My God, is this internalized homophobia? Is this self-hatred? Eventually, I realized I'm just a gay man who hates dance music." (Harrison's partial to the White Stripes, Clinic, early Bowie, Lou Reed.)

In person, Harrison is quietly intense, and his look — wire-frame glasses, an exceedingly bland tan sweater, unremarkable jeans — is so understated that it doesn't even qualify as geek chic. On QAF, Justin's nickname is Sunshine because of his generally cheery disposition — though that's been changing a bit lately. In this, Queer As Folk's second season, Justin has gotten more nuanced: He's been recovering from a brutal gay-bashing in last year's finale.

"His character is taking some turns now," says Sharon Gless, the Emmy Award–winning actress (Cagney & Lacey) who plays the proud-mom-of-a-gay-son on QAF. "And sometimes I like just standing back and watching him work. Randy is a phenomenon." Gless says Harrison recently filmed a scene in which his character displays a dark edge. "The transformation he did from being this sweet child to being cold — cold! — was astounding. And I thought, Oh, my God, this kid is good."

Now let's get the personal- and professional-history stuff out of the way. Randy Harrison was born in New Hampshire, but his family moved to Atlanta when he was 11. (His dad is the CEO of a paper company; his mom's "a thwarted artist and a genius"; his older brother is a bank manager.) The acting thing happened in preschool: "My parents couldn't find a baby-sitter, so they brought me to a production of Peter Pan when I was 5. I was transfixed. I knew I wanted to be onstage after that."

His gay-style résumé has always been paltry. "I was so grunge in high school. I wore huge flannels and Doc Martens and cords." Post-high school, he survived the brutal (and renowned) theater program at CCM, the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music, even though he wasn't exactly popular with the faculty. (The program director boycotted his rebel production, with a group of fellow students, of Shopping and Fucking.)

He moved to New York, and then, having never before appeared on-camera, got cast in Queer As Folk after one audition and two call-backs.

"Thank God they were desperate," he says of the QAF producers.

Now let's get the instant-fame thing out of the way. Here is the typical fan reaction — not just to Harrison but to the entire QAF cast — according to Harrison's co-star Peter Paige: "Obsessed! Screaming, crying, 'Ohmigod, ohmigod!' "

If you're picturing hysterical homosexuals, think again, because that reaction actually comes from teenage girls, says Paige. And lots of older women, too (though they're not nearly as rabid).

It's a weird quirk of mainstreamed gay culture that QAF is a hit with straight women. At a recent first-season-DVD-signing session at the Lincoln Center Tower Records featuring Harrison, Paige, and co-star Gale Harold, "it was like 'N Sync or something," says Harrison. "I think we signed 700 or 800 boxed sets." At $90 a pop.

Okay the graphic-sex thing. It's time to get that out of the way — because QAF really can be steamy, at least as steamy as, say, Sex and the City.

Harold, the straight actor who plays Justin's boyfriend, Brian, says, "A lot of it happens in editing, although Randy and I are certainly making out and simulating sex. We're comfortable enough with each other to be able to give them enough raw material, you know what I mean?" For his part, Harrison says, "The sexuality required for the role never scared me at all."

And then, finally, to bring things full circle, let's get the future out of the way. As in, does an out-at-24 actor have one?

Apparently, yes. Next week, previews begin for the MCC Theater's A Letter From Ethel Kennedy, directed by Tony winner Joanna Gleason. It's Harrison's New York stage debut. And later this year, he plays the "head of a group of total outcasts" in Bang Bang You're Dead, a scathing Showtime movie about high-school violence.

It's a breakthrough role for the breakthrough actor because Harrison's character is straight.

"I'm still associated with the gayest show on TV," he says, "but the fact that I got the coming-out over with means the gay-actor thing will be on the back burner. At some point it'll be, 'He came out so long ago nobody even cares anymore.' "

@темы: 2002

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A Visit to the QAFolk Set, E-Now (March, 2001)

[moveforever]

A Visit to the QAFolk Set, CTV eNow [March 17, 2001]

from Canadian Dedication Page, Courtesy A Toronto Fan





"E-Now" is a half-hour entertainment magazine program that airs weekly on Canada's CTV network. The program's co-hosts are Carla Collins (CC) and Dan Duran (DD). At the top of the show, there is an audience tease of the segments that are to be aired in that episode. When the "E-Now" camera visited the "Queer As Folk" set, the players were in the studio filming a scene on the Babylon dance floor. Each of the actors were still in costume when they joined CC, in what appears to be the production office's lunchroom, for their one-on-one interviews. Footage from previously-aired episodes of the series was used throughout the segment.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DD(VO): ...Carla goes on set to get the straight story about "Queer As Folk".

[Wide two-shot: Carla and Peter Paige are seated at a table. Peter, who is wearing a black, sleeveless T-shirt with a chest-wide iridescent, lipstick, lip print on its front, is guardedly chuckling. Having just completed his taped interview, the camera continues to roll, while CC feigns astonishment at Peter's profound observation that he has just committed to videotape.]

CC: That's the sound bite of the century—"Queer As Folk" is the gay "Shaft!"

[Motioning, with her right arm, to Peter's unseen fellow cast mates, who are awaiting just off-camera for their turn with Carla, she continues...]

CC: I don't know what you clowns are gonna answer, but, ...why don't you just go home?

[CC and DD are seated at a desk on the "E-Now" set.]

CC: Based on the controversial, award-winning British TV hit, "Queer As Folk" takes a bold, sexy look at the contemporary, gay lifestyle in Northern America. Shot in Toronto, "Queer" is raising even the most liberal of eyebrows, thanks to its graphic portrayal of gay sex and romance. I paid an eye-opening visit to the tightly-closed set and got one of the "Queers" to introduce us to the other "Folks" on the show.

[Super: Queer As Folk Showcase (2000 – Present)]

[At Woody's, Emmett has just met Dr. David but is distracted by an unseen Matthew McConaughey look-alike.]

[Hal Sparks provides the voice-over introduction for each of his cast mates.]

[Super: Peter Paige "Emmett Honeycut"]

HS(VO): This is Peter Paige. He plays my friend, Emmett. He's the resident queen of the group.

PP: Certainly, every portrayal you see of a group of gay men has this sort of outrageous queen running around. But, what I love about Emmett, and what I think sets him apart, from most of those portrayals, is that he is a real person and that he doesn't hate himself.

[At Babylon, having spoken to Blake in the club's washroom, a rejected Ted ascends the stairs to a curious Emmett.]

[Super: Scott Lowell "Ted Schmidt"]

HS(VO): This is Scott Lowell. He's the loveable, likeable, sad sack-ee, Ted.

SL: You know, I loved the character. I related to him so much. I understood him so much, and felt that he had a real universal appeal beyond the gay world. I felt, you know, everybody knows Ted—has felt like Ted—is Ted.

[Seated with wide-eyed Daphne, Justin explains how he made the transition from "tight end" to "wide receiver".]

[Super: Randy Harrison "Justin Taylor"]

HS(VO): This is Randy Harrison. He plays Justin, the bane of my existence. But, you know—he grows on you.

RH: It was a great break for me. I had just graduated from school—from theatre school—and this was one of the first auditions I got. And I was thrilled, by the opportunity, to be able to do it.

[In Marvin's hotel room, a nude Brian arranges his check-out and sends Marvin packing—to his other life.]

[Tight close-up. Super: Gale Harold "Brian Kinney"]

HS(VO): Gale Harold plays the role of Brian and they couldn't be more different if one of them was oil and the other one was evil.

GH: He doesn't care—apology never comes into it. So, he has the energy that just drives him forward and I think that that can be really captivating.

[Michael assumes a prone position on Dr. David's table and advises him that it's his favourite position. Crack!]

[Super: Hal Sparks "Michael Novotny"]

HS(VO): And I'm Hal Sparks. I play Michael—and quite well I might add.

HS: I think a Canadian is responsible for the big wave of gay television right now. It's Scott Thompson from "Kids In The Hall". Because when "Kids In The Hall" was on HBO, it was the hip thing to watch.

[Buddy Cole receives a large ACME boxed, delivery which contains a rather startled leather man.]

[Super: The Kids In The Hall CBC (1989 – 1994)]

HS(VO): College kids all over the place were watching and they were OK with Scott being gay and playing a gay character—playing a straight character, playing men and women and it was just hip to like it. So, he was part of that and that made it easy. He never kissed anybody but had he done it, nobody would have blinked.

PP: I certainly think it's helped us being in Canada. I don't know that we got the show more or less right because we're in Canada. But, on a lot of different levels as actors, I think by, sort of, pulling us all out of our own lives, and sticking us up here. We didn't know anybody else, we all sort of, you know, had to hunker down together and, 'Well alright, we're going to make this crazy TV show.'

CC: Are you being recognized and is you family still speaking to you or loving you even more or...

RH: Yeah, my family is great and everyone I know is very positive about it. I mean, you know, my parents would prefer not to watch me have sex. But, any parent would be like that.

CC: And that's a good thing, Randy. Cause really if your parents were like, "Oh, boy! I think it's another sex scene...Aunt Martha get in here!"

CC: Two directions I want to go here, you know, when you talked about the cinematic history of, you know, blacks, gays and obviously, there was "Ellen", most recent times.

[Ellen, with her arm around her shoulder, attempts to steal a quick kiss from her friend, Paige, who turns her cheek.]

[Super: Ellen CTV (1994 – 199 ]

CC: Then it's just over to "Will and Grace" where it's not about that. And I just adore that show, and I think that it's another plateau.

[A squatting Jack McFarlane invites an unreceptive Will Truman to place his head between Jack's knees.]

[Super: Will and Grace NBC (1998 – Present)]

CC: Then you get "Queer As Folk". Is this—are you at the extreme limit or what's next?

HS: No, I think, the next level is acceptance. That, you know what, you don't need a token gay person. Or, you don't need a gay show. You have a show that involves all types of different people. Some of the people, may be gay, some of them may be straight. It's nobody's business.

PP: If you look at the portrayal of blacks in cinema. They started as servants and minstrels and "steppin' fetch-its" and then came the, sort of, came the Sidney Poitier 'Sainthood years'. And then came the "Shaft" years where they were like, "Screw you. Look at this!"

[Off camera, CC is heard imitating a wah-wah guitar sound, used in the "Shaft" theme, as Peter continues...]

PP: Exactly, 'This is it...this is who I am...this is what I'm about...if you've got a problem with—pphttt.'

[While driving with Michael, in his freshly defaced Jeep, Brian yells at the top of his lungs, "Faggot!"]

[Two-shot of CC and DD who are seated at a desk on the "E-Now" set.]

CC: And good news for the "Folks". "Queer As Folk" has been renewed, by the powers that be, for another, naughty season. "Queer" airs on Showcase, Monday nights at 10:00.

---

Q+A's' from Attitude Magazine (Feb 2001)

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Q+A's' from Attitude Magazine by David Spedding; [published in the February 2001 issue]
Peter Paige, Sharon Gless, Randy Harrison

Question + Answers

1) Peter Paige (Emmet/Anthony)

Peter. We hear the project didn't enjoy the most supportive of starts. What got you on board?

Oh, there were entire agencies who would not send their clients to audition for this. As soon as I saw the sсript, I knew that there was a whole person there. I mean, so often Queens in particular are 2-dimensional - you know, composed entirely of humour and self-loathing, and nothing else. And I just didn't want to do that.

What's been the biggest change in the American translation?

The lesbians are stronger in the American version. I mean, the lesbians in the British version were barely there. it was like 'Here girls, hold the baby,' then 'Bye!'.

What kind of response have you had from the gay community?

When I've spoken to the gay press about the show they've been like 'This is it! I know these people, I've hung out with these people, I've some of these people'. This show is meant to be honest. It has a different purpose than just to make people laugh. And you know what? I think it's a pretty damn good reflection of gay life.

This show makes you so publicly gay. Is that a worry for you at all?

I've been out a long long time and I couldn't possibly imagine going back into the closet, especially now that I've done this show. That seems insane to me and it's not a way I've ever chosen to live my life. Will it have professional ramifications? Very possibly, but I'm of the school that says the only rules that apply are the rules you subscribe to yourself, so fuck Ôem. I am an openly gay men, I am Emmett, I am however coming to love my inner Emmett [laughs], but I have a lot more to offer. You know, if you have a problem with it, fuck you, I don't have the time to deal with it. I just don't.

Straight men can act gay, but they will never be able to dance gay. Discuss.

[Laughs] I have no comment whatsoever on the dancing styles of straight men. I found my castmates to be well-lubricated in the hips and that's basically what it's all about.

They didn't come to you for tips?

The only things I was ever asked questions about were the, er, mechanics of the sex scenes. They were like 'Do they, uh, do they do that?' And I would say 'Yes. Only harder.' But it was basically about positions and so on. They'd say 'My girlfriend and I never did ,' to which you can only reply 'Maybe it's about time you started.' [laughs]

2) Sharon Gless (Debbie/Hazel)

How did you get involved in this, Sharon?

I was doing a play in Chicago and a friend of mine got hold of the sсript and said there was a perfect role for me in it. So he sent it over, I read it, and I went . I thought it was the best thing I'd ever read. And so dangerous. I it was going to be surrounded by trouble [laughs]. And I thought, How do I get this? I mean, I hadn't gone for a part since the 70s! I called a friend at Showtime and arranged to meet the producers and, well, we fell in love. I really lucked out that day - i was so worried I wouldn't be their cup of tea, and they'd had one of their blackest days, where wanted to touch this project. No one was returning their calls. Then I walked in and said 'OK - what do I have to do? I want this part!'

You undergo quite a transformation as Debbie...

I know. It's very daring. And very fun. Actually, when I came to the show I had this idea that I would change wigs all the time, so I bought fourteen, really crappy wigs with me, but they said 'No, we want the audience to know it's Sharon Gless.' I said 'What? The minute I open my they're going to know it's me!' Oh and Denise Black, who played this part in hte british version has just sent me two hair baubles that she wore. I started crying when they handed them to me - I was knocked out. This is the sweetest thing. And she said she'd look out for them in the show.

You going to wear them, aren't you.

Oh absolutely, you bet.

There's a real sense of pride from the cast in what they're doing here.

Absolutely. For my part, I knew that nothing like this had ever been attempted in America. And I don't mean to use the word 'important' in a grand way, but the fact is, it . You know, when I did Cagney and Lacey, my husband pointed out to me - and this was in the 80s, remember - that women and minorities are always considered to be amusing. So you will see Laverne And Shirley, you will see Lucy and Ethel, and no one has a problem with that, so long as they're doing comedy. But you will never see women carrying a drama. Or blacks. Or Asians. It simply isn't done. And even today in American television, you will only see gays in sitcoms - never in a dramatic series. This is the first time it's happened.

Over here the show shocked initially, then became embraced like any good mainstream drama. How has the US reacted?

Oh we're still in the Titillated Phase [cackles]. It's all very... 'Wow!' But judging from the Internet response, each character is so well rounded that people are already coming to embrace their personal favourites. You know, it's more than just watching people getting laid. It's not just about dick. [laughs] You know, I actually went from filming QAF to doing the Vagina Monologues on stage. I've gone from dick to pussy. [laughs]

You've also effectively qualified as Gay Royalty by being in the show.

Oh I'm . Thankyou! I knew I had a lesbian following on Cagney And Lacey...

...well now you have the guys as well.

Awww. I'm . Oh, I'm so pleased.

Are you expecting Midwest fundamentalists to rain hellfire and brimstone on your eternal soul for this?

I think people have been too involved in all the election stuff until now, but there's no way they'll let this slide. And you know what? I'm really looking forward to it! I love a fight.

3) Randy Harrison (Justin/Nathan)

- When did you first hear about Queer As Folk?

- I'd read a few articles about the UK version maybe about a year ago, but I'd never actually seen it.

- And did it occur to you then that you'd be in the US version one day?

- It kinda did, actually. [laughs] I know how arrogant that sounds, but I remember reading about it and seeing a picture of Nathan, and thinking 'Hey, I could play that part.' Yeah, it totally occured to me. Seriously it did. Then when I heard they were doing an American version of it, I was like, 'I to get that audition.'

- And yet a lot of people were scared to audition for the show.

- My agents were very much in favour of it. I read the first three episodes, I connected with the character, I saw him as a well-rounded 3-dimensional character, and I was excited about being able to portray him.

- It broke a lot of new ground in the UK - are you expecting America to be surprised?

- I think it will blow America away. It's hard to predict. It'll certainly change television, and hopefully it'll change a few people's thinking. I think it has that power.

- In what way?

- I mean I've always been out, but I'm hyper-aware of homophobia, and doing this show and suddenly being so publicly and openly gay, I'm aware of homophobia. Even in myself, sometimes - in my inability to talk about it.

- Is it important for high-profile public figures to be out?

- I would have said so a little while ago, yes, but lately I understand how hard it probably is for a lot of people to be out. I'm hoping more people will make it, though. I really hope so.

- Apparently GLAAD have already expressed concerns that the show's not an accurate representation of gay life.

- I don't know what Gay Life is - I couldnt come up with a generalisation for that. I think Queer As Folk portrays a very specific sector of the gay community and how some specific gay men are, but we're not trying to represent anyone here.

- Gale [Harold, who plays Brian/'Stuart'] is a straight man. Is he a good kisser?

- I don't answer that question. Sorry. [Laughs]. Besides, it's a stunt tongue.

---

SoGayTV (Nov 2001)

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SoGayTV on PrideVision TV [Nov 15, 2001]



Mathieu: Are you attracted to effeminate gay guys?
Randy: Sure. I am an effeminate gay guy.
Mathieu: [surprised] You are?
Randy: Oh yeah, I can be a big sissy.
Mathieu: Really?
Randy: Yeah.
Mathieu: Why do you think you're a sissy?
Randy: I just queen out sometimes when I get really excited about something. I don't know exactly how to define... I don't know how you differentiate between a non-effeminate gay guy and -- I don't know. It's hard for me to understand, really.
Mathieu: So it's hard for you to understand it, but you are attracted to guys who are feminine?
Randy: I'm attracted to guys who I'm attracted to. It really doesn't matter.
Mathieu: Not if they're girly or not?
Randy: Not really. I would be irritated if I felt like someone was playing into it just for a sense of identity that they didn't have otherwise. But other than that, it doesn't really bother me at all.

www.angelfire.com/home/qaf/sogaysissy.html

@темы: video

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The Gayest Show on Earth from Fab (Dec 2001 - Jan 2002)

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The Gayest Show on Earth from Fab [20 Dec 2001 - 16 Jan 2002]



The gayest show on earth
The boys are back in town for another steamy season of Queer As Folk
By John Kennedy for Fab Magazine, December 20, 2001

Justin, Brian, Ted and Emmett are gathered around Michael, who is playing pinball inside Woody's, trying to come up with the perfect lesbian wedding gift. A specially engraved dildo, perhaps? Or maybe stemware? "Dildos are stemware," Emmett quips. Suddenly the group is interrupted by a bartender who is about to draw the winning ballot in a raffle for two tickets to the White Party in Miami Beach. "And the luckiest prick in Pittsburgh is..."

Sorry, you will have to wait until Episode 11 of the second season of Queer As Folk to find out who it is.

read more

Twenty new weekly episodes of QAF will air Monday nights at 10 pm on Showcase beginning Jan 21. In its first season, the US version of the groundbreaking British series became a big ratings winner and failed to live up to the "controversial" label the media placed on it. Audiences that were supposed to be shocked by realistic depictions of gay sex and rampant drug use were instead seduced by a cast of largely likeable characters and melodramatic stories peppered with comedic dialogue.

Set in Pittsburgh but filmed entirely in Toronto - mostly on sets housed in a warehouse west of the city - QAF has developed a large and loyal following. "How many shows are putting out a DVD of their entire first season because the demand is there?," wonders Scott Lowell, who plays Ted Schmidt. "I think it's pretty remarkable. I feel very lucky and I'm grateful that the audience has embraced us as much as they have.

Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, two of QAFs executive producers and writers, admit the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the series surprised them.

"We didn't know what the response would be," says Lipman. "We began writing the show for a niche audience, for a gay audience. I think the most surprising thing is that we have such a vast audience of gay and straight viewers."

Cowen agrees. "It's supposed to be a gay show for gay people, not for a straight audience," he recalls. "So we're amazed that so many people came to it."

According to a Showcase publicist, 52 percent of the series' viewers are women. Noting that most gay men are already aware of the show, the network has decided to spend most of its marketing budget for the new season on ads targeting females.

"People are very compelled by the characters. They love the cast, they love the characters and stories," explains Lipman. "And the sexuality is something they surrender to."

Cowen believes QAF is sending mainstream audiences a positive message about gays and lesbians. "I think it's great for gay people to be perceived as dimensional and sexual and not to have anybody screaming 'the sky is falling.' Viewers seem to think it's no big deal. I think that's a great thing."

Randy Harrison, who plays Justin, says he is acutely aware of his female following. "I think more than half of my fan base is teenaged girls, which is really funny," says Harrison, adding they are likely drawn to the naked guys and soap opera style of QAF. "It's sort of like a romantic fantasy."

Harrison sits down on the designer sofa in Brian's apartment and sips soup from a styrofoam container. Just as cute as he appears on screen, he is less outgoing and much less naíve than his character. Soft-spoken, polite and obviously bright, the Atlanta native strikes you as someone who would rather curl up with a good book than dance the night away at Babylon.

Acting since the age of seven, Harrison has appeared in stage productions all over the US including Grease, Anything Goes and West Side Story. Before landing the QAF role - his first television gig - he received his BFA in theatre from the University of Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music. He stars in the upcoming TV movie, Bang, Bang, You're Dead.

Hard as it is to believe, Harrison insists his life hasn't changed much since fame hit. "I mean, I still have to budget," he says. "I still pretty much have the same friends I had before and the new friends I have are significant friends, not that kind of superficiality. You're really aware of it. And you're always working so hard that you're prettv much grounded in the work."

Last year, Harrison did only a handful of interviews and he is only now starting to be comfortable talking to the press. Still, he says he rarely reads what is written about him. "Right when it first started happening I was like, 'Wow, I'm in a newspaper' or 'I'm in a magazine' and I read a lot of it," he says. "Now, I ignore it. I just find it weirds you out. It's weird to me to be in a magazine. It's hard to explain but even if it's about you its sort of about an image of you and if you start thinking that that's you, it's warped."

Harrison says he rarely gets recognized in Toronto, although he admits he usually stays pretty close to his home in Little Italy. Those who do recognize him generally don't even know his real name. "I don't necessarily think people are smart enough to differentiate between Justin and Randy, just because half the time when I'm on the street people call me Justin and refuse to accept that I'm not Justin. It's pretty annoying," he admits. A night out at Woody's is unlikely. "No. I mean, I wouldn't go unless it was an appearance because... I mean, it is an appearance if I can't just go. Which is fine because I wouldn't go anyway."

The young actor says he is inspired by the feedback he gets from viewers who talk or write to him. "I think what Justin went through in the first year is such a universal experience. It's not even necessarily gay. Just being introduced to sexualizing yourself and becoming a sexual being and sort of the overwhelming aspect of that and beginning to claim your sexual power and losing yourself in a relationship," he says. "I got a lot of response from that. I lot of young people were really comforted by seeing another person go through that kind of experience."

Harrison knows a lot of people have trouble understanding why Justin is so obsessed with self-centered, arrogant Brian. "When I was given the character of Justin, pretty much the only through line was I'm in love with this guy. Practically every scene that I played was about getting his attention and getting him to love me, for so long," he explains. "The way I view it now... I think he's an asshole. He's so unloveable. But I think that's the reason Justin loves him. I think Brian shows certain aspects of himself only to Justin because of the non-threatening aspects of what Justin was when he initially followed Brian around and I think Justin knows how comforting it is to Brian to be adored for what he is. I think Justin also thinks that were he to go away, Brian - because he's so filled with walls and Justin has gotten down so many - that he would never be able to do that again. So I think he feels an affinity for this man who is really hard to love but who actually is capable of loving him as best he can. I think Justin has learned how to receive the kind of love that Brian's able to give."

read more

Executive producer Daniel Lipman believes Brian is, in fact, the most moral character on the show. "What is a moral person? A moral person is a person who abides by his moral code, which he does," he explains. "He was never created as any kind of a villain or a shit."

Harrison is spending Christmas at home in Atlanta with his family - who watches QAF every week and loves it. "My mom always gives me the star treatment because I think she's still going through the empty nesting," he says. "so whenever I go home she wants me to stay forever and makes all the food I like. It's great. I'm really spoiled by my mom."

One of QAFs most interesting characters - vet one who, for the most part, has been relegated to the background - is Uncle Vic Grassi, brother of Michael's mom, Debbie Novotny. The role is played by veteran actor Jack Wetherall, a native of Sault Ste Marie who now lives in New York City when not working on QAF.

Wetherall played the title role in Broadway's The Elephant Man and has numerous credits on stages both in the US and Canada, where he starred in a number of Stratford Festival productions. Wetherall directed the Alberta Citadel Theatre's production of Our Town as well as productions of Measure for Measure and As You Like it in Chicago and New York respectively - and assisted renowned director Robin Phillips with Broadway's Jekyll and Hyde.

As Vic, Wetherall has endeared himself to a lot of viewers who enjoy his honest and soft-spoken portrayal of a person living with AIDS. "A lot of people have come up to me and said, 'My uncle died from AIDS and my whole family is watching because we're trying to make some sense of it by watching you.' Also, I had a guy who ran across the street seeing me and said, 'That's my story! That's my story! Thank you so much!' So all of that has been really encouraging for me," says Wetherall.

Playing a PWA with sensitivity and realism is easy for the gay actor, who says he has watched friends suffer from the disease. "I've gone to the wire with them. Some of them have crossed over and one in particular, who I'm very close to, has really done well since he started on the cocktail." Wetherall says viewers will notice changes in Vic this season. "Last year we dealt a lot with Vic being sick and this year what we're trying to deal with is Vic trying to reclaim his life and make some sense of having been so sick, almost having died," he explains. "Suddenly he has his health back but he's stuck on disability, he's stuck taking handfuls of pills but he's looking better, feeling better... so how do you carry on with the rest of your life and find a purpose?"

Wetherall says he hopes Vic gets some action. "I would like to see anybody over the age of 40 get laid in this world!"

Wetherall says he never had reservations about playing both gay and HIVpositive. "The thing I did learn in the theatre was that I think theatre can change people's minds and I think that television can too," he says. "I think the stakes are always high but I think we've been reawakened by the Sept 11th catastrophe in New York. With Vic, I think I represent a character who's understood what terrorism is for years - I mean, for years. We've seen thousands and thousands of men and women and children dying from this disease and a lot of the community turned their back on us. And terrorism is being inflicted on us by their not wanting to deal with it. So, to me, there's a real battle that I'm helping to fight by playing this character. So as much as the entertainment value is there, there are big issues."

Wetherall says he never told his parents back in the Sault when QAF aired but they managed to find it and watch the show every week. "It's tough for them... you know, it's a whole new generation. I mean, they get freaked out when a man and a woman kiss on TV for too long," he says. "But they are really hooked on the stories. My mom gets up and leaves the room every time something uncomfortable happens and then my dad has to call her back 'Okay, he's on now, you can come back in!'"

"It seems a lot more like work now,"says Scott Lowell of QAFs new season, sitting down after a long day of playing Ted. "I think we don't have the adrenaline and the excitement and the nerves of last year, of not knowing how this is going to go. Now it's really like we've got to work."

The enormously friendly and likeable Lowell, who was born and raised in Connecticut, majored in theatre at college and studied acting at the National Theatre Institute. He then moved to Chicago and spent a decade working on stage before landing a role on TV's Early Edition. Parts on Frasier, Caroline in the City and in a plethora of commercials and films soon followed.

Lowell, who recently wrote a play about John Wilkes Booth, says both good and bad things have come out of his QAF notoriety. He believes he recently lost a role due to his involvement with the show but he remains flattered by the attention he gets from fans.

"People have been great and everyone's been very respectful," he says. "I think the worst was in Los Angeles. I was grocery shopping and some guy saw me and for lack of anything better he just grabbed a grocery bag and said 'Sign this!' as I was trying to pay for my groceries."

He almost seems surprised by his fame. "I don't have the sex appeal of Gale [Harold, who plays Brian] or the girls. Randy [Harrison] and Peter [Paige, who plays Emmett] get a lot of press so I'm kind of just the straight guy who's a good actor right now," says Lowell. "So it's tough, at times, to remain patient and wait for it all to come to me."

Sounds like Lowell is a lot like his character. "He's the kind of guy who fades into the woodwork sometimes," he admits, "and hopefully that's something that will turn around at some point in time."

Lowell says he truly enjoys playing his character and is excited by what's in store. "Ted is kind of always the one in search of something - whether it be acceptance or love or what have you," he explains. "Ted is the only one searching and unfortunately to keep that drama going you kind of have to make sure whatever it is he's searching for, he never quite gets. There are lots of disappointments and many humiliations so far this season but some triumphs as well. A major triumph in a way. He does establish a bit of control over his life finally, which is great."

Lowell heads to Los Angeles for Christmas before spending some time in Las Vegas with his sister. Then it's off to an island in the Pacific for his first vacation since 1985. After a brief US tour to promote the DVD release of QAFs first season, he's back in Toronto to wrap up the second half of the new season.

What should viewers expect?

"I think the show is a little lighter this year," he allows. "It still has the danger but it's a little funnier this year partially because I think they're spreading the wealth a little bit more so there's more for Peter's character and more for Ted. "Less of the Brian-JustinMichael triangle."

Back in their second floor office, executive producers Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman explain their goal this season is simple. "To be honest. To be truthful," says Cowen. "To write about what we know, what we've experienced, what our friends' lives are like. I think our responsibility is to be truthful about what gay life is like for this group of young men in an urban setting."

But what about those in the gay community who complain QAF focuses only on the superficiality of gay life? "Political correctness is the death of all creativity." snaps Lipman. "We have no desire to be politically correct. That doesn't mean we deliberately try to offend or hurt people. I know that in certain circles the show's not popular because what people try to do is place their own expectations on the show. A lot of criticism of the show has nothing to do with the show - it has to do with, 'That's not the show I want to see. I want a doctor and a lawyer living in the suburbs walking their poodles.' That's fine but it's not what the show is."

Others complain that QAF lacks visible minorities. Cowen defends the casting. "There's one very visible minority on our show - it's called gay people," he says. "I have to say when I go to Woody's and walk around Church Street I don't see that much noticeable diversity."

A lot of Canadian viewers have also wondered why the show is set in Pittsburgh. What's wrong with letting Toronto star as itself? "The reason it's Pittsburgh is the original British show took place in Manchester so we wanted to get that kind of Middle America second-tier city which was small enough that people could run into each other," explains Lipman.

Looking back at the first season, are there any regrets?

"There are storylines that I was not particularly fond of," admits Cowen. "I think there was a period of time that we were looking to give the show its own identity and not be a copy of the British show. We were asked to do the American version of the British version of Queer As Folk. I think once we broke free of that show and people began to realize that Brian is not Stuart, that Justin is not Nathan... as soon as we could start becoming our own show, I think people liked it better."

"I don't necessarily agree," Lipman interrupts. "The show was its own from the beginning. We did use a lot of the very first [British] episode but we branched out. The show had a very different kind of humour and wackiness about it. When you say people liked it better, I think people were so stunned by the show that they eventually surrendered to it. People just sort of surrendered to the sexuality and to what the show is, so they've changed. The show hasn't changed that much."

Season 2 of Queer As Folk airs Monday nights at 10 on Showcase beginning Jan 21. Season 1 will repeat on PrideVisionTV in 2002 and available on DVD in early January.

@темы: Fab, 2002

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Inside Queer as Folk By Dennis Hensley From The Advocate (Nov 2000)

[moveforever]

(не про рэнди, но из ранних статей и он на обложке есть и внутри)

Inside Queer as Folk By Dennis Hensley From The Advocate [published November 21, 2000]



Перевод! - queerasfolk-rus.livejournal.com/56208.html

Inside Queer as Folk
An exclusive, uncut, and uncensored look behind the scenes on location with Showtime’s big, bad, gay bombshell
By Dennis Hensley
From The Advocate, November 21, 2000.

* IF YOU'RE A GAY MAN or lesbian, it's not all that unusual to find yourself dating someone your best friend doesn't approve of. Most of us have been there at some point.

It's quite another thing, however, to be on the Toronto set of Showtime's Queer as Folk Queer as Folk and see that particular social ballet played out before your eyes--with great-looking actors spouting the kind of smart-ass lines you wish you could have thought up when it happened to you.

Perhaps Daniel Lipman Daniel Lipman is a writer and producer from Baltimore, Maryland, United States. His most well known work to date is writing for and producing the hit American television shows Queer as Folk and Sisters. , one of the show's executive producers, isn't just serving up a sound bite sound bite
n.
A brief statement, as by a politician, taken from an audiotape or videotape and broadcast especially during a news report: "The box has been spitting forth maddening nine-second sound bites" when he calls this Queer as Folk--the hotly anticipated American adaptation of the groundbreaking 1999 British miniseries--"a true show for the millennium, a series of this century, not of the last century." Still, American Queer as Folk fans are finding it hard to believe anything on American TV could rival the sexual and emotional frankness of the English original. Can Showtime cut the mustard? In a gay press exclusive, The Advocate went on the set to find out.

The scene now being filmed is set in the modest, comic book-strewn Pittsburgh apartment of Michael, a sweet-natured but put-upon assistant department store manager. As the scene opens, Michael (played by former Talk Soup Hal Sparks) is facing his bathroom mirror, nervously preparing for a date with Dr. Dave (Chris Potter of Silk Stalkings), a humpy chiropractor Michael fell for while lying facedown on his examining table.

"I'm putting a little rouge on my penis to make it look longer," quips Sparks, the show's unofficial morale-booster, just before the cameras roll. "A nice horizontal stripe."

"Action" is called; there's a knock at the door. Michael's over-the-top roommate, Emmett (Peter Paige), skitters off to answer it, and in struts the wrong guy--Brian, Michael's best friend and the show's resident shit-stirrer (played by sexy newcomer Gale Harold). Instantly the tension rises. Michael has long carried a torch for Brian, and Brian uses that to keep Michael where he wants him: beholden yet unfulfilled. Brian's no sooner plopped himself down on the sofa and doffed his designer sunglasses than he starts making trouble by helping himself to the chocolate eclairs that Michael bought especially for his outing with Dr. Dave.

"Insert it into your mouth in a phallic way, Gale," coaches the episode's director, Canadian film vet David Wellington, between takes. "Make it a performance." Harold takes the note gamely and in subsequent takes looks longingly at the eclairs before swallowing them whole. Linda Lovelace would be proud.

"This is such a blast," Harold chuckles after the scene is wrapped. "I get to be the ultimate antihero every day. Like in the scene today, I was only there to cause problems." Like his U.K. equivalent, Stuart, Brian is an Olympic-level bed hopper and completely unapologetic about it. Asked how many different sex-scene partners he's had so far, Harold laughs and says, "That's a hard question." He counts on his fingers for at least a half a minute, then gives up. "Somewhere over 10."

"That's Brian, the bad boy who never grows up," laughs Lipman a bit later in the show's production office. (The set is now off-limits while Sparks and Potter shoot a love scene between Michael and Dr. Dave in Michael's childhood bedroom.) "We all have friends that we're not too wild about, but why do we like them? Well, because we understand." Still, Lipman is quick to point out that Queer as Folk has more to offer than men behaving badly. "We have a whole tapestry of different kinds of gay characters," boasts the producer, who along with his work and life partner, Ron Cowen, created the series Sisters and the AIDS-themed TV movie An Early Frost, both of which won Emmys. "There's a domesticated lesbian couple with a child; Brian and Michael, who are about to turn 30, which is a certain kind of death in this world. There's Ted, who is 33 and running after young guys who are inappropriate for him; Dr. Dave, who is in his late 30s and very relationship-oriented. There's Michael's mother, Debbie, played by Sharon Gless, who is so overly supportive you want to strangle. There's also Michael's uncle, who's in his late 40s and has AIDS and [has been revitalized] because of the cocktails and has to deal with his life; and, of course, Justin, a 17-year-old gay young man who is not in conflict about his sexuality. This is not an after-school special where he's walking on the beach in scenes of emotional conflict ..."

Lipman trails off when he realizes that his visitor has just become distracted by a sign on the office wall that reads: QAF PRODUCTIONS LTD LTD. PLEASE! NO DILDOS ALLOWED WITHIN 20 FEET OF THE FAX MACHINE.

"In one episode there's a scene involving 33 dildos," Lipman explains, then holds up his right hand as if pleading guilty. "We were having a meeting, like we would for any prop, and there was one pretty amazing dildo that was supposedly cast from a real porn star. I wet the suction cup and put it on the wall, then we went back to our discussion. Suddenly, we hear this crash and turn around. The fax machine was flattened. That's why they put the sign up."

It's doubtful they have these kinds of problems over at Touched by an Angel, but then, that's sort of the point. "We're extremely non-PC here at Queer as Folk," boasts Lipman, who promises that the Pittsburgh-set American Queer will indeed come well-stocked with all the `I can't believe they're showing that on TV' elements that made the British version such a sensation. "This is probably the first time in history," says Cowen, "that gay people will actually get a chance to see their lives portrayed truthfully on television with no restrictions and no censorship, unless Showtime kowtows to the MPAA ratings board. But it was certainly written and filmed with the intention of showing all aspects of gay life honestly." Yes, that includes foam parties, nipple piercings, recreational drug use, and scads of same-sex lovemaking scenes, including repeated couplings between our 29-year-old Jeep-driving, loft-living lothario, Brian, and our baby-faced but hungry for experience high schooler, Justin. "Some gay people will be upset that straight people are seeing things that they would wish they would not see," asserts Cowen. "But I think politically correct politically correct behavior is a form of internalized homophobia, that you are basically afraid to show straight people what your life is really like, and so you put forth a PC image out of fear."

With 22 hour-long episodes to crank out in 11 months--today is the first day of shooting on episode 7--the Queer as Folk team members don't have a lot of time for fear. Sparks has just emerged for lunch after completing the Michael-Dr. Dave love scene. "It's actually more of a panic scene for Michael," the Second City alumnus explains. "He's like, `I'm finally going to get laid in my old room,' but everyone downstairs can hear what's going on.

Though Sparks is straight in real life, Michael's soft, chewy center gives him plenty to relate to. "Michael will give you a foot rub and not expect sex," says Sparks with a smile, "and I'm the same way. I'm a total romantic." As for the more intimate scenes, Sparks admits he finds them more challenging than he expected to. "Intellectually, I didn't think I would have any problem," he reveals, "but I had a visceral, physical reaction that I wasn't expecting and that I have to work against. It's like a pheromone response to some guy standing in your face threatening you. You're OK for a while, and after 20 minutes you're like, `Dude, get off me.' It really is a process."

More comfortable with that process, it seems, is 22-year-old Randy Harrison, making his TV debut as Justin, who's newly out and just fine with it. "The most challenging scenes aren't the most sexually provocative," shrugs the actor, who landed the part at his professional New York audition. "So far I've done a rimming scene, a hand-job scene, and several sex scenes, and those are easy. It's just moaning and getting in weird positions. The hard scenes are the emotional ones--like there's one in a therapist's office where I say to my mother, `I like dick. I like sucking dick. I like getting fucked by dick, and I'm good at it too.' That was kind of hard."

It's lunchtime, and Harrison is leading the way through the gorgeously appointed set that is Brian's loft apartment, where a good deal of his aforementioned weird positions were executed. "This is my favorite part of the set, because the water comes down like a waterfall," he says, gesturing to Brian's five-sided stainless and glass shower. "But it keeps changing temperature. We had to cut a million times during the sex scene, because it got really hot."

But then, as one of the show's two openly gay cast members, Harrison seems more than capable of handling the heat. "I'm aware of the dangers and repercussions [of being out]," says the Atlanta native, who has a boyfriend of 3 1/2 years, a fellow actor he met while studying drama at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. "The way I see it, if I'm not true to myself, it doesn't matter what else I'm doing. There's enough bullshit in this business. I don't really need to add any of my own."

The show's other out actor, Peter Paige, echoes Harrison's sentiments. "I've been out for so long, doing this show and going into the closet seemed like an absurd idea," he says with a laugh. "There would have been phone calls from various corners of the country saying, `Come on!'" Though his character is decidedly larger-than-life fabulous, scoring the show's best zingers and skimpiest outfits ("I've stopped eating bread"), Paige sees Emmett as a far cry from the cliche screen queen who flames to keep the pain away. "He hates himself less than anybody in the piece," Paige asserts. "Somewhere along the way he just got it that he's OK, and if you don't like it, fuck off. I think that's revolutionary."

Of course, being revolutionary isn't always easy. Though the show's creators insist that the actors they cast were their number 1 choices, tracking them down proved harder than they expected. "Hundreds of actors would not even audition, and there were major agents who wouldn't send their clients to audition," says co-executive producer Cowen. "That was surprising."

Those who were cast admit that there was more deliberation involved in saying yes to Queer as Folk than your average job. In addition to the provocative subject matter, there was the Toronto location to consider as well as the fact that the actors were expected to sign on for five years. "When the screen-test offer came in, my manager basically said, `I don't think you should do it,'" recalls Paige. "It was the sexual content, more than the gay content, he was really worried about. But I just finally said, `I'd rather be a part of something risky than something beige.'"

Then, once the actors were cast, there was the matter of keeping them costumed. According to the producers, several presumably gay-friendly designers have refused to allow their duds to be featured on the show. "I find it disturbing that the Versace company says you can't show Versace," scoffs Cowen. "I mean, he was gay. Perry Ellis's company said no, and Perry Ellis died of AIDS. Abercrombie & Fitch, whose ads are so homoerotic won't allow their clothes [to be shown]. That's extremely offensive, because they obviously want gay people's money but they also don't want to be associated with gay people, and gay people should know that."

"We must qualify this by saying that we really don't know if some of these places have a blanket policy to not place their products no matter what the material is," adds Lipman. "But there were certain letters. We had a scene where a character was just eating a brand of cereal--"

"Cocoa Puffs," interjects Cowen. "Let's say it."

"He wasn't doing anything sexual with the cereal," continues Lipman. "He was just eating it. So when you get feedback saying, `We do not want the characters using our product,' obviously they're saying, `We don't want gay people eating our cereal.' That's very disturbing to me."

The producers are curious to see if things will change once the show starts airing and people discover that Queer as Folk is not all boys, all nude, all the time. The program also deals with less eyebrow-raising facets of day-to-day gay life, such as being out at work, growing older, and taking care of the people you love. "Because all of the characters are gay, any story that you tell has a twist to it, even going to the grocery store," says Lipman. "In one episode our lesbian couple's baby gets sick, and the woman who is not the birth mother is not allowed in the emergency room. Until that point they were just happy parents like anyone else."

For Thea Gill and Michelle Clunie, the actresses who play the lesbian couple, dramatizing the frustrations, expected and unexpected, that come with starting a family made for a refreshing challenge. "It seems like any time I see lesbians portrayed in film, they have to be carrying guns and doing something dangerous," says Clunie, who plays no-nonsense attorney Melanie. "We're just two women trying to cope with life." But that doesn't mean they don't get frisky. "They are in sexual situations," vows Cowen. "They make love; we see that."

That's good news to Gill, who plays Melanie's lover, Lindsay, a college art teacher who was artificially inseminated with her friend Brian's sperm. "It's been pretty subtle for us so far, so Michelle and I are like, `OK, we're ready for our big sex scene now!'"

They'll surely get their chance--just not today. At the moment, Sparks and Paige are getting set to shoot a scene where a hilariously frazzled Michael packs to go away for a romantic weekend with Dr. Dave. Meanwhile, Harold is taking a break in the lunchroom. In a few minutes he'll join Harrison in a screening room where they'll view, for the first time, the just-edited, "damn the age of consent" sex scenes they shot for the pilot episode a few months ago. He's both anxious and excited. "One day, Randy and I were sitting there between takes," recalls Harold, who declines to discuss his offscreen love life. "I looked over and Randy had this strange look on face, and I said, `What's wrong?' He said, `You just look so old, and I look so young. I can't imagine how people are going to respond.' I think the ramifications of what we were doing hit him pretty hard at the moment. After that, I got such a rush thinking about the 17-year-olds that are going to be watching. They're going to say, `That's me, right there!' That, to me, is freedom: being able to say, `This is my life,' and it's about fucking time somebody showed it the way that it is."

That warts-and-all sense of realism, more than the show's much-heralded naughty bits, is what the creators believe audiences will ultimately remember. "The cast screened some of the pilot last week," reports co-executive producer Lipman, "and one of them called me and said, `You hear about all of the graphic sexual scenes, but in the end, it's the characters you come away with. That's all you care about.' I'll be happy if we achieve that, because that's what any good show does."

Asked what the series is ultimately about, the folks behind Folk give wildly different but nicely complementary answers. "For us," says Lipman, "with all due respect for our lesbian characters, the show is about boys becoming men and assuming responsibility." Adds Cowen: "Because such a premium is placed on youth in gay culture and you don't always have role models, gay men are often stuck in perpetual boyhood."

"To me, Queer as Folk means `queer as regular people,'" says Sparks. "The characters on this show want the same things as everybody else. They live with the same kind of challenges, just in a different shade."

Inspired, perhaps, by his straight-talking adman alter ego, Brian, Harold delivers an answer worthy of a Showtime No Limits billboard. "It's about freedom, enlightenment, love, humor," he says, flashing the kind of smile that makes it easy to see how Brian gets all that action. "You know, all the things that make life worth living."



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Meet the folks
A freshman yearbook for the Queer class of 2000

Hal Sparks
Folk role: Michael, the sweet-natured, comic book–obsessed assistant manager at a Big Q Mart
U.K. equivalent: Vince
On the Queer as Folk experience: “I think the producers brought me in on a lark, thinking it might be fun to meet the Talk Soup guy, and then in the middle of the audition I could see them looking at each other, going, ‘Did you know he could act?’ I do feel like I’m putting myself out on a limb, because America isn’t ready for this show. If they were, there would be no point in doing it, to some degree.”


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Gale Harold
Folk role: Brian, the sexually insatiable, brutally frank advertising executive
U.K. equivalent: Stuart
On the Queer as Folk experience: “I was at a club here in Toronto, and these straight high school girls who were fans of the British version came up to me and they said, ‘You’re playing Stuart’s character? Oh, my God!’ They were absolutely obsessed. I think that’s a good sign.”
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Randy Harrison
Folk role: Justin, the so-cute-it-hurts 17-year-old aspiring artist
U.K. equivalent: Nathan
On the Queer as Folk experience: “I was nervous before I came here, because I had never worked on-camera before. So I read all these books about film, and I made marks on my hotel room floor and practiced hitting them. It’s way easier than you think it would be.”

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Peter Paige
Folk role: Emmett, Michael’s roommate, an out, loud, and proud boutique manager
U.K. equivalent: Alexander
On the Queer as Folk experience: “We have a scene at a foam party coming up, and Emmett’s wearing a very nice Diesel bathing suit. I wanted water wings, but I had to settle for rubber boots. I’ve actually been to a foam party once, but it wasn’t very good because there wasn’t enough foam. It was just bad planning.”

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Scott Lowell
Folk role: Ted, the loyal, unassuming 30-something accountant with a taste for porn
U.K. equivalent: Phil
On the Queer as Folk experience: “My parents who raised me are fine with the show. My birth parents, who I’ve just recently met and who are Pentecostal, are not so fine with it. My birth mother said, ‘Well, it’s not really something we can put on the church bulletin board, is it?’ ”

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Chris Potter
Folk role: Dr. Dave Cameron, Michael’s hunky relationship-minded chiropractor
U.K. equivalent: Cameron
On the Queer as Folk experience: “This a lot meatier and more challenging than the past work that I’ve done—action television series like Silk Stalkings and Kung Fu: The Legend Continues. My wife said I went from kicking ass to licking ass.”

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Thea Gill
Folk role: Lindsay, the warm, nurturing university art teacher who’s having a child with her lover, Melanie
U.K. equivalent: Romy
On the Queer as Folk experience: “I have a pretty supportive circle of friends, but there were a couple of people who kind of snickered when I told them about the show. Until then, I hadn’t had direct experience with people who are possibly homophobic and narrow-minded. It was really a jolt.”

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Michelle Clunie
Folk role: Melanie, Lindsay’s tough-talking lawyer lover who has always detested Brian, the biological father of their baby
U.K. equivalent: Lisa
On the Queer as Folk experience: “During the bris scene, the baby crapped all over my arm, and I hadn’t signed on for that. That’s why you have to really go through your contract with a fine-tooth comb.” —D.H.



















материлы выложены исключительно с целью ознакомления и принадлежат законному владельцу



увеличить



больше сканов, без надписей и больше размером тут scans.qafscans.com/thumbnails.php?album=1
gallery.kinnetiks.net/thumbnails.php?album=947



тут я слегка не уверена с размещением некоторых материалов... может их копирастность вовсе ликвидировать, или пусть так...

@темы: 2000

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Randy Harrison and Peter Paige - OUT (dec 2001)

[moveforever]

Out 100 Honorees Randy Harrison and Peter Paige [published 12.2001]



From Queer as Folk stars to New York City firefighters, we give you the greatest gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender success stories of 2001.
Story by Jeffrey Epstein
2001 cleanly divided into Before and After September 11, and few of us got through the year without questioning everything about our world and our lives. But in these understandable moments of uncertainty and fear, the accomplishments of the GLBT achievers chosen for this year’s Out 100 provide outstanding examples of people who have embraced freedom and made it matter. And it is perhaps now, even more than Before, that we need our heroes.

Out 100 Honorees Randy Harrison and Peter Paige

read more

Whether they love its boldness or question its sex-and-drug-drenched depiction of gay men, millions of Americans now tune in faithfully to Queer as Folk. The Showtime drama’s provocative portrait of gay life has shaken up the way we’re portrayed in the media--and it’s shaken up the lives of its stars as well.
“Surreal is definitely the easiest word to encapsulate the feeling,” says openly gay Folk star Peter Paige of the whirlwind of the past 12 months.
The dramatic series, which debuted last December and follows the lives (more specifically, the sex lives) of a group of gay men and lesbians in Pittsburgh, has become Showtime’s highest-rated show, thanks not only to its abundance of explicit sexuality but also to its solid performances, particularly that of Paige, who as Emmett has given a richness to his flamboyant character (“He has amazing access to his emotions and to his soul,” praises co-executive producer Ron Cowen), and that of Randy Harrison, who plays 18-year-old newbie Justin.
Queer comes back in January for a second season, and the drama is just beginning. Folkies who fretted all summer long can rest assured that Justin, who was gay-bashed in the season finale, is alive. “There’s a lot of therapy that I have to go through,” says Harrison of his character, who is off to art school this year. “Specifically with Brian.” Michael will start dating a gay studies professor from Carnegie Mellon University. Lipman promises, “A lot of dancing at Babylon. A lot of drugs. Lots of sex.”

@темы: OUT

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'A Little Randy' from Empire Magazine (Sept 2001)

[moveforever]

'A Little Randy' from Empire Magazine by Steve Greco; courtesy of Pfyre; [published in the Fall 2001 issue]



He won our hearts on Queer As Folk. Then Randy Harrison's Justin got bashed. Who did it? Harrison won't tell. He does talk about his new-found fame, his boyfriend and his new Showtime Original movie, Bang, Bang You're Dead.

QUEER AS FOLK'S RANDY HARRISON SPEAKS OUT ON THE WHOLE STAR THING, HIS BOYFRIEND, HOLLYWOOD PARTIES AND LOSING YOUR VIRGINITY WITH THE WHOLE WORLD WATCHING

Violence seems to haunt Randy Harrison - or at least, his characters. Earlier this year, in living rooms from San Francisco to South Beach, fans of Showtime's Queer As Folk sat stunned as Justin, adorable blond Justin, was found lying unconscious on the floor of a parking garage in a season-ending cliffhanger. Who bashed Justin?

Fans will have to wait until January, when the second season of QAF returns, to find out. Until then, audiences can get their fix when Harrison plays against type in Bang, Bang You're Dead, a Showtime Original movie airing later this year. Harrison plays a criminally maladjusted teenager - similar, perhaps, to the assailant responsible for Justin's bloody fate - in a haunting exploration of high-school violence. Such a challenging role is only the latest in a lifetime of acting that began when Harrison was only five years old. "It's all I've ever done and all I ever wanted to do," says Harrison.

An only child, Harrison was encouraged by his parents to pursue acting. They also supported him ("eventually," he notes with a smile), when the theater's liberal environment made it easy for him to come out of the closet as a teenager. The Atlanta native went on to study acting at the University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music. After graduation he moved to New York to follow his dreams. Which is exactly what he did. Within a few years time, he landed an agent, and a starring role on the biggest show to hit cable since The Sopranos. He even fell in love, but more on that later; for now, Harrison is busy packing to move again - this time to Toronto where QAF is filmed.

EMPIRE - Randy, does the fact that you're moving back to Canada mean that Justin lives?
RANDY HARRISON [Smiles] I can't tell you...

E I know, I know. So let's talk about...real life. With the last year of QAF mania behind you, can you go out without being recognized?
RH Sometimes. But usually when I go out I get recognized, so I won't go to gay clubs anymore.

E You get mobbed?
RH Yeah. It's like a joke.

E Are you contractually bound to stay looking a certain way? The goatee is a big change.
RH I'm sure I'll have to shave this off. It's kinda like I'll do whatever Justin'll look like. I'm sure he wouldn't grow a goatee. [Pauses] He could though - who knows?

E I know you're in a relationship now; how has fame affected it? How does your boyfriend feel when you're off partying with movie stars?
RH It has affected us very slightly. And I have to ease into all that, because I don't feel comfortable partying with people I don't know. I still hang out with the friends that I hung with before.

E With your boyfriend, too?
RH Just me alone or together. It doesn't matter. I mean, distance is the thing that's affected my relationships more significantly than the star thing - living in Toronto while my friends are here in New York. Actually, my friends are spread out all over now. Everybody, as they grow up, is going different ways.

E One way you branched out is by taking on such an unconventional role in Queer as Folk, where your very first episode called on you to do a nude, anal-sex love scene. How did you prepare for a scene like that, one that was going to be part of an episode that was so hyped?
RH I didn't have to prepare that much, because Justin was so inexperienced at that moment. It was actually not as difficult as it probably seems. You have one choice: either to go completely with it and do it all the way, or else you just don't even come close. Being naked and intimate with that much of a stranger to you, you just have to go there.

E Had you and Gale rehearsed much?
RH No. It was the third day of shooting. I didn't know Gale well at all. But shooting it had a lighter feel than the finished scene, because the director is yelling out direction as we're doing sex. There was a lot of cutting and laughing...

E How did you get the part?
RH I did a video. I had just graduated from school, did a showcase, and a few agents were watching. When I read the sсript I was like, 'I have to play this part' I knew I could handle it.

E Were you concerned about the kind of publicity everyone was expecting for the series? Sharon Gless [who plays the show's PFLAG-perfect mom Debbie] has said that she expected a lot of controversy and wanted to be part of it.
RH Actually, that was exciting to me. In the first scene where Gale and I had to make out, I started laughing. He said, 'What?' I was like, 'This is gonna look so bad. I look so young! Doing it with an adult man, it's going to be shocking.'

E Did you ever second-guess taking the role ofJustin?
RH No. I was at a place in my career where I was just beginning. I didn't have anything to lose by taking the role and I had everything to gain.

E There are probably so many young gay men and lesbians out there drawing strength from Justin's story. Do you feel like a role model?
RH Personally, I feel maybe I'm a role model, in that I am an openly gay, successful actor at my age. But I don't feel the show gives me a responsibility to behave in a certain way. I don't go about my life trying to set examples for other people. I'm still trying to figure out all my own stufE

E How do you feel about Justin? In many ways he's the emotional center of the show. He exemplifies the themes of innocence vs.experience and the question of whether love is possible in the modern gay world.
RH I just love him. He's so aware. A lot of times, when I would first read the scripts, especially after Justin started growing into his own, I would want to know why this guy is still with Brian. From the outset it's an abusive relationship. I needed to invest in their relationship not as a sexual thing, but as Justin's genuine love for this man. And out of that, I think, came Justin's wisdom.

E That's the question I think a lot of people have about Justin: Why the hell is he so fixated on that asshole Brian?
RH Really? For me, it's that there are definitely parts of Brian that nobody has seen, except for Justin. I think Justin knows that and is aware that those parts need to be nurtured. If Justin were to leave, potentially those parts of Brian might never come out again.

E Do you draw a lot on your personal history for this character?
RH As much as I can. I think his wisdom and intelligence were less given by the sсript initially, and I sort of put them onto him. Then the writers caught on and started including that in the text.

E What about your own first love? Was it anything like Justin and Brian?
RH Oh, no. [Laughs] Not at all.

E Your first time was blissful and idyllic?
RH No, no, no! Is it ever? I mean, no, it was terrible. I never fell in love.

E Tell me about your character in Bang, Bang You're Dead.
RH He's kinda like the head of the trenchcoat mafia.

E So after the angelic Justin you get a chance to play someone evil.
RH He's not evil. I can't play any character that's.. .But he's definitely very hurt.

E What were you going to say? You can't play a character that's what?
RH You can't go in being.. .1 mean, 'this guy's evil.' But you have to go in, or at least I go in, loving the character and wanting to figure him out. Working on the part was so upsetting, because the whole time I was reading all this [Columbine High School killers] Eric Harris and Dylan Kliebold stuff. They have journals that are still online, and they have worship sites where teenagers go. But then you look at them from the inside out, and they're beaten down kids who were the geeky nerds. They were, like, 'You know what? Fuck you! You can't beat me up any more and I'll make you sorry I definitely empathize with that, as an underdog. I mean, granted I would never go to that extreme. But it's really not hard to understand - especially when they were raised in a culture of violence and took antidepressants on and ofF, which totally flicked them up chemically. And then with the kind of abuse they suffered at school...

E Starting with the character's hurt is a very humane approach to such a role.
RH I think it's the only way to give the character justice. People's hate makes sense to them, unconsciously, so you need to figure that out so it can make sense to you, too.

@темы: Empire Magazine

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"Randy Harrison makes an impressive debut in Queer as Folk" (May 2001)

[BloodVessel]

Randy Harrison makes an impressive debut in Queer as Folk

Posted by Jeff Walsh on oasisjournals.com; May 1, 2001.

In December, Showtime began airing Queer As Folk, a gay soap opera that sparked praise from critics and debate within the gay community. A group of gay men constantly on the prowl, doing drugs, turning tricks, and cracking wise was a horror, according to some people I've talked to. To me, it's just a delicious, decadent soap opera that I wait to see every week.

read more

If the people who dislike Queer As Folk want to get together and create a series about a group of monogamous, spiritual gay men who are nice to one another and everyone does the right thing and their lives are all honey and hugs, fine. But it sounds horrible to me.

Now, it should be noted that Queer As Folk is a fantasy. I grew up in Pennsylvania, albeit not Pittsburgh, and this queer wonderland they've put together just isn't there. Even now, as I live in the Castro in San Francisco, it seems heightened and fictional. But, television isn't supposed to be real. I think the gay community is so ready to fight stereotypes, we neglect to realize that nearly everything on TV is a stereotype. Do you really think straight people watch all these sitcoms and romantic comedies and see their reality?

Queer As Folk pushes buttons. That's its job. In the UK series (upon which the Showtime series was based, although the US version has taken the characters beyond the initial six UK episodes), the underage character was intentionally made to be 15 years old because the British government was considering lowering the age of consent for gay boys to 16. So, the age was reduced to 15 to ensure he would be underage even if the law were to pass before the series aired. Add in some full frontal nudity, rimming, and drugs (all within the show's first 15 minutes), and you've got some controversial, compelling television.

The US series has totally delivered on its promise of not holding anything back. Each week, there's a bevy of butts, bumps, and bitchiness. I don't want to give the wrong impression, though. The show also has a lot of heart. But like any good soap opera, it's the drama that keeps everything moving forward. One of the main plots involves Justin, the naive, underage character (his age upped to 17, albeit still underage, on our shores), who ends up losing his virginity to Brian, the 29-year-old who initially appears to have no interest in anything except his next sexual conquest. Justin is played by Randy Harrison, a 23-year-old Atlanta native, whose Queer As Folk audition was one of his first after graduating from theater school in Ohio and moving to New York City. Harrison recently spoke with Oasis about the amazing ride he's been on since Queer As Folk started shooting last July.

"I was just beginning my career, so this is a big, quick jump for me. It's been intense and wonderful," Harrison says. "It was like, 'Wow! I can't even believe I'm auditioning for this.' I actually read the sсript after my first callback. I was being flown to L.A. from New York for the callback and I read the sсript on the plane, and I loved it. I was shocked by it, and that's what impressed me most, because I'm not easily shocked. I was like, 'Wow, if they really have the balls to show this on TV, it's going to be something special.'"

They did and it is, according to Harrison. "I know it's the most popular thing Showtime has. It's a huge hit for them." (The show has also been picked up for a second season, although when that will debut depends on the potential strikes by the writers and actors unions)

Harrison, who seems to be naked in nearly every episode, said he never had any concerns with baring (nearly) all for the cameras.

"I had done a lot of stuff like that on stage before," he says. "I felt it was an important enough piece of television and it was well written enough that it wasn't completely trashy, so I had no problem with it."

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While some viewers and critics initially complained that the US version seemed to have a no-penis rule (as opposed to the UK version), several of the cast members have since appeared in the altogether. Harrison says the cast has no idea when nudity will appear in the show.

"We shoot completely naked a lot of the time," he says, "and we're not in control what ends up on the editing room floor."

Harrison and Peter Paige (who plays Emmett) are the only two openly gay actors on the series, something he says was never a big decision for him.

"I never had any intention of concealing it," he says. "The fact that I got famous in any way is more of a shocker. I never expected that to happen."

Unlike his character, who finds drama around every corner by trying to start a Gay Straight Alliance at his high school or sleeping with his best friend (a girl!), Harrison said his own coming out was no big deal.

"It was very un-dramatic. It wouldn't make good television," he says. "I just told my parents and friends I was gay when I was 15 and it wasn't even an issue."

Harrison says the cast and crew of the show are as close-knit as the characters they portray, in part because they were all relocated to Toronto to shoot the series and all bonded because they didn't know anyone else.

"We got very close, very fast, because we had to be our working environment, and family, and friends - because we were all transplanted here. Everyone just gets along. It really came together," he says. "I think they did a great job in casting, because we really solidified and came together like the characters do. It was really natural. There were no huge dramas or anything like that."

When the show first debuted, Harrison says he read everything that came out, but he has since stopped keeping track of the media.

"When all the press stuff first started coming out, I was so sort-of amazed by the fact I was in a magazine at all, I would get every one," he says. "Now, it's kind of overwhelming to keep track of it all and worry about it all, so I don't really. When all the reviews started coming out, I just didn't read them. It doesn't help me to be obsessed with that kind of thing."

Harrison also easily avoids the entire UK vs. US debate as he only watched the pilot of the UK version, and even that was months after they started shooting the US version.

Being focused on making the show in Toronto, Harrison is still unaware just how the show will affect his life.

"I don't think I've entirely dealt with the repercussions of it, because I haven't stopped working on it. The only thing I've been concentrating on has been doing my job well," he says. "I've been in Toronto, so I haven't been auditioning for other things and dealing with other people yet. During the hiatus, when I'm back in New York, I'll probably realize how it's changed since the last time I've been there."

As to whether any similarities exist between Harrison and his character, he quickly responds, "Not really, honestly, no. It hasn't been like that. He's on the edge and... I don't know. The whole world of Queer as Folk is fantastical to me. It's amazing. It's crazy to be a part of it from an actor's point of view, like Babylon and the clubs and it's all romanticized and much more dramatic than anything I've experienced. It's kind of a gay wonderland, but it's comforting for gay people to see this fantasy in some ways, an almost all gay world."

Harrison doesn't see Justin as a role model, either, just as a character with good traits and some flaws.

"I don't think of him as a role model, but I don't think of any of the characters on the show as being particular role models," he says. "Justin does a lot of things that are great that people would want to emulate, but at the same time he does a lot of obnoxious stupid things, too. But just the fact that there is a gay, young character on TV is significant in and of itself. Just being able to see someone you can relate to in that way."

And he plays it coy when asked if any Randy Harrison fan sites exist.

"I think there are ...," he says, laughing nervously. "Do I go? No. It would be too perverse, wouldn't it? My mom seems to go everywhere and tell me everything I don't need to hear. 'I went to a Web site on you and found a naked picture of you!'

There's bound to be a few...

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Xtra (Jan 2001)

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Xtra [published in the January 11, 2001]


























и статья с сайта журнала

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Showtime Livechat with Randy Harrison (June 2001)

[moveforever]

Transcript from Showtime Livechat with Randy Harrison
courtesy Showtime; [from online chat June 03rd, 2001]



перевод на русский queerasfolk-rus.livejournal.com/109561.html

Showtime: Thanks for signing on for our chat with Randy Harrison. Twenty-three year old Randy plays Justin on "Queer As Folk." Randy, a veteran of the stage, has been acting since the age of seven. He recently received his BFA in Theatre from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Randy has also appeared professionally in various theaters throughout the U.S. Some of his favorite performances have been in productions of "Violet," "1776" and "West Side Story." Randy made his television debut in Showtime's "Queer As Folk." He will also be seen in the upcoming Showtime Original Picture "Bang Bang You're Dead." Welcome back to our QAF chats for a second time, Randy. Let's get started!
Randy Harrison: Hey everyone, thanks for coming, thank you for supporting the show!

TIGER DUDE: Hiya Randy. How did you get the part of Justin, and do you do any other type of teen roles?
Randy Harrison: I auditioned for it in New York and got it, and most of the parts I have been playing right now have been teenagers, because I look that age.

Sandra: Hello Randy! How is it being on the show and working with so many talented actors and actress'?
Randy Harrison: The show is an amazing experience for me, and I always have a lot of fun with the other actors.

Cody: What's your favorite episode?
Randy Harrison: Episode 11

Linda: Hi Randy, you and Gale have such awesome chemistry, watching you on screen is a pleasure. I love the way the writers are giving us little tidbits of Brian admitting his love and affection for Justin. I know you guys are good friends but, what gives you that "magic" that you share on screen?
Randy Harrison: Beats me.

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Sloaner: Did you prepare for your role as Justin by watching Nathan in the British version of QAF? If you did watch the original version did you try to replicate his character or steer away from it?
Randy Harrison: I have only seen the first thirty minutes of the British version, and I didn't see it till far after I had begun to create the role of Justin, so his interpretation has not impacted me in either way.

Q Ginny: Hi Randy I hope everything is going well for you, but I want to ask you if you watch the celebrities who do the QAF intros? Who is your favorite? Who would you like to see introduce the show?
Randy Harrison: I've actually never seen the celebrity introductions, because I've only seen videotapes of the show. I know Leeza Gibbons really wants to do it.

Mike: Hi Randy. I really enjoyed your acting in the scene in Episode 14 in which Justin confronts Brian's accuser in an alley, changing from seductive to innocent to manipulative. I think you deserve an Emmy. Did you find that scene especially challenging?
Randy Harrison: First of all, thank you so much. Yeah, it was challenging, but that made it fun.

James and Lance: I'm a closeted teen who has yet to come out to more than 3 people. Have any advice, Randy? BTW, I love you on the show. Brilliant acting and sexy to boot!
Randy Harrison: Thank you. My only advice would be to be strong, and be patient with yourself, and the people around you.

Mark: Hi! Did you have any apprehensions doing the delicate scenes, specially in the first few episodes with Gale? How do you think your participation in QAF will impact your career?
Randy Harrison: I had no hesitancy in doing the intimate aspects of the show. I'm hoping that my work in the show will impact my career positively.

Orealis: Randy, do you think Justin's in danger of becoming as closed off emotionally as Brian?
Randy Harrison: Ahhhh that's a good question. Potentially, but I think that Justin will continue to struggle against allowing that to happen to him.

Donna: Hi Randy! Do you and the other members of the cast keep in touch when you're not filming?
Randy Harrison: Yes, thanks to email and long distance.

Erin 015: Hey Randy! Did u ever have any embarrassing moments on the set? if so, what were they?
Randy Harrison: Because the set is so open, and the cast and the crew are all so close, it is honestly hard to be embarrassed while on the "Queer As Folk" set.

Justin's cyber mom: Randy, now that you've done television and movies, in addition to your stage work, which do you prefer? I know you're going to be fabulously famous one day, in whatever you decide to do. Best of luck to you.
Randy Harrison: Thank you so much. Ideally, I'd like to continue working in every medium.

Draven Swann: Good Job! We know you have a tattoo on your shoulder, and there has been much debate over what it is would you care to tell us?
Randy Harrison: No, I'm not going to tell you.

Erin Donna: "Queen As Folk" is my favorite show! I never miss it! what have you learned from being on the show?
Randy Harrison: I have learned a lot about working with people, a lot about working in front of the camera, and a lot about waiting in my trailer.

Dollar hporh: Randy, great work on the show. What do you hope for your character in the next season? What do you wish had been handled differently this season, character-wise?
Randy Harrison: I'm pretty happy with the way the show went this year, character-wise. I'm excited to continue watching and helping Justin grow as he goes to college and learns to be more independent.

Logan: Hi Randy. Do you think that playing Justin has made you grow up faster than most in your peer group?
Randy Harrison: Not particularly, though my experiences being on a TV show have been drastically different than what a lot of my friends have been going through.

Dan: Hi Randy. I love the show and the interaction between all the characters. I've read that Chris Potter will not be returning to the show next season in the Dr. Dave character. Any hopes that your character and the Michael character will get closer and share a "thing"?
Randy Harrison: I honestly have no idea. Watch and see.

Shawn: Randy, do you consider your character to be a role model for young gay men? Is it realistic for most gay youth?
Randy Harrison: I don't consider Justin to be necessarily a role model. I think he makes a lot of mistakes that I wouldn't want other teens emulating. However, I hope that seeing a gay teen portrayed on television will be comforting and empowering to other gay teenagers.

John K: Now that you're the hottest guy on television, what other mountains do you have to climb?
Randy Harrison: There's so much I have yet to do! This is only the beginning.

Danedana 2: What's been the biggest surprise in/with all of this for you?
Randy Harrison: How little my life has changed, despite its having changed so drastically.

Magic J: What's your shooting schedule like?
Randy Harrison: It varies. It can be from going in for a few hours one day to working 14 hours consistently.

Starlite: Do you have a favorite song on the QAF soundtrack?
Randy Harrison: I've never heard the "Queer As Folk" soundtrack.

Bill 10023: Hi Randy. I was in the audience at the New York Gay Expo where the QAF cast got several standing ovations. Were you all as surprised by the reception as you seemed?
Randy Harrison: We were all completely blown away.

X-Juvie: What do you like to do in your spare time when you're not acting?
Randy Harrison: Sleep and read. I'm reading a lot of Charles Bukowski and Dennis Cooper.

Johnny Angel: Do you like to dance? Do you enjoy doin' the scenes that take place in Babylon?
Randy Harrison: I actually feel rather uncomfortable dancing in front of other people.

Dave: Randy, are you really as artistic as play on the show?
Randy Harrison: I'm artistic, but I have absolutely no drawing ability. That's acting!

Toronto Drew: Hi Randy from a big fan in Toronto. I think you were awesome I episode 20 (we've already seen it in Canada so I won't spoil it) but I think it's your best performance yet. Hope you had fun filming it because it really rocked! Where would you like to see Justin's character go in season 2, especially his thing for Brian? Thanks and best of luck with the upcoming year!
Randy Harrison: I hope that Justin continues to be stronger in voicing Brian's inadequacies, and preventing himself from being taken advantage of.

Chgo Mark: Hi Randy, I was wondering if you have ever done any theater work here in the Windy City?
Randy Harrison: No, I haven't, though I would like to.

Chris 'n Dallas: CHello, Love the show!! We haven't seen much of your Dad in the show lately, will he make a reappearance?
Randy Harrison: I doubt it.

The Slow Descent Into: Hi Randy! My name's Kelsy, and I'm wondering if you could tell us if you have ever been to a real club similar to The Babylon?
Randy Harrison: Actually, I never have, I'm not a club person.

Belisha: Hey Randy! Why is it that Justin has not expressed interest in a boyfriend close to his own age? Clearly he's a relationship type of guy, and though I realize he's really hung up on Brian, do you think that's the only thing stopping him from dating another guy? Also, you're great in your role. I love watching!
Randy Harrison: Thank you! You know, I think Justin's feelings for Brian do sort of prevent him from viewing anybody else as boyfriend material. Also, I think because Brian was his "first time", being with Brian gives him a sense of security that he's not quite strong enough to abandon yet.

Darcy: What is on your CD player at the moment?
Randy Harrison: Amy Ray's new album "Stag". Guided By Voices new album. Kid A. P. J. Harvey "Rid Of Me." And, Nina Simone.

Gregg: In what way has your QAF visibility impacted your privacy?
Randy Harrison: It's hard to walk down the street with the security that you can just be invisible. People will always suddenly recognize you. When you least expect it. Sometimes it is an absolutely wonderful thing. It's great to know that your work is affecting people. And sometimes you are embarrassed, you didn't brush your hair that morning!

Ms Diva 376: Hi Randy!! I Love your character! Have you noticed attitudes towards gays and lesbians getting better since the show started?
Randy Harrison: I haven't noticed, because I tend to live in a bubble. I hope that the show has affected public perceptions of homosexuals a little bit.

Envoi: Randy: First of all, congratulations on a superb first season -- it's been a pleasure watching you take Justin from the page to the screen. Justin's behind-the-scenes role in the "Kip-Capades" never really made it to Brian's attention. Can we anticipate Kip coming back for Round 2, or have we seen the last of him?
Randy Harrison: I have no idea.

Cherry 556: What's the most difficult aspect of working on a nationally cablecast show where you play a not-so-typical character?
Randy Harrison: The most difficult thing for me is just occasionally there are very difficult scenes that require a lot of work for me, but it is the most difficult things that are the most satisfying.

Rainbow: Love your work, my question, Randy, is how did you feel on your last day shooting on season one?
Randy Harrison: Last day of shooting on season one I was exhausted. We went really late, and I had to do a last minute pick up. But it was amazing, too.

Jimmy J2: Randy would you like to direct or write an episode of the show sometime?
Randy Harrison: I'm not a writer or a director. I understand the impetus, but feel I have far too much exploration to do as an actor before I can begin thinking about that.

Post human 213: Everyone assumes Brian is emotionally numb, but do you agree or do you see the subtle ways he does show some very intense emotion?
Randy Harrison: Brian is the most sensitive man. I think that's the problem.

Anneke: If you could be in a movie version of any book, what book would it be, who would you want to play, and why?
Randy Harrison: I couldn't say because most of my favorite books I wouldn't want to be a part of their movie version.

Josh: Hi Randy! You and the rest of the cast have such great chemistry on screen. Is that from a close relationship off-screen?
Randy Harrison: Absolutely

Steve: Do you enjoy meeting your fans? Any funny stories to share?
Randy Harrison: I love meeting my fans. It's always amazing to meet people who are affected by your work and who appreciate what you do. I feel so put on the spot being asked for a funny story, so I'm not going to try. Sorry!

Surfer Dude: Do you have a lot of fun filming QAF? Any practical jokes? Can you share one?
Randy Harrison: I always have fun shooting the show. And I don't really have any practical jokes that I can think of.

CU next Time: I'm so stoked QAF has been renewed. Any scoop you can give us about the upcoming season?
Randy Harrison: You will have to watch it for yourself. You know I can't give it away!

Ethan: What are you planning to do during your vacation? Any great plans?
Randy Harrison: I've spent some time with my family. And, I'm hoping to spend some significant time in Europe.

Navy Man: Have you seen any movies lately? Any favorites?
Randy Harrison: Oh, oh oh oh! I'm trying to think of the last movie I saw You know, get back to me on that one.

Samir: What would you like to see happen in the second season?
Randy Harrison: I just hope that the characters continue to grow. That's all. I hope we continue to maintain our quality, and even improve upon what we have done.

Rock: What has been your biggest lesson about Hollywood?
Randy Harrison: Strangely enough, I have spent almost no time in Hollywood, because I am from New York, and I have worked in Toronto and Vancouver. So when and if I get there, hopefully then I'll learn a lesson.

Chelsea Boy: What would be your dream project to work on?
Randy Harrison: It's hard to put together a specific dream project. I want to do some theater, there are a lot of great writers and directors that I aspire to someday work with. I just hope the projects I do continue to be as important to me as the ones that I've begun doing.

Newbie: After seeing the sсript come to life, specifically some explicit scenes, there had to be some moments when you were shocked. Were you?
Randy Harrison: I was more shocked when I saw it than when I actually shot it. Because you never really realize what you look like when you are in those kinds of situations.

Rainbow: What has been the biggest challenge while working on QAF? The greatest reward?
Randy Harrison: I think overall the biggest challenge has been being away from my family and my friends. The greatest reward is being able to do what you love and make money and actually go to work every day and know that you are doing something that you are emotionally and intellectually invested in.

Biker dude: Do you think QAF is making history?
Randy Harrison: I definitely think the show is doing something that has never been done before on television. Whether it makes the history books I will never know.

Patrick: What are you hoping audiences take away from QAF?
Randy Harrison: I hope the audiences become emotionally invested in the characters' journeys and the characters' conflicts and relationships. I hope that the audience sees something that reminds them of themselves and makes them feel less alone.

Trent: What are your thoughts regarding the recent trend of shows depicting gays? What makes QAF different?
Randy Harrison: I don't feel I can comment on that, because I don't watch TV, so I haven't seen really any other shows.

Harvey M: What are you most proud of regarding QAF?
Randy Harrison: I think beyond the show's quality I'm most proud of the way the cast crew and production team have come together, as such an amazing creative team.

Atticus: Randy Harrison, are you anything like your character??
Randy Harrison: I actually think I'm growing farther and farther away from Justin. But we'll always share some similarities.

Cameron: Any advice on aspiring young gay actors, models, etc.?
Randy Harrison: Just stick with it.

Jenn: Hi Randy, how do you like filming in Canada?
Randy Harrison: I love filming in Toronto. I feel more Canadian than American now, because I've spent the majority of last year in Canada.

Jessica in NC: Hi Randy!! I love your character in QAF, and my question is, do you get any flack from being on the show, like hate mail and such. And how do you deal with it?
Randy Harrison: I have not gotten any flack yet. If anybody gives me any sh-t, I'd just tell them to f-ck off. There you go!

Isxios: When deciding to go out for a show like this, what criteria did you look at to decide if it was something you wanted to be a part of?
Randy Harrison: The fact that I was emotionally affected by reading the sсript, and the fact that I had an immediate connection to the character. Those were all I needed to know, to know that it was a project I wanted to be a part of.

Jake 2617: Congratulations on your degrees from the Conservatory. I have a MME in Fine Arts, and was glad to read about your accomplishments.
Randy Harrison: Thank you! Getting my degree was a challenge.

Enigma: Randy, what do you feel are the greatest traits that Justin has (and has taught you) and that you have given to him?
Randy Harrison: Justin has taught me a lot about forgiveness, empathy, and even pride. I feel like I've given a lot of strength and maturity to Justin.

Steph cool: You are such a natural Randy! Awesome work. The show often features a lot of facial expressions that seem utterly complex to interpret. When you set out to do them, do you have a specific context as to what those expressions actually entail?
Randy Harrison: I never really think about what my face is doing. I just try to feel the intention of the scene.

Cpx: Do you think QAF will help promote tolerance in our society by the way the characters are portrayed?
Randy Harrison: I really hope so.

Carlo: Randy, have you ever appeared on Comedy Central? I made a bet that it was you.
Randy Harrison: No, I've never appeared on Comedy Central. Sorry about that!

BKW: What book(s) are you currently reading?
Randy Harrison: I'm currently reading "Ham On Rye" by Charles Bukowski.

Bran: With the big issue of gay athletes do you think it's time to have the show portray other things such as closeted gay guys/teens and maybe explore how we cope on a daily basis?
Randy Harrison: Yeah, I hope the show continues to explore new and interesting territory.

LUCIOUS LACI: Hi Randy! Love the show! So tell me where is your favorite place to shop?
Randy Harrison: Online.

Hardwood: Randy, the last time you were here you said you were using the money you made from the show to help out your brother and his family. Have you bought yourself anything special yet??
Randy Harrison: A lot of good food. I just like interesting stuff, I like to go to whatever regional specialty of the area I happen to be in.

Kathleen: Do you have to travel far to the set?
Randy Harrison: The set is about 40 minutes away from my apartment.

Milt: I'm so glad to say hi to you, I never miss an episode. Thank you so much. Where would you like to be in 5 years?
Randy Harrison: Hello, and thanks for your support. I'd like to still be doing something that I love, hopefully I'd like to still be acting, and growing, from my experiences doing that.

Carib boy 16bi: What is your ideal vacation? Love you!
Randy Harrison: How can you love me? You don't know me! I appreciate it. I have several different ideal vacations. Sometimes I'm really in the mood to travel, and go to museums, and explore cultural types of stuff. And sometimes I just need a beach.

Nova Guy 28: Are you the youngest member of the cast of QAF?
Randy Harrison: No. Mikayla, who plays Daphne, is younger than me. And occasionally the baby playing Gus is slightly younger than me. But have you noticed the Gus that is bigger than all the other Gus'?

Tina Louise: Which co-star do you most admire? Have you learned the most from?
Randy Harrison: Peter Paige. But, I've learned a lot from everyone.

Jim 933: Being a member of the Actors Studio in the '70s/'80s I applaud you and your cast members for taking chances and risk in your acting. Have you had any negative feedback from other actors?
Randy Harrison: First of all, that means so much, coming from you. I've never gotten negative feedback directly, but I have a feeling they wouldn't have the balls to tell me to my face. I've gotten a lot of constructive criticism and good direction and guidance on set.

Dr V: As a gay chiropractor in San Jose, I gotta say "ya hoo" to the show. But your character has been consistently the most mature. Will this maturity continue, or do you see a more cavalier Justin in the future?
Randy Harrison: I think Justin will definitely continue to be significantly changed by his hugely dramatic life. However I hope Justin's maturity and sense of perspective remain intact.

Hal 162: Do you find playing scenes is different depending on the other actor's actual orientation?
Randy Harrison: No. I've never been affected either way. I know the actor is committed to doing his part, and that's the only thing that can get in the way of a good scene and a legitimate connection.

Jay: If you could write one QAF episode, what would you have happen to Justin in that episode?
Randy Harrison: Oh gosh! That's really tough. All my ideas for storylines really pale in comparison to what the writers are able to come up with. I'd be worried if I were to write an episode that Justin would just be sitting around on the couch watching TV the whole time.

Jim 725: Does IM do all the clothes on the show, like what you wear?
Randy Harrison: The clothes are from our costume designer, Patrick Antosh, and he uses a lot of different friends and designers, and builds a lot of it himself. I think it's perfect (what I wear) for Justin. Randy doesn't really dress like Justin.

X Juvie: Do you think that some people take QAF very seriously?
Randy Harrison: I do think some people take "Queer As Folk" too seriously. I hesitate to say this, because I want everyone to get involved, but I'm afraid some people take it too seriously.

CCR fem: Randy I want to first say you are fabulous. And I would like to know who is behind the great art work that Justin produces.
Randy Harrison: The art department of the show, they are unbelievable.

Dr V: Has the media or "right wing" had any effect on how the show has been structured or produced?
Randy Harrison: I'm sure the media and the "right wing" affect everything in America in some capacity. I haven't been aware of the way they may have directly affected "Queer As Folk."

TX fraternity Boy: What type of roles did you have prior to your current role?
Randy Harrison: Generally I've played a lot of different types. Always young, though!

Jerry DW: I purchased the four hours of the original "Queer As Folk" and it is no comparison to the one you are on. Yours is much better. Have you seen the original series?
Randy Harrison: I'm glad you liked our show. I've seen the first 35 minutes of the first episode of the British version.

Atticus: How do you get your hair so perfect? Who does your hair?
Randy Harrison: Hair and makeup. His name is Michael (I can't remember his last name right now!) but he's the best!

Showtime: Randy, our time is about up for this evening. Do you have any final comments you'd like to share?
Randy Harrison: Good night everyone, go to bed, sleep tight!

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список выложенного в хронологическом порядке со ссылками на темы

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1999

"1776" The Muny, Reviewed by Denise Hill (summer 1999) - rhintervews.diary.ru/p187252789.htm

2000

'The Queerest Show on Earth' from New York Magazine (Sept 8th 2000) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p148804322.htm (перевод есть)

'Boy Meets Queer World' from TV Guide (November 20th, 2000) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p148807577.htm

'Daring to be Queer as Folk' from The Advocate (November 21st, 2000) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p148806686.htm

'Queer as F*ck' from XY Magazine (Nov 2000) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p148808609.htm

Showing and Telling with Folk Cast (Nov 2000) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p148890002.htm (перевод есть)

Inside Queer as Folk From The Advocate (Nov 2000) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p150597296.htm (перевод есть)

Next Magazine (Nov 2000) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p149319071.htm

'Queer is here!' , OUT (December 1st, 2000) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p149322485.htm

Spin Magazine, Boy Trouble (Dec 2000) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p152566802.htm

"2 Atlantans Taking a Chance on 'Queer'' The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Dec 2000) -pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p148951163.htm (перевод есть)


TV Guide (dec 2000) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p149450030.htm

'Randy Harrison Bares All' from Joey Magazine (Dec 2000) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p149038430.htm


2001

Xtra (Jan 11, 2001) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p149600495.htm

Q+A's' from Attitude Magazine (Feb 2001) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p151847489.htm

Transcript from Showtime Livechat with Randy Harrison (Feb 2001) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p149044943.htm (перевод есть)

A Visit to the QAFolk Set, E-Now (March, 2001) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p151857773.htm

'Randy Harrison makes an impressive debut in Queer as Folk', oasisjournals.com (May 2001) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p149794640.htm

Transcript from Showtime Livechat with Randy Harrison (June 2001) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p149596973.htm (перевод есть)

'A Little Randy' from Empire Magazine (Sept 2001) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p150017744.htm

SoGayTV on PrideVision TV (Nov 15, 2001) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p151713233.htm

The Gayest Show on Earth from Fab (Dec 2001 - Jan 2002) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p151304834.htm


2002

Folk Hero, Cincinnati CityBeat (Jan 2002) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p152852318.htm

New Year, New "Queer", ETC (Jan 2002) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p152451890.htm

Transcript from Showtime Livechat with Randy Harrison (Jan 2002) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p153808709.htm (перевод есть)

Starstruck: Randy Harrison, PlanetOut (Jan 2002) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p153133400.htm

La Dolce Musto by Michael Musto (NY Mirror) from the Village Voice (Jan 2002) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p152702183.htm

Out of Character, A&U Magazine (March 2002) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p152995370.htm

The Post-Gay Gay Icon by Simon Dumenco, New York Magazine. (April 2002) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p151884329.htm (перевод есть)

LARRY KING LIVE Interview With Cast of "Queer as Folk" (April 2002) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p152299487.htm (перевод есть)

QSAT: Randy Harrison, PlanetOut (May 10, 2002) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p153416675.htm

'Queer As Folk' star Randy Harrison hits the stage, The Associated Press (May 2002) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p153470279.htm (перевод есть)

Randy Gets Real, The Advocate (Sept. 2002) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p153936188.htm (перевод есть)

Actor says teens should be portrayed with respect, reality (Oct. 2002) - rhintervews.diary.ru/p184918891.htm

2003

The boys are back in town, TV Guide (March 2003) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p154489250.htm

Vanity Fair, GAY-PER-VIEW TV (Dec 2003) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p155579732.htm

2004

"Issues Over the Rainbow". Party 93.1 radio (March 26, 2004) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p166222934.htm (перевод есть)

That’s so ‘Queer’, Express (Apr 2004) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p157444916.htm

Justin time: Randy Harrison discusses the ins and outs of his ‘QAF’ role, twnonline.org (April 2004) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p157611191.htm

Lumino (June 2004) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p156720188.htm

Harrison Gets Wicked in Broadway Debut&, playbill.com (June 2004) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p153306941.htm

Queer As Folk’ star to visit Columbus June 12, outlooknews.com (June 2004) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p157640990.htm

Q&A from sho.com (July 2004) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p163433942.htm (перевод есть)

Queer as Folk confidential, the Advocate (July 2004) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p158221148.htm

'Show has fans from queer and far', Sydney Daily Telegraph (October 2004) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p157640561.htm

DNA, Playing Justin (Nov 2004) - http://pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p158783882.htm (перевод есть)

2005

"QAF" - That's a wrap, from planetout.com [April 5, 2005] - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p166943321.htm (перевод есть)

Season 5 premiere, Out Of The Closet TV (May 2005) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p165787127.htm

Randy Harrison: Beyond QAF from Edge Boston (July 2005) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p168801862.htm

`Equus' star prefers the stage to TV work by Steve Barnes from Times Union (July 2005) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p169189378.htm

Talking about life on stage, on television by Steve Barnes from Times Union (July 2005) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p169189378.htm

'Equus' is tethered to tame production By Michael Eck (July 2005) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p169237192.htm

In the Berkshires, three productions explore life and love with passion. By Ed Siegel from Boston Globe (July 2005) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p169633603.htm

Equus reviews (July 2005) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p170681926.htm

2006

LITTLE BITS: Dance between celebrities has twists and turns (May 2006) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p171974875.htm


`Queer As Folk' Star Randy Harrison Embraces `Amadeus' Role; (june 2006) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p172506052.htm

"Amadeus" reviews - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p173196443.htm

2007

'Randy Harrison's Tennessee Waltz' (Lavender, January 2007) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p173378370.htm

"A Tale of Two Toms" (January 2007) - pay.diary.ru/~RHintervews/p150043472.htm

THE GLASS MENAGERIE, reviews - rhintervews.diary.ru/p176462464.htm

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Reviews. - rhintervews.diary.ru/p185837567.htm

2008

"Randy Harrison Talks About Waiting for Godot" by Larry Murray (July 2008) - rhintervews.diary.ru/p149364827.htm

2009

From the BTF Newsletter. Osvald in Ghosts. (Aug 2009) - rhintervews.diary.ru/p149211842.htm

"Randy Harrison Interview: Ibsen's Ghosts at Berkshire Theatre Festival" by Larry Murray (Aug 2009) - rhintervews.diary.ru/p149212469.htm

@темы: список

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'Queer is here!' OUT (dec 2000)

[moveforever]

'Queer is here!' , OUT [published December 1st, 2000]

read more

остальные сканы и фотографии из выпуска и больше размер
тут scans.qafscans.com/thumbnails.php?album=13
и тут gallery.kinnetiks.net/thumbnails.php?album=948

@темы: 2000

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Next Magazine (nov 2000)

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@темы: 2000

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Transcript from Showtime Livechat with Randy Harrison (Feb 2001)

[moveforever]

Transcript from Showtime Livechat with Randy Harrison
courtesy of xof; [from Talkcity Chat February 4th, 2001]

Showtime: Thanks for signing on for our chat with Randy Harrison. Twenty-three year old Randy Harrison plays "Justin," a young man who is in the middle of discovering himself, and who is also hopelessly smitten with "Brian". He is making his television debut in Showtime's "Queer As Folk". Ask Randy about his life before and during QAF. Welcome Randy!
Randy Harrison: Hey everyone! I'm glad to be here.

Lajk: I enjoy the show a lot. My question is --when you first heard of the audition for the show, what was your first thought?
Randy Harrison: My first thought was that I was glad to have an audition!

Rockoff: Randy, how do you like working with Gale Harold?
Randy Harrison: Gale is wonderful to work with.

Johann67: What was the funniest moment for you while making QAF?
Randy Harrison: The funniest moment of making "Queer As Folk" was probably one of our first read-throughs. When we all met one another and first read through the sсript together.

Jase: Are you worried that you'll be in any way 'typecast' after this? What are your future aspirations as an actor?
Randy Harrison: I think doing any series where you are seen as the same character twenty-two hours in a season can make it difficult for an actor to be seen as any other character. However, I also think that it's an amazing opportunity to be able to spend so much time working with good scripts and good directors, and other talented actors. I have no idea what I will do in the future. But, I look forward to seeing what kind of opportunities will present themselves, and am prepared to face whatever challenges playing this role will bring up for me as an actor.

Vanessa666: Hey Randy, How's Life? How has "Queer As Folk" changed your life?
Randy Harrison: My life has changed, in that I've gone from being a broke college student to suddenly being able to support myself. My life has also changed in that I live in Canada, instead of the United States.

TJ: Hi Randy, I was wondering how hard it is for you to do love scenes, especially the real erotic scene in the first episode with Brian.
Randy Harrison: For me, the difficulty of the sex scenes lies primarily in the emotional state of the character at the time. That first sex scene was definitely the most difficult, because Justin is in a place of utter vulnerability, and it was also shot on the third day of shooting before I really knew Gale, and before I was very familiar with the crew.

read more

Tweety: Do you have a fan mail address yet?
Randy Harrison: If you send fan mail to Showtime, it gets to me.

Hardwood: Have you received any kind of feedback from anyone who credits your character with helping them to come out?
Randy Harrison: I've gotten quite a bit of mail from teenagers, who, I don't know if the character is actually helping them "come out," but who definitely expressed a lot of gratitude for being able to see themselves reflected on television, and who are comforted by Justin.

MaryMiracle: What's your favorite episode?
Randy Harrison: My favorite episode so far is Episode 11, which you guys haven't seen yet...and it's not just because I'm not in it that often!

Smooshpeas: Do you think playing a gay character will help other young gay people find it easier to come out if they watch you in "Queer as Folk?"
Randy Harrison: I hope so.

Randy: Hey Randy -- just wanted to tell you that I think you play a great character on this show, and I wanted to know how you felt about how graphic the show comes off as being, and what kind of a message you hope to convey with your character?
Randy Harrison: I'm actually kind of proud of the graphic nature of the show, only because it depicts sexuality that has not been shown on television before, and that is generally avoided. I don't try to convey any message by playing Justin. I'm only trying to accurately present the character that is given to me in every sсript.

Stormyday: Randy, do you have any movies in the future planned?
Randy Harrison: Not yet! Are you writing one?

Bi Kat: Randy, when you got to play Justin -- were you nervous since "Brian" is so fine?
Randy Harrison: (laughing) No.

HOPOLO: Are the producers thinking of spinoffs -- IE the lesbian couple with their own show if this goes through a successful season as it seems to be?
Randy Harrison: As far as I know, there is no definite plan for spin offs. I think the producers have their hands full just dealing with the show.

Romeyn: Wow, I didn't think you were that old. I'm actually twenty-three myself. How long have you been in show business?
Randy Harrison: I have been acting since I was seven years old, and I've never stopped. And twenty-three isn't that old, is it?

DJ: Randy, how does this role compare in difficulty to others that you have had?
Randy Harrison: This is the first time I have ever been on television, and the largest challenge to me was switching mediums, and learning to act for a camera, and performing at the speed in which television is shot.

Stlouismuny: Would you ever return to live theatre, or stay with TV?
Randy Harrison: Oh, I never want to stop doing live theater.

JayDotCom: I hope you read this, cause I think you relate to me the best - you're young and dealing with the whole issue of coming out and recognizing how you feel. How will your character deal with rejection from his father?
Randy Harrison: Watch and see!

Naturally: I am from Pittsburgh and find it hard to believe this series takes place there -- how much actual footage actually takes place in Pittsburgh on Liberty Avenue?
Randy Harrison: Absolutely none! The producers chose Pittsburgh because they wanted a sort of general, middle American town. I don't think their aim was ever to accurately recreate the Pittsburgh gay community.

Gary: Hi Randy! I want to thank you for portraying your character so well. I think many young guys like myself can relate to "Justin" and it helps to see how someone in our situation deals. You're awesome (and gorgeous!) and I hope you continue to do great things!
Randy Harrison: Thank you so much!

Star: I have never missed an episode, and I have to say I think that you are doing an excellent job. Who is your favorite cast member and why?
Randy Harrison: I don't think I have a favorite cast member. We are all close in very different ways, we are like a big family here, and I love everyone.

Bill1: How much of Justin's character development comes from the director and writers, and how much is your input?
Randy Harrison: Well, the scripts come from the writers. Generally, it depends on the director. There are some directors that we have had, that I pretty much do everything on my own, and they work mostly with the cameras, and other directors work intimately with the actors. All in all, I don't think any of Justin could be created without all the writers and the producers and the directors. The show -- and every aspect of the show -- is very much a collaborative effort.

JBKroon: Hi, Randy! Great show, and great work on your part portraying Justin. Whereas HBO's "OZ" has been quite forthcoming in showing male nudity, do you foresee Showtime doing the same for any "QAF" characters? Either way, what are your thoughts?
Randy Harrison: The thing about male nudity and "Queer As Folk" is that practically the entire time the characters are naked, they are in sexual situations. Therefore, it would be impossible to use full frontal nudity, because it would be erections, which would be pornography. You will see penis if you watch the show enough. I'm not promising mine.

Danny: Excellent. My comment for Randy is that first of all I really appreciate his bringing of Justin to life. I'm going through a lot of what he is with my family and "coming out". So seeing Justin has been a very emotional experience, and touching!
Randy Harrison: Thank You Danny! I'm so glad that watching Justin has affected you emotionally. It affects me emotionally to play Justin, and it makes me happy to know I am sharing something with other people in that way.

ScreamX1: Hey Randy -- how does it make you feel to have the knowledge that your excellent portrayal of Justin is an inspiration for other teens (like myself) to stay true to themselves? You truly are someone to look up to.
Randy Harrison: Thank you so much! It is overwhelming to hear things like that. In some ways, though, Justin is an inspiration for me as well. I think he is much stronger in a lot of ways than I could ever have been when I was his age, and I admire him for that.

Boogie7: Randy -- Do you foresee Justin living with Brian until he graduates or are they even looking that far ahead in the storyline?
Randy Harrison: You know, we've already played that out as far as shooting, and I don't want to give anything away.

Jim V: Does Hal Sparks keep the set laughing all the time?
Randy Harrison: Yeah, he does. Hal is hilarious.

Aurastar7: Are you going to be on any talk shows or are there any interviews available for the public to see?
Randy Harrison: Yeah, there are a lot of magazine interviews. I can't even keep track of all of them. And there is this. I'm not planning to be on any talk shows anytime soon.

RalphAdam: Your outfits are really neat do you get to pick out your wardrobe? Do you get to keep it?
Randy Harrison: I don't pick out my wardrobe. I don't keep it. But, occasionally, I will steal something for the weekend!

Ferret: What do you think is the biggest lesson that your character has to learn about being an adult or being a gay man?
Randy Harrison: Justin is learning so much. I can't particularly choose which lesson is the most significant, but he is learning about standing up for himself, he is learning about the reality of injustice, he is learning about love, and relationships, and he's constantly shattering his myths about society and sexuality and family and romance. It's amazing playing Justin, because I started playing a very naive and innocent 17 year old, and it seems that every episode, Justin experiences something, or observes something, that makes him grow so significantly.

Major Catch: Is there a traditional or classic role that you would like to play in the future?
Randy Harrison: There are tons of great roles I'd love to play. Romeo in "Romeo and Juliet," Prince Arthur in "King John," Alan Strang in "Equus." There are so many phenomenal roles out there, and so much great writing.

Jennifer: "Justin" has some very emotionally charged scenes. How do you prepare and get motivated for them?
Randy Harrison: It's difficult. I prepare a lot beforehand, and I really examine the scripts. I try to make sure I know where Justin is coming from, where he is going to, and also with what he is aiming to achieve in the scene. Then, generally, I just play off my partner, and through the rehearsals, and talking to the director about the scene. Generally I am in the state of the scene by the time it comes around to shooting it. Also, generally, you'll shoot one scene for four or five hours, and you have plenty of time to find and get to the emotions of the character.

Trina: Hi Randy. My name is Trina. You are amazing on the show. I know you have done theatre for years and I was wondering if you have a most embarrassing moment in the theatre story.
Randy Harrison: Well, first of all, hi Trina! Honestly, I'd say anything that I did between the ages of one and sixteen would be pretty humiliating to look at -- the awkward years, as they say.

Brandon: Who plays Daphne and how old is she?
Randy Harrison: Makyla Smith plays Daphne, and she's 18. I love her, and she's great. I'm glad you like her!

Jeffy: Do you think the Justin character is an accurate portrayal of gay youth today, and do you consider the character a role model?
Randy Harrison: First of all, I don't really know how one character could be an accurate portrayal of an entire group. At least, not if you wanted the character to be an idiosyncratic individual. I don't think we ever aimed at trying to represent a culture; we just wanted to create realistic individuals. I think Justin has a lot of qualities that should be emulated and respected, but at the same time, I think Justin does a lot of trashy and obnoxious things too. I don't think any of the characters on "QAF" are flawless.

Scot Harrison: Did you ever imagine financial and career success this quickly?
Randy Harrison: Well, I'm not financially secure because I'm donating every cent I make to my impoverished older brother, so he can support his wife and family!

CTDave: Are you still filming episodes?
Randy Harrison: Yeah, we are on Episode Nineteen.

Taronda: I think you are so cute. Do you get a lot of fan mail?
Randy Harrison: Not copious amounts, but some -- and it's very great to know that my character is reaching people.

Phil: Hello Randy, I love the show. How is it working with such a diverse group of actors and you being the youngest cast member?
Randy Harrison: Hi Phil! It's great working with so many amazing people; it's an amazing learning environment for me.

Lee: You do your job so well, is it the writers, or do you bring something to the table?
Randy Harrison: Thank you, I'm glad you liked my performance. As I said before, I think it's very much a collaborative effort. I bring as much to the table as I can, and I think everyone involved with the show brings something personal to the table, and the creation of every character.

RupertAnthony: Do you think that your fellow cast members will remain friends well after the show has ended?
Randy Harrison: I'm sure we will.

James: What made you decide to audition for the show?
Randy Harrison: My agent submitted me. It was a very typical audition process.

Jennifer: Are y'all making them throw out all the bloopers or are you able to save them for the final wrap-up party?
Randy Harrison: I don't know if they are printing all of our outtakes. I hope so, because we have had quite a few funny ones.

Jase: How long did it take to establish the "chemistry" that we see developing week to week now on the show?
Randy Harrison: Well, the great thing in playing Justin is that the first time the show begins is the first time he's meeting everybody. So at the pilot, I was a stranger, and we were all just meeting each other. Our characters' relationships have all grown, as our personal relationships have grown and we've gotten to know each other.

Chris-NY: Randy -- did the USA cast ever meet the UK cast?
Randy Harrison: No, we haven't, but we've met Russell Davies, the creator of the British series, and he's amazing. Certain members of the British series also mailed us things that their characters wore for their American counterparts to wear on the show.

Envoi: Randy, the experience that Justin has with his classmates -- being teased and harassed -- was that hard material for you to work with?
Randy Harrison: Yeah, it's difficult to go into an environment of shooting where you haven't met the other actors, and their job is to scream at you and call you "faggot." However, it makes it pretty easy to go there emotionally.

GregNVA: The QAF show has an awesome soundtrack -- what kind of music do you like?
Randy Harrison: I listen to an eclectic collection of music. I just bought the new Radiohead CD, and the Velvet Underground boxed set. I've listened to everything from folk, country, classical, to punk, and trance, and electronica.

Ger: Randy, were you really listening to Moby in the scene from tonight's episode when you're singing to yourself?
Randy Harrison: Yes, I was!

Serenity: Which actors have inspired you?
Randy Harrison: Pretty much every time I go to see a film, or go to a play, there are actors who I feel I can learn from watching perform. I don't have any one particular role model.

Steven in Dallas: How many hours a week do you work in making one show?
Randy Harrison: We work seven working days to make one episode. Generally, the crew is working between fourteen and seventeen hour days, every day, but I don't have to be there all the time, only when I am working on one of my scenes -- so it depends on the episode how much I work, and whether I am heavily featured or not.

Wiubear: Have you or any of your co-stars signed on to do more episodes after this year's are done?
Randy Harrison: Yeah, we are required to stay on for five more years, IF they keep bringing it back, that doesn't mean necessarily we will get five seasons.

ThereAreTwo: It's obvious that the cast is becoming more comfortable with one another as the episodes progress. Can you imagine this being a five season run? If so, who do you think Justin will be at the end of that time?
Randy Harrison: I can't imagine being here for five more years, although it will be great if the show is that successful. I see Justin in five years as being a successful graphic designer, graduating from art school, and having his own place. Really, I have no idea what they are planning on doing with us in the upcoming seasons, but I'm sure it will be exciting.

Buffboi Minneapolis: Randy, You are so lucky to be working with Sharon Gless. Has she taken you under her wing (so to speak) and given you any helpful advice?
Randy Harrison: Sharon is brilliant, and it's a great honor to be working with her. Every time you're in a scene with Sharon, it definitely feels that it's taken to a new level, because she is so committed. She has taken all of us under her wing. She calls us "her boys." And is so giving, and kind.

Vanya: Seems to me that your having been assigned the love scenes early on in the production was an advantage, from an actor's point of view, and such as you describe it wouldn't Justin's vulnerability have been, in fact, a legitimate reflection of your own, real vulnerability under, how shall we say, the more than simply "given" circumstances?
Randy Harrison: Yes, you are exactly right.

ScreamX1: Let's say Brian drops off the face of the earth; who else would you like to see Justin with and why?
Randy Harrison: If Brian were to fall off the face of the earth, I think Justin should learn to be single.

Scoshi: Randy, Showtime has opened many doors for viewers; as an actor, are there any doors you wouldn't enter?
Randy Harrison: No, I would never want to limit myself beforehand.

Smtnsweet: Will you be doing an Internet video interview like the one seen of Hal and Gale?
Randy Harrison: I actually did one. I don't know if they put it on the Internet, but I did do one.

Chris--NC: Are you hoping Showtime is just the starting point for conquering the ground that ELLEN broke on ABC?
Randy Harrison: Well, I hope what this show does is just sort of normalize the presence of gay characters on television -- and shock American audiences into finally getting to a place where it's not a big deal to see two people of the same sex making out in a scene.

Nvzno1: Do you enjoy working with the director and producer, and are they open to new ideas if the actors have a different feel for the scene?
Randy Harrison: Yeah, the directors and producers on the show have all been extraordinary. It is a pleasure for me to collaborate with them. They are very open to your suggestions.

Maclen: What is your opinion about straight persons playing in the role of gay characters and vice versa? I heard Hal Sparks and the actor who portrays David are really straight and it does make me feel differently about the show.
Randy Harrison: Frankly, I don't think the actor's sexuality matters at all. I think if they are good actors, then they are good actors, period. I feel that any committed actor should have the flexibility to play a character of a different sexuality than his own. And I think all of our actors, straight and gay, are committed to playing their gay roles and doing very convincing jobs.

Harri: Hey Randy, Is there ever any improv during the shooting?
Randy Harrison: There's a limited amount. Generally, you can't change the scripts without clearing it with the producers first. So most of the changing of the sсript and the improvisation goes on during the read through process.

Skip: Randy, your bio says you have done musical theater. You can sing as well as act?
Randy Harrison: I have been known to sing!

Allen195: Randy -- how would you feel about doing a major motion picture based on your "Queer As Folk" character?
Randy Harrison: I feel the character of Justin is very specifically a series television character. I feel that series television is something that is shot to be seen one hour a week for twenty two episodes a year and it ends up creating a very different kind of character than one that could carry a one and a half hour long feature. But I'm sure that Justin would love to be the star of a movie.

RupertAnthony: If you knew the show was about to end, what would you have wanted your character Justin to have accomplished?
Randy Harrison: I feel like Justin is all the time accomplishing things that I'm proud of him for accomplishing. I don't think that there is one specific goal that he is aiming to achieve.

Outkast1: Randy, where do you see yourself in the future after the show?
Randy Harrison: My only goal is to have a career as a working actor.Randy Harrison: Thanks everybody for coming, I had a great time answering your Questions, and keep watching "Queer As Folk."


перевод - queerasfolk-rus.livejournal.com/97684.html

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'Randy Harrison Bares All' from Joey Magazine (Dec 2000)

[moveforever]

'Randy Harrison Bares All' from Joey Magazine
by David Beebe; courtesy of Steve; [published in the Winter 2000 issue]



"You’re always reading about everyone saying that the American version is not going to be as extreme. That’s bullshit, absolute bullshit. It’s going to be just as [extreme], if not more," says Randy Harrison when asked about the amount of sexual content in Showtime’s provocative new series, Queer as Folk. This December, you can see exactly what Randy is talking about as he plays the role of 17-year-old Justin in the edgy series that is filled with boys, sex, parties, clubs, hard bodies, loud music and late nights. Based on the widely popular British series, the story line centers on the everyday lives of seven gay men and women, and is a mature, truthful and often explicit exploration of the gay experience. Randy’s character is often the target of controversy because of his age, and because of the explicit acts that happen in the course of his character discovering his own sexuality.

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Most likely this is the first time you’ve heard of Randy Harrison, but the blonde cutie has been acting since seven. "Acting is the first thing I remember doing, and I just never stopped," recalls Randy. Born in New Hampshire, Randy and his family moved to Atlanta, Georgia when he was ten. It was there, at 16, that he made the tough decision to tell his parents and close friends that he was gay. "It went pretty well, and it was pretty ideal, but difficult as well, just like it is for everyone else I imagine." After high school, Randy left for the University of Cincinnati’s Conservatory of Music College, where he studied theater and performing arts.

After graduation, he moved to New York to work in theater, where he had already landed an acting job at The St. Louis Municipal Theater and performed in many plays, including 1776, Grease and Anything Goes. "I just started pursuing theater, I assumed that’s what I would do, since that was where I had all my experience," he says.

But life as Randy knew it was about to change, and quickly. After being in New York for only a month, his agent sent him to the Queer as Folk audition in L.A. About two weeks later, and in the middle of his theater work, Randy got the call that he had been picked to play Justin. "I was so excited," says Randy. "It took a while to sink in." He realizes that it all happened pretty quickly for him and how fortunate he is. "I really didn’t have the typical ‘New York-starving-actor’ experience."

In the series there are three main characters, which are nothing alike, all different ages, and all at various points in their gay life. Gale Harrold, plays Brian, an arrogant 29-year-old advertising executive who is self-absorbed and filled with attitude. Hal Sparks, who is one of the most recognizable names in the cast, plays Michael, an assistant supermarket manager in his late 20s, who is also Brian’s best friend. And then enters Justin, the naive 17-year-old who's just coming out and loses his virginity to Brian, only to fall in love with him, but doesn’t find the same feelings coming from Brian. Through the twenty-two episode series, we follow the twists and turns of the trio's lives as they spend their nights in the blue collar Pittsburgh gay scene and their days trying to figure out what being gay is all about. "Of course, the characters are in no way role models," says Randy, "but I think that Justin’s balls-e-ness, un-bashfullness, and complete lack of shame are something that young people will cling onto and learn from."

As lucky as Randy is, he’s not quite sure of the impact that this role will have on his acting career or life. "Before this, I really had no acting career, and it’s exciting to be part of something different. It’s a great job, I just graduated, and this is the hand I was dealt. I’ll have to deal with the repercussions of it afterwards." The down-to-earth actor seems to have control of everything so far though, and is only really looking to pursue a successful career without having his sexuality become a major part of it. "I’m totally willing to talk about it, but I’m not marketing my sexuality," asserts Randy. "I just want to play really good parts and work with people I can learn from."

Randy isn’t much like the character he plays, though. "Even though my character is gay and I’m gay, he’s still really different from me. I’m not a club boy and really never have been. I’m a homebody," admits Randy. "I like to sit around and read (his favorite author is William Faulkner), go to movies (his favorite being Fight Club) and go out to eat (whatever there is). But I like to have fun too. I throw good parties. People dance. I just feel more comfortable where I know most of the people, and we can just get down." For all you Top 40-music-haters out there, you and Randy may have something else in common as well. He admits that he listens to a little bit of everything and that he will occasionally indulge in some Britney Spears, ‘N SYNC and those other types, but that he "doesn’t own any of those CDs" and he always "hates [himself] for doing it afterwards!"

When Randy completes the filming of Queer as Folk in Toronto, he will return home to New York, where he and his boyfriend live. Randy met his boyfriend, who is also an actor, when he was 19. "We’ve been together now for three and a half years. It’s been really good. Sometimes it’s frustrating to be apart, but he comes up and visits all the time" admits Randy.

When asked if people recognize him yet or not, and if he is ready to handle the fame that is associated with a successful acting career, Randy said, "Once in a while, I get noticed here because a lot of the extras are locals. They just stare at you and follow you around, and you get paranoid. But fame is not a goal of mine, I just want to act in good parts, and if fame is associated with that, so be it."

After this job, Randy hopes to take some time off and travel to Europe and Switzerland. Most importantly, Randy and the rest of the cast are hoping that the gay community will embrace and appreciate their work this December. "I just think this is the thing that the gay community has been waiting to see for a long time. And for once, this will give everyone what they want."

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