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

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'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

Comments

[tunka-s]

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.

нет, ну каков! Самоуверенный засранец! )))