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.

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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."

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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

Comments

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[moveforever]

yennifaire

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[yennifaire]

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