This is an article about an ending.
For those of you who immediately turn to the last page of an Agatha Christie thriller, read on, you spoil sports. For those who prefer to see a film, form their own opinions and only then read some commentary, please print out this article, place it on your refrigerator door and peruse it over your morning coffee the day after you’ve seen “Kissing Jessica Stein.”
Now that I’ve done the Christian thing, let’s begin.
“Kissing Jessica Stein” is a delightful low-budget indie comedy about a Jewish girl who wouldn’t seem out of place as the fifth wheel on “Sex and the City.” Jessica Stein (Jennifer Westfeldt) has no luck with the male sex — all the guys she tries to hitch up with seem to be suffering from minor brain damage.
Well, through a classified ad, Jennifer becomes intrigued by a female, Helen Cooper (Heather Juergensen), who’s also experimenting with lesbianism. They eventually hit it off, have great sex, come out, move in together, and then [This is where we give away the ending. Do not read further unless you want film spoiled for you.] Jessica goes straight in the last 10 minutes of the picture.
To find out why this cop-out ending was added to a very pleasing laugh fest, PopcornQ sat down with the cast and director of “Kissing Jessica Stein” in Manhattan’s Essex Hotel.
First, we confronted the lovely Tovah Feldshuh, who plays Jessica Stein’s very Jewish mom. She took on a similar part in the superb “A Walk on the Moon,” had same-sex kisses on Broadway in Yentl, and played the bisexual Tallulah Bankhead on stage in “Tallulah Hallelujah!” Attired in a Chanel suit, tasteful earrings and no makeup, Tovah offered the following dish when asked if the ending was added on to please studio heads:
“No, it wasn’t. Look, the ending was a conundrum for them. [The two lead actresses wrote the screenplay.] It was already a Chinese menu with this ending. They tried everything they could think of, oddly enough, except for the triumph of a homosexual relationship. They wanted to expose us to the full gamut of choices. That’s all I can think of, both the Republican and the Democratic points of view.”
Openly gay and dimpled director Charles Herman-Wurmfeld was next. You might recall his direction of three rock operas in the Bay area, including “The Cereal Killers.” He also helmed the “Facts of Life” reunion, in which he tried to bring out Jo’s lesbianism.
“I really wanted to. I really pushed them, and I didn’t get my way. But I wanted to make Jo gay because I think she was gay.”
What about the last 10 minutes of “Jessica Stein”?
“I’m a gay person,” Charles said solemnly.
Single?
“No.”
Who cares then?
“Well, I experienced my coming out just like Helen. I fell in love with my straight best friend,” Charles continued. “We had an ongoing sexual relationship, which was extremely satisfying for me but not so for him. Eventually, the sex tapered off, just as it does in our movie, and we broke up. That break-up was a beginning of a friendship that lasts to this day. So I feel that this is a true story that really reflects the way people explore sexuality in a very modern way.
“It’s not a classic gay love story,” he added, “just as it is not a classic straight love story. It’s rather this love story that goes right down the middle and explores this territory that no one wants to talk about. No one wants to really admit that there is an ambiguous territory there. That straight people do explore. That gay people explore with straight people. That there is a meeting place. It’s important because there needs to be a certain kind of social acceptance for this kind of relationship.”
Finally, Jennifer and Heather sat down and let loose. Immediately, Jennifer said, not that clearly, “We’ve gotten about an 80/20 ratio of some support versus not support for the film. I think the negativity has to do with the fact that at least for one of the characters, there is support of this notion of there being a sexual continuum. But they’re two women with two different outcomes. Unfortunately, we live in a world that is still biased, despite the fact that we like to think that everyone accepts everyone else. That’s not the case. So I think the fear is justified.
“In this film, we’re preaching tolerance and acceptance and whatever makes anybody happy. So I think that putting out the idea that sexual fluidity exists for people who think it’s only [biological], that’s tricky. It’s tricky to accept that some people might have sexual fluidity if you don’t, and if people persecute you for not having that. There are groups out there who think homosexuality is something to be cured. That’s a despicable point of view. We certainly would never want that idea to be out there.”
Heather agreed and added: “For us, making ‘Kissing Jessica Stein’ was more about trying to tell a typical romantic comedy where the audience might forget that it’s about two girls instead of a girl and a guy.”
We almost forgot.
Christopher Landon Gives Us a Piece of His Mind: Thirty Bucks’ Worth
Interview by Brandon Judell
The late Michael Landon’s little boy Christopher has grown up, come out, and become a respected screenwriter. He’s now 25 years old, 5 feet 10, has written the sensational screenplay for Larry Clark’s vastly under appreciated Another Day in Paradise, and currently has a project with HBO.
But what PopcornQ is calling him up about is his contribution to Strand Releasing’s Boys Life 3. Christopher wrote the screenplay for the touching “$30,” a tale of a closeted 16-year-old whose macho dad drives him to a female prostitute (Sara Gilbert) to lose his virginity. The experience surprisingly leaves the boy with his virginity intact and a whole lot of gay pride.
After PopcornQ found out Michael Landon had never paid for Christopher to have sex with a woman, we explored other topics.
PopcornQ: Did you ever hang around with Jason?
CL: No, I never even met him.
PopcornQ: You two do seem to hang around in two totally different circles. But are you going to meet him and the other directors involved in Boys Life 3? Is there going to be a premiere?
CL: I guess so. I don’t even know if he’s even going to be there. They mentioned something about a little screening. A party or something. Hopefully all the filmmakers will be there.
PopcornQ: One would think coming out wouldn’t hurt a screenwriter’s career. True?
CL: True. It didn’t affect my career. I think it only affects actors’.
PopcornQ: From being around the business so long, would you advise most actors not to come out?
CL: Unfortunately, yes. I think sexuality plays a key role with actors, their performances, and how they’re perceived by their audiences. If someone is a sex symbol with hordes of women lusting after them, if they suddenly come out and say, “Well, actually I’m gay,” it’s going to taint the audience’s experience. The fantasy of someone like a Tom Cruise and a Brad Pitt and all those other actors is that the audience members think, Somehow I could actually have that person.
PopcornQ: That’s never stopped gay men from hungering after straight men onscreen.
CL: Oh, yeah, that’s a whole different fantasy. [Laughs]
PopcornQ: So you’re working on a project with Clive Barker [the filming of a collection of Barker short stories to be helmed by various gay directors].
CL: I was. Unfortunately, that project is officially not happening. It was sort of a legal issue. What happened was we were moving forward. It was a very risque, very violent, very sexual film and Clive struck a very big, big deal with Disney. They took the rights to a children’s series that he’s developing right now. And basically he came back to the producers, including Bill Condon, and said, “I can’t have my name on this project any more. I’m kind of in Disney’s hands right now.” He’s sort of trying to reinvent himself. He’s officially buried the horror writer, and he’s now trying to be more of a sort of fantasy and children’s author. So he said, “You know, you can keep the rights but you have to remove my name.” Well, once we removed his name, it destroyed the project.
PopcornQ: I’m shocked about Mr. Barker. I’ve been interviewing him for decades and he came out to me years ago in an article for Ten Percent. It’s strange to see that he’s doing this turnaround. But it’s understandable, I guess.
CL: I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t disappointed. I understand he’s actually trying to move into a new direction which creatively is important for him. But it was hard because we were very pleased with what we had written, and it was going to be something incredibly new that no one had ever seen before.
PopcornQ: Is there a chance that maybe within ten years or so, if Disney gives you a pact, you might renovate your past also?
CL: Probably not. It’s never been about money.
PopcornQ: Now that you’re getting all this press, the Advocate article, etc., has your life changed at all from this recognition?
CL: Not at all. It really hasn’t. By and large, it’s been a very positive experience. But as far as career goes, I’ve had a few borderline casting couch experiences because of it. [Laughs] That’s about it. It really hasn’t done anything for my career. My work has to stand on its own two legs.
PopcornQ: But are you being pushed, because of name recognition, into becoming a gay spokesperson? Are you being asked to make speeches?
CL: I was approached a few times. I’ve just been very honest about it. My coming out article was to preempt any other sort of nasty tabloid articles. And I felt comfortable and I was ready to do something like that. But I wasn’t about to become an activist and a spokesperson for the movement. I just wanted to still have my … to a certain degree, maintain my anonymity. To maintain my own private life.
PopcornQ: So Chastity [Bono] doesn’t have to worry that you’ll go after any of her jobs?
CL: Certainly won’t. Not at all.
PopcornQ: Ending our interview on a private note, one article said you were single. Can we assume that’s still the case?
CL: Oh, no. I’m in a relationship again.
PopcornQ: So that was an old article.
CL: Right.
PopcornQ: So your fans should just admire you from afar.
CL: [Laughs] If they’re going to do that at all, yes. I’m happily married.
———————————–
Terence Davies Wants Pecs
by Brandon Judell
For decades, Terence Davies has been the king of gay, Catholic guilt. His beautifully shot movies (The Long Day Closes, Distant Voices, Still Lives), have recorded in minute detail his violent, closeted, impoverished, at times loving Liverpool childhood with a true artist’s touch.
Now with his adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, one of the superb American novels of the 20th century, Davies has stepped outside himself a bit.
But who better to take on this caustically tragic novel than Mr. Davies?
If your main character is going to be dysfunctional, constantly destroying all her chances for happiness, call in a pro.
Davies has succeeded grandly, if you’ll allow his casting choices, including Gillian Anderson as the muddled 29-year-old femme fatale whose legendary beauty can stop horses midtrot; Eric Stoltz as a perceptive yet deluded lawyer who chooses morality over love; and Dan Aykroyd as a sleazy aristocrat. Once you get past the idea of Aykroyd in a costume drama you’ll understand why the New York Film Festival showcased
The House of Mirth and why the British Independent Film Awards nominated Davies for Best Director.
PopcornQ hooked up with the white-haired British filmmaker, who’s an articulate, playful gent — especially with two glasses of wine in him — at Manhattan’s Essex Hotel.
PopcornQ: Someone familiar with your previous films would say, “Oh, there he goes again. Why couldn’t he at last do a film with a happy ending?” [I take a copy of The Art of Happiness out of my knapsack and stand it on the table.] This is a bestseller in America now. Do you think this book by the Dalai Lama might have any positive effect on you?
TD: I doubt it. I’ve had all that hope knocked out of me.
PQ: But do you ever think if you were born Jewish, you might have more fun in your films? Jews have often turned tragedy into comedy, while you deal with your Catholicism and your accompanying Catholic guilt by making one tragedy after another.
TD: No, you can’t say what you might do if you were something else. I’m stuck with what I am. And I know I cannot justify what I’m about to say intellectually at all, but I can justify it emotionally because I’m still really in my delayed adolescence. I know if I was very good-looking, had a very good body, and was very stupid, I would be immensely happy. In the next life, that’s what I’m going to be. Although knowing my luck, I’ll come back as a hamburger, a small but tasty life.
I’ll give you an example. My agent and his wife and I went to see Annie Get Your Gun last night. We’re all seated, and this man came down the aisle. One of the most beautiful men I think I’ve ever seen in my life. Skin-tight T-shirt, muscles, leather. I’d trade anything to be him because everyone went like this. [His eyes and mouth open wide.] He stood for a long time at the end of the aisle while everyone looked at him, and then he took his seat. I envy that so much. I really, really envy it.
PQ: But do you think he’s experienced the joys of Chekhov? Also, he needs you to admire him while you have your intellectual pursuits and your art. You can be satisfied being alone in a room, while he might not be able to.
TD: I still would like to be him. It would be lovely for once. I’d settle for once to be able to walk into a public space and have everyone go [makes the face again]. Of course, I’m vain and shallow. [Laughs.]
PQ: So am I. Now you’ve said something very funny: “Psychotherapy would be much cheaper but a lot less fun.”
TD: Now I’m confounded because I’m in psychotherapy and it’s a lot of fun. And I’ve achieved something I never thought I would achieve. I was walking through London one day, and I suddenly thought, “I don’t hate my father anymore.” I don’t forgive him for what he’d done because what he did was unforgivable, but I thought, I don’t hate him anymore. And what a release it was! What a relief! Because it erodes you, hatred. It doesn’t affect the other person, just erodes you. So I’m very pleased about that.
[My therapist] is a very wise and cultured man, so we talk about art and music. Very often when I go there he’s got something on the radio or on a CD, and he says, “What’s this?” And I tell him what it is. And he says, “One day I’ll put something on and you won’t know what it is.” He’s a very, very sweet man and has a lovely house. It’s got the most wonderful, calm atmosphere. Even his cats are more well-adjusted than I am. That does piss me. [Laughs]
PQ: Does your shrink ever ask you why you think you’re so unattractive? Who are you comparing yourself to?
TD: There are two comparisons, really. One is my father and brothers. They were all big men. And I was the weed or runt of the family. I’m built like my sisters. You know, thin, when what I wanted to be was big like everybody else. And also, that has determined what I think a man should be: very big, very muscular, and I’m not.
PQ: If you wanted to, you could transform your body in one year.
TD: I’ve been training for six, and I’m still exactly the same.
PQ: Have you tried creatine?
TD: I’ve tried that.
PQ: And then?
TD: I’ve tried everything, including witchcraft, and nothing works. [Laughs]
If Sharon Stone Could Talk
By Brandon Judell
December 10, 1999
Sharon Stone
Get ready for a little Simpatico! This latest film adaptation of a Sam Shepard play features Sharon Stone, Jeff Bridges and Nick Nolte as three friends who are torn apart in middle age by a deed they committed in their youth. Ms. Stone has a surprisingly small part as Mr. Bridge’s wife and the focus of Mr. Nolte’s undying love, but she sears the screen with her intensity. That’s why some critics at the Toronto Film Festival thought she might wind up with some Best Supporting Actress nominations this year — and that’s why the film is opening later this month in New York and Los Angeles for a week before it re-opens nationwide in late January. (You know those Oscar rules.)
PopcornQ caught up with Ms. Stone in the Big Apple to chat with her about stardom, her AIDS work, and “If These Walls Could Talk 2,” an HBO feature about the lives of lesbians which debuts in March.
PopcornQ: Playboy has designated you as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars of the Century.
Sharon Stone: [Smiling] My time is almost up.
PopcornQ: Hardly. In the British magazine Empire you came in at 77 on the list of the Great Film Stars of All Time. Can you believe how fast you have risen and what an impact you’ve had on the industry?
Stone: There’s a couple of ways to look at that. I think that for me what happened in my life was so extraordinary and so extreme that the only way I could live with it and keep my sanity was to accept that it was my destiny. That it just was. That it was always going to be that, and that my job was to try to show up with some integrity. So I think I knew for a very long time that I was going to be a movie star. I think I just knew that that was my destiny, just like some little kid who knows he’s going to be a doctor when he grows up. But I don’t think you know whether you’re going to be a good doctor until you get there. Until you really see how invested you are. I’m more surprised that I’m as dedicated as I am and as interested in the craft of acting, because the sensationalism of being a movie star is pretty consuming and, for some time, somewhat fulfilling and fun. So I think I’m probably more surprised that I actually got it together.
PopcornQ: One of the most anticipated TV films of the coming year is HBO’s “If These Walls Could Talk 2,” a trilogy of stories about lesbians. I haven’t seen it yet, but word of mouth is that it’s terrific. Can you talk about it and how you got involved?
Stone: I have seen it. Each episode is extraordinary. I mean, the opening shot of Vanessa Redgrave, it’s just amazing. It’ll put you on your knees. It’s just amazing. There’s a performance by Chloë Sevigny in the second piece that’s just so moving. Breathtaking. And Ellen [DeGeneres] and I are really …. I think I have the best chemistry with Ellen that I have had with anybody. It’s a little like Lucy and Ethel get pregnant, and it was really great. I mean, Anne [Heche] is a wonderful director. She wrote a beautiful project for us. She really believed in it. We really believed in it. We really understood what we were doing and why we were there. I think we’re very aware that you can touch more people on television than any other way, and that it was very important. The project, the last time it was done, was so wonderful and so valuable, and has been rerun so many times and it’s been very affecting to so many people. [The first “If These Walls Could Talk” trilogy featured Cher and Demi Moore and dealt with abortion.] We went into this hoping we could do the same. It’s sheer pleasure to watch this thing. Everybody just did a great, great, great job.
PopcornQ: After Basic Instinct, some in the gay community didn’t want you on their block. And now all of a sudden, you’re sort of a gay hero. You’ve done so much work for AIDS.
Stone: Which is no longer the Gay Related Immune Deficiency disease since forty-six percent of the people with AIDS are women.
PopcornQ: But many gays see your fight against AIDS as also a fight for them. It’s happened to me more than once that when I mentioned your name, gay faces lit up with affection.
Stone: Well, that’s nice.
PopcornQ: What does that mean to you?
Stone: Hopefully it means those people will be active in the AIDS crisis because we’re really in real trouble. There’s thirty-three million people living with AIDS, and sixteen million have already died. Sixteen-point-two. You know, I get up every day knowing that today seven thousand people will die from AIDS. So if I’m making an impact, I’m really grateful for that because I meet these kids, some of these babies…. It’s just unbelievable. World AIDS Day I spent with babies and small children who were HIV-positive, and you know, they’re not like other children. They’re not free. And the drugs don’t really work for children. Well, they don’t work for fifty percent of the people who have AIDS. It’s very heart-wrenching to be with those kids, and to know that the probability is that none of them will make it. So I think if I’m making an impact enough that you can say my name and it has an effect, maybe that person will do something. I hope. That’s really why [the American Foundation for AIDS Research] wanted me. Wanted a celebrity. So, God!… You know, I hope something gives.
Gay Meets Gay With Nico and Dani
by Brandon Judell
At the Chicago International Film Festival, when director/co-writer of Nico and Dani (Krámpack) was awarded the FIPRESCI Award, the citation read: “For its sensitive treatment of teenage sexuality.” It couldn’t be said better.
This sensual dramedy about two boys coming of age — one gay and one willing to experiment — will no doubt become a DVD classic for gay film connoisseurs and NAMBLA-ites who aren’t turned off by lads post bar mitzvah age.
Gangly boys in search of orgasm and love has seldom been better portrayed. To top it off, the director is named Cesc Gay.
Mr. Gay, a dark-haired, rugged creature was born in Barcelona in 1967. His one feature before this, Hotel Room (1998), was never released in this country. But in Spain, he’s carved out a niche with several shorts and his acclaimed helming of live multimedia performances.
We sat down recently and spoke in Manhattan’s rather noisy, very hip Hudson Hotel.
PlanetOut: The German director Rosa von Praunheim chose his first name, a woman’s name, as a political act. Is your last name really Gay?
Gay: It’s really Gay.
PlanetOut: In Spain, does “gay” carry the same meaning it does in America?
Gay: This is one of the funny things about Nico and Dani, the subject of the story. The fact we are invited to a lot of gay and lesbian film festivals, that we found a distribution company here in the States specializing in gay films — we didn’t think about that when we made the movie. I think this is interesting because the actors are not gay. I’m not gay. Nobody in the film was gay. Nobody thought we’d interest a gay audience. But I just wanted to do an honest film about two young guys, about friendship, about being a teenager and discovering sexuality, and that’s it. So I’m glad about the homosexual reception. Besides, there’s my name.
PlanetOut: Did your name ever cause you problems in Spain?
Gay: No.
PlanetOut: There was a man named Gay here in the States who shot up a gay bar last year because of all the teasing he got.
Gay: I know. Somebody in San Francisco told me the story. Growing up, the word “gay” did not have the importance it does now in Spain. Because if you wanted to say “gay” to somebody, you used another word, like “maricon.” So people just started using gay in the beginning of the ’80s. At that time I was not in school. I never had problems with it. All my gay friends were always kidding me about it. I accept it. I’m proud of my name.
PlanetOut: The original title of the movie was Krámpack.
Gay: Yes, they changed it for American distribution. They thought it sounded too weird for here. It’s a make-believe word taken from a character’s name in a French theater play.
PlanetOut: Now I’ve read different critics’ take on the word. Some say it stands for mutual masturbation. One assumed it stands for mutual masturbation with a little head.
Gay: A little what?
PlanetOut:A little oral sex. But it just means mutual masturbation?
Gay: Yes. In the original play on which the film’s based, what’s happening is a group of different friends … it’s like a joke. Let’s go Krámpack. So three or four people do a Krámpack to another person. It’s like a kind of an anatomy game. A soldier’s game. That’s the original idea. And then the producer called me and offered me that theater play. “You can read it. If you are interested, we make the movie.” I read the script. I had to change a lot. I changed the characters, the dialogue. It’s a totally different story. But the subject is the same — the relationship between the boys.
PlanetOut: You made the characters younger.
Gay: Yes.
PlanetOut: Why? To make it more realistic?
Gay: Yes. Because we started writing, and this is a story about confusion. And I thought, if the characters are 25 years old, this is another story. If you’re 25 and you don’t know whether you are gay or not, it’s another story. When I start trying to imagine these two guys on the bed, if they are both 25, that’s another story. I always visualized two kids. That’s the way I like it. Two kids trying to understand what’s going on.
PlanetOut: Your previous film was financed with the money your friend got from the death of a relative. Did anyone have to die to get this film going?
Gay: Nico and Dani? No. Once is enough. The producer just called me. Nico and Dani is my first normal film. I mean with a crew, with money.
PlanetOut: Now is being gay in Spain a problem? I’m not sure, but I would suspect it would have been a problem under Franco? Like here, we’re always fighting for gay rights.
Gay: I don’t know. I can’t answer that for you. I think from talking with my gay friends, the answer is no. All of my very close friends who are gay, I think they grew up in a very normal way. Perhaps some with a kind of challenge from their father. But I think it’s changed a lot. I think especially if you live in a big city, of course. If you are living in the mountains or in a small town, it’s probably different. But I think it’s changed a lot now. And it’s cool now for the young people. Something like cool. Gay and gay, it’s cool.
