INTERVIEW
Your two lead actors were as
hot as hell! And you took a
major leap of faith in casting
SCOTT MARLOWE a nonactor as Frankie, which really
paid off. Can you talk us
through your casting process?
I knew they had to be real dancers,
as you cannot fake this kind of
dancing, as there is a lot of pure
choreography in the movie. I
interviewed countless actors and
dancers and looked for someone
who was very natural, and had a
great sensibility. And when I found
Scott we spent a whole six months
whilst I was raising money
constantly work-shopping scenes
as we developed the role of Frankie
between us. He considered it acting
lessons where I thought it was
rehearsal, so it was a kind of a winwin. He learnt that as an actor you
cannot put on a show, you must
feel and believe it to make it real.
ABOVE: Matthew Risch
BELOW: Scott Marloew
MATTHEW RISCH however is a
classical trained actor and not only
did he manage to fit in with the
dancing but he really helped Scott
with their scenes.
They had a great chemistry
together!
I‘ve never experienced that before
when it worked so well, even in the
intimate sex scenes.
No need for a ‘sex
choreographer’ like they used
when they filmed The Normal
Heart?
(Laughing) NO!
The dancing was impeccable and
completely moving. It was erotic
with a touch of danger about it, is
that how you intended we should
see it?
I wanted it to be both erotic and
macabre. I had written a lot of the detail
into the script and I worked very closely
with the very talented Sidra Bell, the
choreographer who created all the
dances in just two weeks. I was by her
side the whole way through with my
suggestions, as an ex-dancer who has
worked with some major
choreographers I knew what I wanted.
Here in the UK at the same time in
1985 we had some 275 people
diagnosed with AIDS (out of a
worldwide total of 20,303). We
also saw the introduction of the
Test that year too. Although you
set your story so firmly in San
28 AUG / SEPT 2014 | THEGAYUK
Francisco, which then seemed to
be one of the worst affected cities
in the world, do you think a
worldwide audience will relate to
your film as well as American
audiences have done so far?
I didn’t have any thoughts on that when
I made it as I had no idea that it would
get such a wide distribution. I’m sure
that the backlash and the homophobia
were the same for all of us as we were
paranoid and constantly looking for
signs of Kaposi Sarcoma. The sheer
panic of not knowing what this fatal
plague actually really entailed beyond
the media hysteria was by no means an
American phenomenon.
This movie certainly establishes
you as one of the leading members
of this new wave of ‘queer cinema’
alongside the likes of Ira Sachs,
Andrew Haigh, David Lambert and
Xavier Dolan. Is that important to
you, and do you want to make
more gay themed movies?
Yes, it’s important to me and it’s one of
the main reasons that I started making
films. When I questioned my motives
about why I was taking on yet another
difficult profession after dancing, and
one of the reasons I decided was that
core representation made a real
difference in my life. Few positive
influences as opposed to the many
negative ones that I experienced when I
grew up were extremely important, and
shaped who I became. It also mattered
to me on a political and moral level.
I want to keep on doing gay themes but I
also like the idea of them becoming
more assimilated with other content so
that it is not so marginalised or
ghettoised. I like to see gay characters
who are not stereotypes, I like seeing a
world of characters whose sexuality has
not been explored much in cinema so
far. So in terms of being part of new
queer cinema I am honoured if I am
considered a part of that.
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