Play Raffi for Me

”So Miguel called me and left a message on my machine saying, ’Do you want to be in this movie?‘ I thought he was talking about a 10-minute short or something. So I called back and said, ’Yeah, I absolutely want to do it. As long as it doesn‘t involve me having anal sex onscreen, I’m your man.‘ Then I got the script, and I thought, ’Wow, this is pretty close.‘ I had one really sleepless night where I imagined my dad having a heart attack watching the movie and my friends making fun of me, and maybe learning stuff about myself that I wasn’t comfortable learning. But then it was really clear that I would be such a pussy if I didn‘t do it, because I’m Joe Liberal Guy. And I‘m really glad I did, because I got past what people would think.“

Including women?

”Oh, women don’t have a problem with it. They‘re not as kind of ’ookie‘ about this stuff. They’re generally fine with that kind of material.“ He pauses. ”Hopefully.“

For all the good faith generated by the emergence of an official gay genre, far too much of it still seems sanitized, sanctioned and approved by committee to promote a palatable lifestyle. Which makes it all the more relevant that those artists working the topography wear their true colors, and proudly. As much as it flies in the face of political correctitude, it seems a fair question to put to the film‘s author:

Is he or isn’t he?

”At one of the last screenings,“ says White, ”there was a guy who was furious that I wouldn‘t say that Chuck was gay, and that Chuck was just going off to get married because he was following this sham of his life. And that is so far from what I intended, you know? Is it not possible that it happened this way because this is how it happened? If I had to define myself, I’d say I was bisexual. Except that I shudder at the idea of that, because it seems coy or something, and at some point you get defensive. But that‘s how my life has played out. This is what it is. And for me, the interesting part is when you try to say we’re more alike than you think. That‘s hard for people to deal with.“

Weitz concurs. ”As someone from the New York Blade News asked, ’So is there all this butt-slapping sex that didn‘t hit the screen?’ But there wasn‘t, there was only this tender little moment that was handled very discreetly. Which, maybe, is all the more disturbing.“