| by
Dennis Hensley
For a gay man or lesbian, dating someone who your best friend
doesn’t approve of isn’t all that unusual a scenario.
Most of us have been there at one time or another. Still,
being on the Toronto set of Showtime’s Queer as Folk
and seeing that particular social ballet played out before
you--with great looking actors spouting the kind of smart-ass
lines you wish you could have come up with when you were living
through it—feels somehow novel. Perhaps Daniel Lipman,
one of the show’s executive producers, isn’t just
serving up a sound byte when he calls this American adaptation
of the groundbreaking British miniseries "a true show
for the millennium, a series of this century, not of the last
century."
The scene currently being filmed is set in the modest, comic
book-strewn Pittsburgh apartment of Michael, a sweet-natured
but put-upon assistant department store manager played by
former Talk Soup wiseacre Hal Sparks. As the scene opens,
Michael is facing his bathroom mirror, nervously preparing
for a date with a Dr. Dave (Silk Stalkings’ Chris Potter),
a humpy LTR-seeking chiropractor Michael fell for while lying
face down on his examining table.
"I’m putting a little rouge on my penis to make
it look longer," quips Sparks, the show’s unofficial
morale-booster, just before the cameras roll. "A nice
horizontal stripe."
Once "Action" is called, there’s a knock at
the door and Peter Paige, who plays Michael’s over-the-top
roommate Emmet, skitters off to answer it. When Brian, Michael’s
best friend and the show’s resident shit-stirrer (played
by sexy newcomer, Gale Herrold) struts in instead of Dr. Dave,
he brings all kinds of tension with him for Michael has long
carried a torch for Brian which Brian uses to keep Michael
where he wants him; beholden yet unfulfilled. Brian’s
no sooner plopped himself down on the sofa and doffed his
designer sunglasses than he starts making trouble, by helping
himself to the chocolate eclairs that Michael bought special
for his outing with Dr. Dave.
"Insert it into your mouth in a phallic way, Gale,"
coaches the episode’s director, Canadian film vet David
Wellington, between takes. "Make it a performance."
Herrold takes the note gamely and in future takes, looks longingly
at the eclairs before swallowing them whole. Linda Lovelace
would be proud.
"This is such a blast," Herrold chuckles, after
the scene is wrapped. "I get to be the ultimate anti-hero
everyday. Like in the scene today, I was only there to cause
problems." Like his UK equivalent, Stuart, Brian is an
Olympic-level bedhopper and completely unapologetic about
it. Asked how many different sex scene partners he’s
had so far, Herrold laughs and says, "That’s a
hard question." He counts on his fingers for at least
a half a minute then gives up. "Somewhere over 10."
"That’s Brian, the bad boy who never grows up,"
laughs Lipman, a bit later in the show’s production
office (the set itself is now off limits as Sparks and Potter
shoot love scene between Michael and Dr. Dave in Michael’s
childhood bedroom.) "We all have friends that we’re
not too wild about, but why do we like them? Well, because
we understand." Still, Lipman is quick to point out that
Queer as Folk has more to offer than men behaving badly. "We
have a whole tapestry of different kinds of gay characters,"
boasts the producer, who along with his work-and-life partner
Ron Cowen, created the series Sisters and the AIDS-themed
TV movie An Early Frost, both of which won Emmys. "There’s
a domesticated lesbian couple with a child, Brian and Michael
who are about to turn 30 which is a certain kind of death
in this world. There’s Ted who is 33 and running after
young guys who are inappropriate for him, Dr. Dave who is
his late 30’s and very relationship-oriented. There’s
Michael’s mother, Debbie, played by Sharon Gless who
is so overly supportive you want to strangle her. There’s
also Michael’s uncle who’s in his late 40’s
and has AIDS and because of the cocktails and has to deal
with his life, and, of course, Justin, a 17-year old gay young
man who is not in conflict about his sexuality. This is not
an Afterschool Special where he’s walking on the beach
in scenes of emotional conflict…" Lipman trails
off when he realizes that his visitor has just become distracted
by a sign on the office wall that reads: "QAF PRODUCTIONS,
LTD." it reads. "PLEASE! NO DILDOS ALLOWED WITHIN
20 FEET OF THE FAX MACHINE."
"In one episode, there’s a scene involving 33 dildos,"
he explains. "So we were having a meeting, like we would
for any prop, and there was one pretty amazing dildo that
was supposedly cast from a real porn star. So I wet the suction
cup and put it on the wall, then we went back to our discussion.
Suddenly, we hear this crash, and turn around. The fax machine
was flattened. That’s why they put the sign up."
It’s doubtful they have these kinds of problems over
at Touched By an Angel, but then, that’s sort of the
point. "We’re extremely non-PC here at Queer As
Folk," boasts Lipman, who promises that the Pittsburgh-set
American Queer will come well-stocked with all the ‘I
can’t believe they’re showing that on TV’
elements that made the British version such a sensation. "This
is probably the first time in history," says Ron Cowen,
"that gay people will actually get a chance to see their
lives portrayed truthfully on television with no restrictions
and no censorship, unless Showtime cow-tows to the MPAA ratings
board. But it was certainly written and filmed with the intention
of showing all aspects of gay life honestly." And yes,
that includes foam parties, nipple piercings, recreational
drug use, and scads of same-sex lovemaking scenes, including
repeated couplings between our 29-year-old Jeep-driving, loft-living
Lothario Brian and our baby-faced but hungry for experience
high schooler, Justin. "Some gay people will be upset
that straight people are seeing things that they would wish
they would not see," asserts Cowen. "But I think
politically correct behavior is a form of internalized homophobia,
that you are basically afraid to show straight people what
your life is really like and so you put forth a PC image out
of fear."
With 22 hour-long episodes to crank out in seven months—today
is the first day of shooting on episode seven--the Queer as
Folk team don’t have a lot of time for fear. Hal Sparks
has just emerged for lunch after completing the Michael-Dr.
Dave love scene. "It’s actually more of a panic
scene for Michael," the Second City alumnist explains.
"He’s like, ‘I’m finally going to get
laid in my old room’ but everyone downstairs can hear
what’s going on." Though Sparks is straight in
real life, Michael’s soft, chewy center gives him plenty
to relate to. "Michael will give you a foot rub and not
expect sex," says Sparks with a smile, "and I’m
the same way. I’m a total romantic." As for the
more intimate scenes, Sparks admits he finds them more challenging
that he expected to. "Intellectually, I didn’t
think I would have any problem," he reveals, "but
I had a visceral, physical reaction that I wasn’t expecting
and that I have to work against. It’s like a pheromone
response to some guy standing in your face threatening you.
You’re okay for a while and after 20 minutes you’re
like, ‘Dude, get off me.’ It really is a process."
More comfortable with that process, it seems, is 22 year-old
Randy Harrison, who makes his TV debut as the newly-out-and-just-fine-with-it
Justin. "The most challenging scenes aren’t the
most sexually provocative," shrugs the actor, who landed
the part at his first professional New York audition. "So
far, I’ve done a rimming scene, a hand-job scene and
several sex scenes and those are easy. It’s just moaning
and getting in weird positions. The hard scenes are the emotional
ones, like there’s one in a therapist’s office
where I say to my mother, ‘I like dick. I like sucking
dick. I like getting fucked by dick and I’m good at
it too.’ That was kind of hard."
It’s lunchtime and Harrison is leading the way through
the gorgeously appointed set that is Brian’s loft apartment,
where a good deal of his aforementioned weird positions were
executed. "This is my favorite part of the set because
the water comes down like a waterfall," he says, gesturing
to Brian’s five-sided stainless steel and glass shower.
"But it keeps changing temperature. We had to cut a million
times during the sex scene because it got really hot."
But then, as one of the show’s two openly gay cast members,
Harrison seems more than capable of handling the heat. "I’m
aware of the dangers and repercussions (of being out),"
says the Atlanta-native, who has a boyfriend of three a half
years, a fellow actor he met while studying drama at the University
of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. "The way
I see it, if I’m not true to myself, it doesn’t
matter what else I’m doing. There’s enough bullshit
in this business. I don’t really need to add any of
my own."
The show’s other out actor, Peter Paige, who plays Michael’s
flamboyant clothing shop manager roommate, Emmet, echoes Harrison’s
sentiments. "I’ve been out for so long, doing this
show and going into the closet seemed like an absurd idea"
he says with a laugh. "There would have been phone calls
from various corners of the country saying, "Come on’!"
Though his character is decidedly larger-than-life fabulous,
scoring the show’s best zingers and skimpiest outfits
("I’ve stopped eating bread"), Paige sees
Emmet as a far cry from the cliché screen queen who
flames to keep the pain away. "He hates himself less
than anybody in the piece," Paige asserts. "Somewhere
along the way he just got it that he’s okay and if you
don’t like it, fuck off. I think that’s revolutionary."
Of course, being revolutionary isn’t always easy. Though
the show’s creators insist that the actors they ultimately
cast were all their number one choices, tracking them down
proved harder than they expected. "Hundreds of actors
would not even audition and there were major agents who wouldn’t
send their clients to audition," says co-executive producer
Cowen. "That was surprising."
Those that were cast admit that there was more deliberation
involved in saying yes to Queer as Folk than your average
job. In addition to the provocative subject matter, there
was the Toronto location to consider, as well as the fact
that the actors were expected to sign on for five years. "When
the screen test offer came in, my manager basically said,
‘I don’t think you should do it’,"
recalls Paige. "It was the sexual content, more than
the gay content, he was really worried about. But I just finally
said, ‘I’d rather be a part of something risky
than something beige’."
Then once the actors were cast, there was the little matter
of keeping them believable costumed. According to the producers,
several presumably gay-friendly designers have refused to
allow their duds to be featured on the show. "I find
it disturbing that the Versace company says you can’t
show Versace," scoffs Cowen. "I mean, he was gay.
Perry Ellis’s company said no and Perry Ellis died of
AIDS. Abercrombie and Fitch, whose ads are so homoerotic,
won’t allow their clothes. That’s extremely offensive
because they obviously want gay people’s money but they
also don’t want to be associated with gay people and
gay people should know that."
"We must qualify this by saying that we really don’t
know if some of these places have a blanket policy to not
place their products no matter what the material is,"
adds Lipman. "But there were certain letters. We had
a scene where a character was just eating a brand of cereal…"
"Cocoa Puffs," interjects Cowen. "Let’s
say it."
"He wasn’t doing anything sexual with the cereal,"
continues Lipman. "He was just eating it. So when you
get feedback saying, ‘We do not want the characters
using our product,’ obviously they’re saying,
‘We don’t want gay people eating our cereal.’
That’s very disturbing to me."
The producers are curious to see if things will change once
the show starts airing and people discover that Queer as Folk
is not all-boys, all-nude, all-the-time. The program also
deals with less eyebrow-raising facets of gay day-to-day life
such as being out at work, growing older, and taking care
of the people you love. "Because all of the characters
are gay, any story that you tell has a twist to it, even going
to the grocery store," says Lipman. "In one epside,
our lesbian couple’s baby gets sick and the women who
is not the birth mother, is not allowed in the emergency room.
Until that point, they were just happy parents like anyone
else."
For Thea Gill and Michelle Clunie, the actresses who play
the lesbian couple, dramatizing the frustrations, expected
and unexpected, that come with starting a family made for
refreshing challenge. "It seems like any time I see lesbians
portrayed in film, they have to be carrying guns and doing
something dangerous," says Clunie, who plays the no-nonsense
attorney, Melanie. "We’re just two women trying
to cope with life." But that doesn’t mean they
don’t get frisky. "They are in sexual situations,"
vows Cowen. "They make love, we see that." That’s
good news to Gill, who plays Melanie’s college art teacher
lover Lindsay, who was artificially inseminated with her friend
Brian’s sperm. "It’s been pretty subtle for
us so far, so Michelle and I are like, ‘Okay, we’re
ready for our big sex scene now’!"
They’ll surely get their chance, just not today. Today
belongs to the guys. As Sparks and Paige get set to shoot
a scene where a hilariously frazzled Michael packs to go away
for a romantic weekend with Dr. Dave, Herrold takes a break
in the lunch room. In a few minutes, he’ll join Harrison
in a screening room where they’ll view, for the first
time, the just-edited, damn-the-age-of-consent sex scenes
they shot for the pilot episode a few months ago. He’s
simultaneously anxious and excited. "One day, Randy and
I were sitting there between takes," recalls Herrold,
who declines to discuss his off-screen love life. "I
looked over and Randy had this strange look on face and I
said, ‘What’s wrong?’ He said, ‘You
just look so old and I look so young. I can’t imagine
how people are going to respond.’ I think that the ramifications
of what we were doing hit him pretty hard at the moment. After
that, I got such a rush thinking about the 17 year-olds that
are going to be watching. They’re going to say, ‘That’s
me, right there!’ That, to me, is what freedom is, being
able to say, ‘This is my life,’ and it’s
about fucking time somebody showed it the way that it is."
That warts-and-all sense of realism, more than the show’s
much heralded naughty bits, is what the show’s creators
believe audiences will ultimately come away with. In other
words, it’s no good finding the perfect prop dildo if
no one cares about the human being operating it. "The
cast screened some of the pilot last week," reports executive
producer, Lipman, "and one of them called me and said,
‘You hear about all of the graphic sexual scenes, but
in the end, it’s the characters you come away with.
That’s all you care about.’ I’ll be happy
if we achieve that because that’s what any good show
does."
Asked what the series is ultimately about, the folks behind
Folk give wildly different, but nicely complimentary answers.
"For us," says Lipman, "with all do respect
for our lesbian characters, the show is about boys becoming
men and assuming responsibility." Adds Cowen, Lipman’s
life partner of nearly 30 years, "Because there is such
a premium placed on youth in gay culture and you don’t
always have a role models, gay men are often stuck in perpetual
boyhood."
"To me, Queer as Folk means queer as regular people,"
says Sparks. "The characters on this show want the same
things as everybody else. They live with the same kind of
challenges, just in a different shade."
Inspired, perhaps, by his straight-talking ad exec alter ago,
Brian, Herrold delivers an answer worthy of a Showtime No
Limits billboard. "It’s about freedom, enlightenment,
love, humor," he says, flashing the kind of smile that
makes it easy to see how Brian gets all that action. "You
know, all the things that make life worth living."
MEET THE FOLKS
HAL SPARKS
As Michael, a sweet-natured comic book-obsessed assistant
manager at Big Q Mart
UK equivalent: Vince
ON THE Q as F EXPERIENCE: “It’s almost my responsibility
some days to keep people laughing on the set. One of my best
moments was when I threatened to buy a rubber vagina from
a sex store just so the straight guys could have a pet between
takes to keep themselves calm.”
GALE HERROLD
As Brian, a sexually insatiable, brutally frank advertising
executive
UK equivalent: Stuart
ON THE Q as F EXPERIENCE: “I was at a club here in Toronto,
and these straight high school girls who were fans of the
British version came up to me and they said, “You’re
playing Stuart’s character? Oh my God!” They were
absolutely obsessed. I think that’s a good sign.”
RANDY HARRISON
As Justin, so-cute-it-hurts 17 year-old aspiring artist
UK equivalent: Nathan
ON THE Q as F EXPERIENCE: “I was nervous before I came
here because I had never worked on camera before so I read
all these books about film and I made marks in my hotel room
floor and practiced hitting them. It’s way easier than
you think it would be.”
PETER PAIGE
As Emmet, Michael’s out, loud and proud boutique manager
roommate
UK equivalent: Alexander
ON THE Q as F EXPERIENCE: “These characters have huge
contradictions, just like real people. They can be incredible
kind and caring friends and they can also be cunts to each
other. And you don’t often see that on TV. That, to
me, is more controversial than, ‘Ooh look, boys pretend
to be butt fucked,’ because it’s real.”
.
SCOTT LOWELL
As Ted, a loyal and unassuming 30-something accountant with
a taste for porn
UK equivalent: Phil
ON THE Q as F EXPERIENCE: “My parents, who raised me,
are fine with the show. My birth parents, who I’ve just
recently met and who are Pentacostal, are not so fine with
it. My birth mother said, ‘Well, it’s not really
something we can put on the church bulletin board, is it?”
CHRIS POTTER
As Dr. Dave Cameron, Michael’s studly and relationship-minded
chiropractor
UK equivalent: Cameron
ON THE Q as F EXPERIENCE: “This a lot meatier and more
challenging than the past work that I’ve done, action
television series like Silk Stalkings and Kung Fu. My wife
said I went from kicking ass to licking ass.”
THEA GILL
As Lindsay, a warm and nurturing university art teacher who
has a child with her lesbian lover, Melanie
UK equivalent: Romy
ON THE Q as F EXPERIENCE: “I have a pretty supportive
circle of friends but there were a couple of people who kind
of snickered when I told them about the show. Until then,
I hadn’t had direct experience with people who are possibly
homophobic and narrow-minded. It was really a jolt.”
MICHELLE CLUNIE
As Melanie, Lindsay’s tough-talking lawyer lover who
has always detested Brian, the biological father of their
baby
UK equivalent: Lisa
ON THE Q as F EXPERIENCE: “A couple of weeks ago, I
got to say lines like, ‘You cocksucker, you fucking
prick!’ And I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is so
much fun.’ After this show, watch me end up on some
NBC sitcom going, ‘Pass the fucking mayonnaise’.”
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