The new Podcast ‘S-Town’ paints a vivid portrait of a cynical small-town gay intellectual

“I’ve about had enough of Shittown and the things that goes on,” is how listeners are introduced to John B. McLemore, who identifies himself as living in “Shittown, Alabama,” though most of the residents prefer to call it by its real name, Woodstock. Woodstock is a sleepy little burg that, to McLemore’s mind at least, more closely resembles Lumberton in David Lynch’s Blue Velvet than the Mayberry of The Andy Griffith Show. This 1,000-person town straddling Bibb and Tuscaloosa counties near the center of the state is, by McLemore’s statistics, the sex-offender capital of the free world, where tattoos, meth and infidelity have joined hands with racism and ignorance to form a cauldron of lazy, slow decay — the death of the American dream. That is, Shittown.

And he’s got a point.

That’s the premise of S-Town, the most compelling new Podcast snaking its way across the interwebs. Whereas the aptly-named Serial drew us in to an actual criminal justice case, week after week surprising us with its real-life mystery, the real mystery of S-Town isn’t the murder McLemore alleges took place but went unpunished, but McLemore himself. And we don’t have to wait to learn anything, except for the amount of time it takes to binge all seven roughly one-hour episodes of this series. The entire Podcast went live barely a week ago, and if it took you more than 48 hours to finish it, that was probably just so you could catch your breath.

“Why did you not tell me Shittown was gonna be an emotional apocalypse?!” my friend Valentine emailed me after I recommended he download the podcast. “Is there a word for simultaneous extreme anticipation/apprehension?” That’ll probably be your reaction, too.

Because S-Town does not proceed like you expect it to. McLemore — who we learn (though it should be obvious early on) is a semi-closeted gay liberal intellectual antique clock-repairer suffering through Klan country with cynical observations and a Southern Gothic flair for drama — initially invites radio producer Brian Reed to investigate suspicious goings-on, but Reed quickly discovers no mystery is more compelling than McLemore himself. To say more would be to undermine the tremendous release that comes with exploring the podcast itself.

But what needs to be said is how profoundly the personage of John. B. McLemore digs into you, not because he is unique, but because you can recognize so much of what troubles him in other people you probably know. The collective effect is haunting.             

— Arnold Wayne Jones

Download the podcast on multiple platforms, or stream it from Stownpodcast.org.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition April 07, 2017.

‘Sense8’ actor Miguel Angel Silvestre on working with the iconic Wachowskis and celebrating gay Pride in Brazil … in (or out?) of character

Silvestre and Smith shared a kiss at gay Pride in Brazil… but was it in character or for real? (Photo by Murray Close)

Netflix’s soapy sci-fi series from Lana and Lilly Wachowski, Sense8, revolves around a telepathically-connected group of strangers called Sensates. Located all over the world, these diverse individuals can see and even teleport via their fellow Sensates’ minds to help each other, especially when avoiding the dangerous enemy Whispers, who is determined to track the Sensates down.

Handsome Spanish actor Miguel Angel Silvestre plays one of the Sensates — Lito, a gay actor in Mexico City who went from hiding his relationship with boyfriend Hernando (Alfonso Herrera) during the first season to being publicly outed in December’s Sense8 Christmas special. May 5 welcomes the global debut (and, surely, binge-watching session) of Sense8 Season 2.

Silvestre, who previously co-starred in Pedro Almodovar’s I’m So Excited, discussed the upcoming season, which will see the Sensates — including Nomi, a San Francisco-based lesbian transgender blogger/hacker played by Jamie Clayton, as well as native North Texas Brian J. Smith — come together for plenty of action, thrills, and perhaps even another one of those famous polysexual orgies.

— Lawrence Ferber

Dallas Voice: How do you connect most with Lito as a character?
Silvestre: When I first started working as an actor, I did a role, and the character was very cool. It was my breakthrough in Spain, and when I was doing interviews, I was scared to not be as interesting as the character was. Now I’m becoming comfortable with who I am, and the result in the end is better. So I can understand Lito in that sense — to be perceived onscreen as the perfect man, masculine, heterosexual. That’s why his performances were all very false. Lito’s facing a new era of his life, and he’s accepting his darkness, his light, and it will make him more real and have more meaningful relationships and performances as an actor.

Lito’s career seemed to be in jeopardy by end of the Christmas special since he refuses to pretend to be straight anymore. How will that play out?
Lana wanted to be very real about what would happen to someone like Lito, so we’ll see he’s being more authentic with himself and live great moments, and at the same time a lot of things in his life will go to hell. The best of Lito and worst of Lito.

And how will things go with Hernando now that they don’t have to hide their relationship?
With the relationship, beautiful things will happen, but at the same time when you face Lito not having work, that makes a huge change in how you behave when your dream goes away. There will be many surprises.

Episode 6 this season will feature a highlight when Lito and Hernando go to gay Pride in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Photos and videos leaked of the entire Sense8 cast there, actually, with lots of making out and you kissing Brian J. Smith as well! Can you talk about shooting that?
Lana wanted to mix reality with fiction, and the show is very famous in Brazil. So she hid some cameras in public in the actual LGBT parade, and she made me do a speech. Some people didn’t know whether it was Lito or Miguel saying the speech, but it was so beautiful the way they reacted. Everything was happening like written in the script. I’ll always remember it. Brazilian people are very generous and passionate. It was impossible to keep cool!

During production of Season 1, Lilly Wachowski was still male-identified and went by the name Andy. Were you surprised when she came out as transgender last March?
I was surprised, if surprise would be that I didn’t know. I always have a lot of admiration for people who follow what they really believe and feel, regardless of the system. I see it as a very positive thing when somebody can connect their hearts and desires with their minds. There’s no contradiction. You get the most authentic, loving person when somebody is not in conflict. For me, [Lilly’s announcement] was something to celebrate, it was a beautiful thing, but I didn’t know anything when we were shooting Season 1.

On this season, Lilly took a break, leaving Lana in charge. How were things different with just one of the Wachowski siblings in control?
We missed Lilly a lot. It was so beautiful to see how two geniuses work together. They say that Lana is the balloon that wants to fly high and Lilly was the person holding the balloon so it wouldn’t get lost. Lana is very creative, and had a lot of support from many people, for instance David Mitchell [who wrote the Cloud
Atlas novel] writing the show with her. Lana did a great job. I have excitement to see what came out — if there are any differences. Definitely we missed Lilly’s energy, but I don’t know how that will be reflected in the show.

Have you ever felt as connected to someone as the Sensates do to each other?
Well, I guess the closest I have been connected to has been my mom. Sometimes out of telepathy I think about her and she calls me right away without knowing!

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition April 28, 2017.

Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin were both nominated for best actress in a comedy series this year at the Emmys.

Drama Series

Better Call Saul

The Crown

The Handmaid’s Tale

House of Cards

Stranger Things

This Is Us

Westworld

Comedy Series

Atlanta

Black-ish

Master of None

Modern Family

Silicon Valley

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Veep

TV Movie/Limited Series

Big Little Lies

Fargo

Feud: Bette and Joan

The Night Of…

Genius

Lead Actress in a Drama Series

Viola Davis – How to Get Away with Murder

Claire Foy – The Crown

Elisabeth Moss – The Handmaid’s Tale

Keri Russell – The Americans

Evan Rachel Wood – Westworld

Robin Wright – House of Cards

Lead Actor in a Drama Series 

Sterling K. Brown – This Is Us

Anthony Hopkins – Westworld

Bob Odenkirk – Better Call Saul

Matthew Rhys – The Americans

Kevin Spacey – House of Cards

Lead Actor in a Comedy Series

Anthony Anderson – Black-ish

Aziz Ansari – Master of None

Zach Galifianakis – Baskets

Donald Glover – Atlanta

William H. Macy – Shameless

Jeffrey Tambor – Transparent

Lead Actress in a Comedy

Pamela Adlon – Better Things

Jane Fonda – Grace and Frankie

Allison Janney – Mom

Ellie Kemper – Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Julia Louis-Dreyfus – Veep

Tracee Ellis Ross – Black-ish

Lily Tomlin – Grace and Frankie

Actor in a Limited Series or TV Movie

Riz Ahmed – The Night Of

Benedict Cumberbatch – Sherlock

Robert De Niro – Wizard of Lies

Ewan McGregor – Fargo

Geoffrey Rush – Genius

John Turturro – The Night Of

Actress in a Limited Series or TV Movie

Carrie Coon – Fargo

Felicity Huffman – American Crime

Nicole Kidman – Big Little Lies

Jessica Lange – Feud

Susan Sarandon – Feud

Reese Witherspoon – Big Little Lies

Niecy Nash doesn’t think she knows any gay prostitutes, but they — and every other kind of gay — most certainly know her.

From her rib-tickling portrayal of Deputy Raineesha Williams on Reno 911! to Getting On and the Ryan Murphy-created Scream Queens, the Emmy-nominated actress’ career is as fabulously queer as her latest show, Claws. In the TNT sisterhood-centric drama, Nash’s money-laundering badass of a character, Desna, is the powerful, leopard-print-wearing owner of a Florida nail salon that is a front for organized crime. (Season 1’s finale aired Sunday.)

And talk about powerful — we have Nash to thank for all the loud-and-proud clothing Desna dons like a boss. From her character’s scorchin’ drag-esque style to the possibility of her tough-as-nails character going lesbian in the second season — and the transformative power of Bacardi — Nash gave us queens plenty to scream about during our delicious new interview.

Dallas Voice: Why do you think gay audiences are loving Claws?  Nash: Desna, first of all, dresses like a superhero. She’s a modern-day shero, for sure; always with a jumpsuit and some sort of belt. She’s fabulous in a lot of ways.

Some might say she dresses like a drag queen, even.  You know what, I’ll take that too! ’Cause I can absolutely see that.

Do you know how many drag queens would kill for her wardrobe, though?  What’s funny is that the network wanted me to be in, like, a soccer mom bob with blonde highlights and it just felt wrong, and the wardrobe felt wrong. It was a little too pulled up and I was like, “Mmmm, this is not right.” So, I dressed myself like what I felt she looked like. Just big, natural hair, booty shorts, a body suit. All of it needed to match for no reason. So, I tried to give them what I felt like she was and, luckily, they agreed… because I was fightin’ a good fight of faith there for a second!

She is the Desna the gay community needs. How do you think gay audiences might be empowered by her?  Desna is 100 percent who she is, and she is a woman who is comfortable in her skin. I think that’s the thing that we all strive for. Be happy with what it is, figure out what’s working for you, accentuate that part and push through.

From Ryan Murphy on Scream Queens to Eliot Laurence on Claws and Mark Olsen on Getting On, you seem to gravitate toward writers, directors and producers who happen to be gay men. What is it about a gay man’s perspective on female characters that keeps you coming back for more?  They give me everything I need on paper and, in turn, I give them everything they need to take it off that piece of paper and bring it to life. It’s a beautiful working relationship when somebody can just inspire you with the written word and the reciprocity is just you being inspired by the way something is real. So, it is a back and forth that is absolutely delicious.

Some of these people — let me just deal with the ones you named — there was definitely a very strong connective tissue from the first meeting. It’s funny, because you meet some people and instantly you’re like, “Yup, that’s my tribe, that’s my people right there.” Quite a few of my gay friends, especially. Let me just say that there are quite a few of my white gay friends who I feel are one Bacardi away from being a black woman. I don’t care what nobody says — you all got black women in yourselves.

Like many gay men, my intro to you was on Reno 911!, which featured one of our favorite gay hot messes, Terry.  Yes! The rollerskating hooker.

Are there any Terrys in your life?  I don’t have any friends that I know of who are prostitutes right now, but I will say that I do have gay friends and they are all kinds of different. I just think when people know that you will allow them to be 100 percent who they are, they see you as a soft place to land.

As someone who’s been involved with many TV shows featuring a diverse cast, how important is it to you to take on projects with fair representation?  What’s important to me is that I find projects that best emulate the real world. It’s funny, even with Claws we have gay, we have bisexual, we have transgender. We have a little bit of everything going on over there, so it looks more like the world.

The other thing I appreciate about this particular show is that we don’t shine a light on how somebody is living their life or tell them what they should or should not be doing. The characters are just written and they just live. Can’t they just live? Let them live! They’re unapologetic. You got a wife and a boyfriend? OK!

I get asked by a lot of people, “Well, don’t you think things are moving in the right direction for black women in this industry?” I’m like, “But the world is bigger than just black women.” There are a lot of people who are underrepresented on television.

When you played a lesbian doctor on The Mindy Project in 2014, what was it like to be on the other side of the coin, sexually?  I feel like when you approach a character, you want to make sure you are playing it from a real place and that it doesn’t feel like, “Oh, this is gonna be a stereotype.” You wanna lean into it in a way that just makes sense. When I had to kiss Mindy [Kaling], I remember the first time we kissed each other she was like, “Oh my god, I need a do-over. I can kiss so much better than that.” I’m like, “Girl, it’s just a show, you fine.” We had to do it again, and she was just like, “This time it’s gonna be great.”

Which kiss was better?  I liked the first one because it was the first time our characters kissed each other and it was also the first time we kissed in real life. The first kiss can sometimes be a little weird and a little awkward, so I liked that it was real life, ’cause I just kiss her out of nowhere. It’s not like we’re dating. We’re just hanging out and suddenly your boss kisses you, so I kind of like that, “Whoa, wait, wait. What’s happening?”

Do you have any other lesbian roles in the pipeline?  Well, here’s the thing: With Claws you never know what’s gonna happen. I never say never over there because ain’t no tellin’. Might just need to fly over to the other side and see what’s going on and come on back. [Laughs] I’m not in charge of that part, but I would say that I wouldn’t be surprised.

If you do end up taking a dip in the lady pond on Claws, who are your preferred romantic interests? Mindy?  Well, I already had her! So, Katy Perry because Katy Perry is friggin’ adorable and fun and funny and pretty and powerful. Then I would probably have to say Queen Latifah and Judy Reyes, who plays Quiet Ann [on Claws].

What can you tease your gay fans with regarding the second season?  The one thing I can tell you is that there’s another mafia coming. You know we’ve been dealing with the Dixie Mafia and the Russian Mafia and now we will get to see what happens when we do the Haitian Mafia.

As someone who grew up in a fairly devout Christian home, what was your introduction to the gay community?  Surprisingly, I knew a lot of people who were gay that went to my church. They felt very repressed.

Reconciling religion and homosexuality is challenging for many gay people.  Especially in the black community, and especially when it comes to men in the black community.

What do you know about that as a black woman?  I just know that it’s one of the things that we’re socialized to say, “Don’t do that, don’t you do that.” And we’re also socialized to believe that you can’t be a black gay man and still be one who loves God.

As a gay-affirming Christian, what’s your philosophy now on the gay community?  My philosophy now is that you can be whatever you want to be. People feel you have to put blame on everything, but whether you label it or not, your truth is your truth. And I don’t wish to live a lie on anybody. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. And yes, it can be challenging, but the people who really love you and who are standing in support of you will be all right with it. This hits home for me and I pause to talk about it because it’s not fair for me to tell that part of that story. But the one thing I don’t wish on anybody is to live a lie. That’s gotta be the hardest thing to imagine.

I remember I was doing Dancing with the Stars and Louis Van Amstel was my partner, and I never really considered the plight of the people that I knew who were gay. I stood on my battleground about black people and never really had a real point of reference for what my gay friends were experiencing. So, I do this dance with Louis and we depicted the family known as [Mildred and Richard] Loving. It was the white husband who wanted to marry the black woman and everything they went through. I was just dating my new husband and Louis said to me, “You know how much you love Jay? Now what if, for whatever reason, a law said that you could not be with him? As much as you care about him, it was against the law for you guys to get married and be together?” I started bawling like a baby. So, you gotta be able to stand in somebody else’s shoes to be able to understand what they’re going through. You gotta find a way to lean in and say, “From my vantage point, how would I feel if that were me?”

— Chris Azzopardi

New Showtime documentary does not shy from Whitney’s sexuality

Anyone old enough to remember the sensation of shock and sadness caused by the deaths of music icons Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison in the early 1970s is well-aware of the history of substance abuse and its connection to rock and roll. Still, that didn’t make the passings, years later, of Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse or Prince any less difficult to bear.

This is especially true when it comes to Whitney Houston, whose history of drug addiction, including overdoses and denials, was public knowledge. Her 2012 death, at age 48 —  predictable or not — left an unfillable gap in the world of popular music.

The documentary Whitney: Can I Be Me, which begins airing on Showtime this week, employs interviews and archival personal and performance footage to flesh out Houston’s life story, warts and all.

“Can I be me” was said to be Whitney’s favorite phrase, but according to the doc (co-directed by Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal), she unfortunately never got to be herself. Born in Newark, N.J., in 1963, and raised there and East Orange, Whitney sang in church under the direction and guidance of mother Cissy, also a gifted performer. But if there was ever an example of religion as a drug, the opiate of the masses, it was exemplified in Cissy’s “fierce religion.” Right under her nose, her children —  including Whitney’s brothers Gary and Michael — were getting high from an early age. As it turns out, drug abuse was tolerated, but homosexuality wasn’t.

It’s on the topic of homosexuality that Whitney: Can I Be Me diverges from anything which preceded it — the film refuses to sugar-coat the issue of Houston’s sexuality. Houston, who met Robyn Crawford in 1979, considered her to be her “closest confidant,” and Robyn became instrumental in her career decisions. The pair were roommates for a time, which led to rumors. One interview subject states that lesbians are not talked about in the black community, while another says that if Houston was an emerging artist today, being queer wouldn’t have been an issue. When Robyn was forced out of the picture during Houston’s tumultuous marriage to Bobby Brown, drugs became a crutch for Whitney. Even Brown thought that Whitney would still be alive if Robyn had been accepted into the Houston family. As one interviewee boldly claims, Houston “died from a broken heart,” not drugs.

Of course, Whitney: Can I Be Me also focuses on her meteoric rise. Malleable Whitney was a perfect vehicle for record exec Clive Davis’ “foolproof vision” to create a pop icon. She didn’t disappoint, beginning with the massive sales of her debut album, which went on to win many awards and launch her career into the stratosphere from the get-go. There is a great deal of focus on Whitney’s last successful world tour in 1999 which would become a turning point for her, as we watched her slow and painful decline.

Interview subjects include Houston’s mother and brothers, childhood friends, her bodyguard, musical director, band members, backing vocalists, modeling agent, drug counselor and several Arista Records staffers. As music docs go, Whitney: Can I Be Me is from the same family tree as the Oscar-winning Amy.                  

— Gregg Shapiro

Three stars.

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition August 25, 2017.

When the parade is over and you’re too exhausted to drink anymore — hey, it could happen — you might wanna curl up in front of the TV and watch the Emmy Awards, which typically air the same day as the parade each year.

The creative awards ceremony — which took place last week (but which air on Saturday night on FXX) — can provide a glimpse at some of the “big” awards, but we’re more interested in what should win, anyway. (Hint: It won’t be La La Land, no matter what Faye Dunaway says.)

PROGRAM CATEGORIES

Nominees Jeffrey Wright and Anthony Hopkins in a game-changing scene from ‘Westworld.’

First to know: Best drama series will not go to Game of Thrones, simply because the most recent season you just watched didn’t qualify for this year’s awards. (Look for it to be on the lineup of 2018 nominees.) Which opens the door for some newcomers and overlooked returnees.

The hot show of this year, 11 months after its premiere, remains a different HBO series, Westworld. The moody adaptation of the 1973 theme-park-gone-wrong Michael Crichton film (he refined the idea nearly 20 years later with Jurassic Park) has more nominations than any other drama series with 22, including all major categories. It will face off against four streaming series (three of which are also brand new): Netflix’s House of Cards, Stranger Things and The Crown, and Hulu’s Handmaid’s Tale. The eerie relevance of House of Cards’ corrupt White House may, after five seasons, finally take home the prize. It certainly has the edge over AMC’s returning Better Call Saul. No streaming series has even won the top prize for drama or comedy series, and if that trend continues, it’s possible that NBC’s This Is Us will carry the wood and water for network TV. Should win: Westworld. Spoilers: This Is Us, House of Cards.

Will Veep continued its run in the best comedy series category? It could be called the flip-side to House of Cards — a story about a dysfunctional and pathetically incompetent president. On the other hand, that’s stopped being funny anymore. It faced fierce competition from the hottest show of the year, Atlanta, whose edginess gives Emmy voters a sense of hip attitude. They are the hottest contenders in a slate of returning series: multi-winner Modern Family, Black-ish, Master of None, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and Silicon Valley. Should win: Atlanta. Spoilers: Veep or Black-ish.

RuPaul won his second consecutive Emmy for best reality show host last weekend; his show ‘Drag Race’ competes Sunday in the top category.

Best limited series nominations have become an expected highlight for the FX network since queer producer Ryan Murphy set up shop there with his American Horror Story franchise (although the series has never won), and his O.J. Simpson mini last year (which did win). And indeed, FX has two contenders: Murphy’s uber-gay Feud: Bette and Joan, and the third incarnation of former winner Fargo. They are up against two HBO shows — the gripping justice drama The Night Of and the salacious Big Little Lies — and NatGeo’s first entry into scripted drama, the Einstein bio Genius. Big Little Lies could eke it out for buzz more than quality, though I’m still rooting for the compelling Night Of. Should win: The Night Of. Spoilers: Big Little Lies or Feud.

TV Movie: HBO again has some contenders, including the Madoff dissection The Wizard of Lies and the DNA drama The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. They are up against the latest Sherlock Holmes movie, The Lying Detective, a Dolly Parton christmas movie (not a serious contender) and San Junipero, an entry in the Black Mirror series about a lesbian couple’s time-hopping romance. It’s the most acclaimed entry in an acclaimed series, and the frontrunner Should win: San Junipero. Spoiler: The Wizard of Lies.

The reality competition category is the strongest among broadcast and basic cable, and two-time best host winner, RuPaul Charles, is up for the big award this year with RuPaul’s Drag Race. She’s up against some familiar competition: The Amazing Race, The Voice, Top Chef, Project Runway and newcomer American Ninja Warrior. It would be great to see the John Tesar season of Top Chef take it but I have a soft spot for Drag Race (despite this recent season being the show’s worst). Should win: Top Chef.

The two variety categories (talk and sketch series) are some of the most politically charged. Talk pits the Jon Stewart alums against each other: Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. The are joined by stalwarts Real Time with Bill Maher, Jimmy Kimmel Live and The Late Late Show with James Corden. (Notably absent: The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.) I’m a huge Maher fan, but his recent controversy has probably made him too toxic for an acceptance speech. Colbert’s rating bonanza has given him the edge, though a win for Bee would be a signal that women are finally welcome in late night. Should win: Last Week Tonight. Spoiler: Colbert.

TruTV’s Billy on the Street with out comic Billy Eichner would be the bold choice, but among the other nominees — Documentary Now!, Drunk History, Portlandia, Tracey Ullman’s Show — it’s the final contender, Saturday Night Live, which has experienced a true renaissance, thanks in huge part to Alec Baldwin’s Donald Trump, Melissa McCarthy’s Sean Spicer and Kate McKinnon’s Hillary Clinton impersonations. Look for it to win, justly. Should win: SNL.

ACTING CATEGORIES

Lead actor in a comedy: Jeffrey Tambor’s Maura on the LGBT dramedy Transparent continues to rake in applause, but it’s Donald Glover in Atlanta who is the actor of the moment.

Lead actress in a comedy: Jane Fonda finally joins co-star Lily Tomlin on the short list for Grace and Frankie, and a case could be made for both, though Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ run on Veep could remain unstoppable. But put money on Tracee Ellis Ross as Rainbow on Black-ish.

Supporting actor in a comedy: Last year’s hands-down winner, Louie Anderson on Baskets (playing a woman), will likely be supplanted by Alec Baldwin’s stint on SNL, though I wouldn’t be upset if Tituss Burgess as flighty Titus Andromedon on Kimmy Schmidt — in full Lemonade mode — won.

Supporting actress in a comedy: Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones and Vanessa Bayer from SNL are all nominated, and good as McKinnon is, she won last year; it might be Jones’ turn. She will need to best Judith Light and Kathryn Hahn from Transparent, and perennial also-ran Anna Chlumsky on Veep.

Lead actor in a drama: If This Is Us has the momentum, either Milo Ventimiglia or Sterling K. Brown could ride the wave, though I’d like to see Kevin Spacey’s Frank Underwood on House of Cards finally take it.

Leading actress in a drama: Queer actress Evan Rachel Wood has perhaps the year’s most difficult role as an android slowly coming to sentience on Westworld, but it’s a race between her, Elisabeth Moss from Handmaid’s Tale and Claire Foy from The Crown.

Supporting actor in a drama: Hand it to John Lithgow as Winston Churchill on The Crown, though Jeffrey Wright’s surprising character turn on Westworld could sneak in.

Supporting actress in a drama: Millie Bobby Brown was a surprise nominee as Eleven on Stranger Things, but that could sweep her in, unless Anne Dowd from Handmaid’s wins.

Lead actor in a limited series or movie: John Turturro as the schlubby but relentless defense attorney on The Night Of was incredible, but will they pass on Robert DeNiro’s first TV role in ages for The Wizard of Lies?

Lead actress in a limited series or movie: Two pairs of actresses from a pair of minis —- Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon from Big Little Lies, and Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange from Feud —- bring tons of Oscar powerhouse to the Emmys, with the clear frontrunner  being Lange. “Mamacita!”

Supporting actor in a limited series or movie: Michael Kenneth Williams as a prison leader in The Night Of will have to fend off Alfred Molina from Feud.

Supporting actor in a limited series or movie: Jackie Hoffman on Feud is the shit.

The post Your guide to the Emmy Awards appeared first on Dallas Voice.

As Season 4 of ‘Transparent’ returns to Amazon, gender-non-binary creator Jill Soloway talks musicals, family conflict and how they are not going anywhere

Transparent won’t be winding down anytime soon. A fifth season of the multiple Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning series about a transgender female (Maura Pfefferman, played by Jeffrey Tambor) who began a late-in-life gender transition — and her family’s subsequent self-revelations — began pre-production even before Season 4 premieres this week on Amazon Prime Video.

This season, the Jewish-American Pfefferman clan ends up in Israel, where patriarch-turned-matriarch Maura, ex-wife Shelly (Judith Light), and their children Ali (Gaby Hoffman), Sarah (Amy Landecker), and Josh (Jay Duplass) unearth more secrets and discoveries about their family line, sexualities, relationships and identities, all set against the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Jesus Christ Superstar soundtrack.

Having based the character Maura on a transgender parent who came out in their 70s, creator/director Jill Soloway has evolved along with Transparent’s Pfeffermans; Soloway currently identifies as gender non-binary (and goes by “they” pronouns). Via telephone, Soloway elaborated on the upcoming season, the show’s other transgender characters, and of course Season 5 (and no, Soloway isn’t leaving the show despite recent, misleading press
reports).                                                        

   — Lawrence Ferber

Dallas Voice: What did Season 4 allow you to do that’s different from the last season?

Jill Soloway: We realized how much we love it when the Pfefferman family is together. Normally in a show, when you start to give people things to do, you create love interests for them and [bring in] new characters. Ali has a crush on lesbian Syd [Carrie Brownstein], Josh is in love with Rabbi Raquel [Kathryn Hahn], and Sarah is choosing between Tammy [Melora Hardin] and Len [Ron Huebel]. But what we wanted to do this season is let the characters turn toward each other and have that comedy and love of being in a family.

What were some of the biggest issues hashed out in the writers’ room for Season 4?

Well, the family goes to Israel, so we wanted to tell that story in a way that resonated differently for each member. A lot of the season has a Jesus
Christ
Superstar rock opera — kind of your memories of being a child, and whatever you thought it meant to live in Jesus’ time and come down with Messiah Complex. Those are the kinds of broad, funny stories. But we also wanted to tell the real stories of what’s actually happening right now in the world. For queer people, trans people, for identity. Intersectionality. The question of having to choose between your queerness and your Jewishness, your Jewishness and your trans-ness. You’re being asked to choose but not really able to.

Is there a Dana International cameo?

[Laughs] No! In fact I heard of her but didn’t know enough about her to work her into the season.

Did anyone in Israel recognize the cast while shooting?

We actually didn’t go to Israel. We shot in Los Angeles. We got some B-roll, but we didn’t bring the actors there. It’s a camera trick. We had a fake Dead Sea at Universal Studios and a fake Wailing Wall at Paramount.

I understand that Maura’s HIV-positive mentor and friend, Davina, played by transgender actress Alexandra Billings, has a spotlight episode this season.  Yes. Davina is an amazing, really important part of the show. What we do is tell the story of how she got there. The experience is really different for trans women who come up through the gay world and those who come up through the heterosexual cross-dressing world. There are really two different paths on this gender journey, and for trans women who came up through the gay world, the drag world, the pageant world, their story is one of Stonewall, of HIV and AIDS, of moving from the gay world into the straight world. So we really tell that story.

What about new transgender or non-binary characters this season?

Well, we start to tell the stories about Ali Pfefferman’s relationship with their own gender identity. We do Davina’s history, of the women she knew as she was coming up in the trans world. And there are other trans people, actors and characters, that are part of Maura’s world.

Have any ideas proved too loopy or insane and got shot down so far?

Well, when Ali is at the women’s music festival [in Season 2] and has a hallucination and sees Tante Gittel [a transgender character who lived in 1930s Berlin at the Hirschfeld Sex Institute, played by transgender actress Hari Nef] in this modern dance confrontation with the Nazis, at one point that was actually going to be a musical number with singing and dancing. I’m glad we got rid of the actual lyrics. My sister Faith loved musicals, so we are still trying to get a musical aspect in. I just don’t think we necessarily needed to connect it with the Holocaust.

 There has been some news about a new showrunner for the fifth season. Can you clarify this, and how the show might be different?

OK, so there is not
a new showrunner. I’m going crazy trying to fix this problematic press issue. I’ve always been the creator of the show, but somebody else has been running the show ever since Season 2. There is a showrunner named Jill Gordon. For the past couple of years, we had a showrunner named Bridget Bedard. I’m not leaving the show, I’m not working any less hard. I direct all the time, I still write all the time. I’m going to be directing a lot of the fifth season and in the writers’ room. The narrative that I’m stepping down and somebody is taking over is bit of a PR blunder we’re working on fixing. Jill Soloway is not stepping down.

What is the most surprising feedback you’ve received to the show so far?

That’s a good question. The shocking thing is I meet people who say they came out [as transgender] because of the show. They didn’t think they could before, but watching the show allowed them to realize they could be trans and be accepted. They use the show to come out to their families, they tell them to watch the show first and then give them a call. They look at the conviviality of the fact they remain family. A show where the trans person is part of the fabric really normalizes trans-ness in a way where coming out doesn’t mean losing your family. That’s a huge effect of the show that I didn’t really prepare for.

Are you familiar with 9-year-old drag queen Lactacia and this trend of adolescents who use social media, like 15-year-old Instagram makeup tutorial diva Jake Warden, to share and celebrate their own style of gender bending, queerness, and fabulousness?

Yeah, I think that’s fantastic and so glad those people are out there.

 Would you give any of them an opportunity to do a Transparent walk-on?

I love that idea! Yeah. I think social media is a great place to look for all the up-and-coming trans talent, and I’ll definitely check out who’s doing tutorials on Instagram and see if we can find our next star.

Finally, do you have an endgame for Maura?

No. I need to keep everyone in the family slightly unhappy so that we have more story. I feel the same about Maura as all of the kids and people in the family. Keep frustrated, keep searching, keep dreaming, and trying to become.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Also this week on TV

Transparent isn’t the only notable LGBT show debuting this week. Here are some other premieres (series and season) to look forward to in the next week.

Gotham. The fourth season of the Batman prequel, with a gay-obsessive Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor), is back already. Debuted Sept. 21; next episode Sept. 28.

Star Trek Discovery. Yet another reboot of the franchise that started in 1996, this is the first television entry developed by writers and producers who did not work directly with Gene Roddenberry. Gay showrunner Bryan Fuller has cast a black woman at the helm and added at least one gay character (played by out actor Anthony Rapp), although the show is a prequel to all other incarnations, so don’t expect to see Spock. It will premiere on CBS broadcast, but then moved to CBS All Access streaming service for the remainder of the season. Debuts Sept. 24.

The Big Bang Theory. The sitcom without star Jim Parsons returns for an 11th season, followed by Young Sheldon, a new single-camera comedy about Parsons’ character as a tot. Debuts Sept. 25.

Empire. The deliciously gay nighttime soap begins its fourth season. Debuts Sept. 27.

Will & Grace, pictured. Already renewed for two shortened seasons, the groundbreaking gay comedy returns to NBC’s Thursday lineup with Eric McCormack, Debra Messing, Sean Hayes and Megan Mullally recreating their iconic roles. Debuts Sept. 28.

— Arnold Wayne Jones

This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition September 22, 2017.

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I’m going to a Will & Grace watching party tonight, because (1) gay and (2) like, really gay. This is the thing: We all watched Will & Grace. Its timing was fortuitous. Gay topics were front-and-center at a time when social mores were changing, and (mostly) positive portrayals of same-sex relationships — and tremendous doses of camp — helped the show catch on. All the stars won Emmy Awards, as did the show itself for best comedy series.

But it wasn’t perfect. For much of the run, Will (Eric McCormack) and Jack (Sean Hayes) were socially active, but not exactly openly affectionate with their paramours. Grace (Debra Messing) had more sex… and a joke about her character was she never got sex. The quick wit and slightly in-your-face flamboyance gave straight audiences a new gay best friend (although, as a co-worker likes to point out, “Karen (Megan Mullally) was the gayest character on the show.”

The series ended with a less-than-likable finale on May 18, 2006 — more than a decade ago. The time-hopping, tie-up-all-loose ends conclusion that saw Will and Grace ignore each other for more than a decade, and seemed precious and unnecessary. Still, one of the things I always disliked about the series was how Will and Grace always talked about being best friends, but seemed constantly fighting in a way best friends wouldn’t.

But the return announcement — initially intended for just a limited run, but already renewed for a second season — has sent up a lot of rainbow flags. A straight Christian (but gay-friendly) friend of mine was ecstatic about the return tonight. Because that’s what the show seemed to do: Show our similarities more than our differences.

But the show has been off the air longer than it was on. Will it still have the same impact it once did, or will it feel recycled and out of touch? That is, of course, what we will find out tonight.

But what are you most anxious about? Excited… or fearful? Predictions? Favorite episodes? This is a gay TV milestone, whatever happens after the last credit airs. Let’s get a conversation going.

— Arnold Wayne Jones

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‘Will & Grace’ made a triumphant return to NBC.

X-streams

The best new things on TV and the Internet

ARNOLD WAYNE JONES | Executive Editor
jones@dallasvoice.com

We consume our entertainment a lot differently now than we did even five years ago. “Tube” used to mean “television,” but what does that even mean in an age of podcasts, streaming services, video on demand, network and cable, YouTube and the like? Well, just about anything that’s episodic and piped to you over the air. We consume it all — sometimes on our phones, sometimes on hi-def monitors — and it’s a rich pageant, a window on our world. And some of them stood out more than others.

There’s so much broadcast content available every year, that, as with films, I limit my list to new programs — those that debuted (in their present incarnations) from Nov. 1, 2016—Oct. 31, 2017 (to allow a series to develop at least three episodes before deadline).

11. The Guest Book (TBS). Greg Garcia, who created the quirky, deceptively smart My Name Is Earl and Raising Hope for network TV, got to explore his more adult side in this quasi-anthology series for cable — a season of loosely-interconnected stories about people occupying the same cabin and writing about their experiences. Garcia’s signature deadpan humor while dealing with genuinely dark subjects (blackmail, drug addiction, infidelity) made this one endlessly where-will-they-go-next.

10. Feud: Bette vs. Joan (FX). Ryan Murphy launched his new anthology series, Feud, with one of the classic tales of Old Hollywood: The notorious rivalry between two grandes dames of Warner Bros., especially during the making of their Grand Guignol piece Whatever Happened to Baby Jane? It’s both a rumination on the treatment of actresses “of a certain age” in entertainment, and a fascinating “making of” docu-drama. Jessica Lange’s desperate Joan Crawford dominates Susan Sarandon’s fierce Bette Davis, but Jackie Hoffman as Mamacita and Alfred Molina as their director steal their scenes.

9. American Gods (Starz). Neil Gaiman’s riff on mythology as updated to modern-day America was a scintillating, racy, sweaty, lurid and compelling fantasy melodrama, like Oz among the gods. And star Ricky Whittle is more than a bit easy on the eyes.

8. Big Little Lies (HBO). This high-powered miniseries about desperate housewives in an affluent coastal California town could have been a soapy West Coast Peyton Place, but instead became a social satire about suburban cattiness and, eventually, domestic violence. The cast — Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Laura Dern, Alexander Skarsgard, Shailene Woodley — was perfection.

Black students defy racism on campus in ‘Dear White People.’

7. Dear White People (Netflix). Queer filmmaker Justin Simien adapts his 2014 feature film satire into a sharply written comedy series about black students on a predominantly white Ivy League campus, and the controversy when one of the black student leaders starts dating a white man. Creatively told from the perspectives of eight students, Simien makes race relations uncomfortably satiric. Woke, wise and wonderful.

6. American Vandal (Netflix). In the wake of true-crime online mini-series like Making a Murderer and The Keepers comes this version, set in a California high school, that sets to solve a mystery: Who painted 27 graffiti dicks on all the cars in the faculty parking lot? Seriously. Only not. This mockumentary, about teens investigating a crime, strikes the absolute perfect tone of it source material but never devolves into camp or farce — you really care, because the filmmaking is so accurate. Superb humor.   

5. The Handmaid’s Tale (Hulu). A series that in the spring was merely a juicy adaptation of a feminist allegory has become, in #MeToo America, an uncomfortable meta-documentary about an all-too-possible future of theocratic laws, female subjugation and right wing nuttery. See? Documentary.

4. Anne with an E (Netflix/CBC). Don’t be fooled into dismissing this umpteenth adaptation of the girl-lit chestnut Anne of Green Gables as “just” a safe, tame, family-friendly miniseries. Amybeth McNulty, as the annoying, loquacious orphan girl who up-ends a puritanical farming community in turn-of-the-century Prince Edward Island, was the most bingeable streaming series of the year.    

3. Twin Peaks: The Return (Showtime). David Lynch’s original 1990-91 foray into episodic television was a sea-change show that someone redefined the syntax of TV. It would be hubris to expect the 18-episode revival to do that same, but Lynch’s singular vision, so specific and yet perversely universal, left us breathless with anticipation each week. Strange, impenetrable, addictive.

2. Will & Grace (NBC). Sometimes you don’t know you miss something until you get it, which is how the return of this groundbreaking sitcom felt: The characters are the same but have matured into middle age, their banter sharp as ever but their situations mellowed by the post-Obergefell era. Reunions always have sentimental appeal, but this one somehow thaws the iciness of the Trump age.

1. Shit Town (podcast). In the wake of the podcast Serial, an Alabama man calls into a producer of a public radio show and announces a murder has been allowed to go unprosecuted in his podunk burg — a place he calls “Shit Town” — for years. The reporter decides to follow up, and what happens next, over the course of seven chapters — including a revelation at the end of Chapter 2 which surely stands as one of the most shocking moments of the year — forces you to reexamine what you know about people. An endlessly compelling character study, a sad portrait of being gay in rural America, a mystery that is unsolvable yet deeply satisfying … Shit Town was the most humane expenditure of six hours of your time in 2017, and the program of the year.

Honorable mentions: The Mayor (ABC); Young Sheldon (CBS); Missing Richard Simmons (podcast); Good News (NBC); The Vietnam War (PBS); Prison Break (Fox). Too Funny to Fail: The Life and Death of the Dana Carvey Show (Hulu); Ozark (Netflix); Dirty John (podcast); The Daily (podcast).

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Remember the sea-change that occurred in America back when a little cable show named Queer Eye for the Straight Guy emerged? Five out-and-proud experts in fashion, food, culture, design and grooming descended upon a dumpy-but-open hetero and did a makeover turning him into a metrosexual. (That was a new word back then; so was “zhuzh.”) Well, the folks at Netflix — as they have with Arrested Development, One Day at a Time, Full House and other properties — have revived the series, this time with an all-new cast of queers.

Now just called Queer Eye (which is what we all called it anyway), it drops a load … of new episodes, perv! … on Feb. 7. Here is a preview.

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The late 19th century — the Victorian Era in Britain, the period of the robber barons and the ante-bellum Gilded Age here in the U.S. — was, especially for novelists, an exciting time in the post-Industrial Revolutionary period. Technologies like photography, the steam engine, telegraphy and medical sciences from Pasteur’s microbiology to Freud’s psychoanalysis, were advancing at a rate that wouldn’t be seen again until the 1990s Information Age brought about by the internet. Tribalism, superstition and small-town thinking were giving way to megalopolises with educated men (and finally women!) engaged in a second Enlightenment.

The problems, of course, was that the old ways were stubborn and conflicted with modern thinking. (Imagine living in a time when leaders yelled “fake news!” everytime they were confronted with something they couldn’t understand, and labeled “junk science” any complicated issue posited by people smarter than them. Go ahead, I’ll give you a second.) we have Arthur Conan Doyle to thank for popularizing the scientific method via his avatar Sherlock Holmes, assisted by a doctor, no less, named Watson. The thinking that they represented invented the 20th century.

So it has been a wonder that historian and novelist Caleb Carr’s juicy, literary 1994 novel The Alienist — set in New York during the fin-de-siecle of the 19th century — took so long to make it to the screen. A modern-day Holmes, Carr’s hero is Laszlo Kreizler is an “alienist,” an old-timey name for the budding science of psychology and even fingerprinting. Carr threw in real-life folks like NYC police commission Teddy Roosevelt, financier J.P. Morgan and a lurid tale of a serial killer to create an American historical novel akin to Sherlock tackling the Jack the Ripper case. (The film Murder by Decree and the comic book From Hell put Holmes himself into that case.) That flexibility gave Carr to opportunity to relish the painstaking realities of 1896 New York while winking to a modern reader about the rightness of his hero’s positions — we know his method is more correct than the third-degree beating preferred by the beat cops of the time.

All of which is to say, I have been waiting for the long-delayed adaptation of The Alienist for more than two decades. And now it arrives, courtesy of a TNT miniseries. And… so far, it’s a disappointment.

Daniel Bruhl plays Kreizler, the detached, methodical title character, who employs John Moore (Luke Evans), an illustrator for the New York Times as his Watson, to help prove that the murders of young gay male prostitutes weren’t committed by the man the police targeted but a sociopath with a plan. The police mock his style; but employing the newly-endorsed method of fingerprint analysis, he goes on a quest to unearth a monster in our midst.

And how do we know? Because the teleplay tell us that, openly and repeatedly. There’s little subtlety in the storytelling. At one point in the two episodes made available for critique, Kreizler literally says aloud to his gathered team that he will have to bring himself to the brink of madness in order to find the killer. That’s a point much better shows than said, which contributes to the obviousness of the scripts. There’s a modicum of grimy atmospherics, and the directors don’t shy from explicit discussions of the sexual proclivities of men who frequent call boys dressed as girls, but it feels much more prurient than evocative. Bruhl is capable but so far, little has been required of him; Evans is underwhelming as his aggressive assistant; Dakota Fanning, as the lone woman working for the police, sounds more like a suffragette than an investigator. It’s so interested in hammering home its messages, that it overshares.

Perhaps the show will hit its stride with time. I’ll stick with it. But after nearly a quarter century’s wait for a definitive adaptation, it’s difficult not to feel a little alienated by what made it to screen.

Airs Mondays on TNT starting tonight.

— Arnold Wayne Jones

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The gay co-creator and co-star  of the camptastic Netflix comedy ‘Schitt’s Creek’ on love, humor  and family

If you ever happen to bump into Dan Levy, thank him for Schitt’s Creek, his super-bingeable comedic riff on a once-affluent family forced to live like fish out of Perrier in the podunk Canadian town the show is named after. And thank him, he who created and developed the series — which premiered in 2015 on Pop TV (and can also be seen on Netflix) — for willfully remaining single only to craft and deliver more rib-tickling bons mots for the show’s fourth (and most affectionate) season, which is out now. Thank him again, while you’re at it, because the 34-year-old former MTV Canada co-host has somehow found the time to create yet another queer-themed project that he tells me is in the works.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. For now, we have David Rose (Levy), replete with his color-averse apparel and drop-crotch pants, general distaste for people, and his animated and generally disgusted facial contortions worn like memes in the making. Johnny, David’s perpetually on-edge father, is played by real-life father and American Pie and Best in Show actor Eugene Levy, who also serves as the comedy’s co-creator. Together they’ve developed both a comedic knockout and a rich what-if satire of Kardashian life. Schitt’s Creek also stars Catherine O’Hara, as the deliciously histrionic wig-loving family matriarch and former soap star Moira, and Annie Murphy as Alexis, the self-involved-but-somehow-sweet daughter who once argued with David over who would get murdered first in their sketchy new motel digs.

Via an allegorical wine conversation with hotel co-owner Stevie Budd (Emily Hampshire) presented in the show’s first season, Schitt’s Creek expertly tackled David’s pansexuality (“I do drink red wine, but I also drink white wine; I like the wine, not the label”). Then there was a throuple, and now there’s Patrick (Noah Reid), a yin-yang match so absolutely perfect for David — notice all the ways he challenges David, especially with the potential mortification of this season’s open-mike night at the store they co-own together — you’d be heartbroken if they didn’t last.

Read on as Levy freewheeled his way through our conversation about living vicariously through David and Patrick’s loving relationship, opening the minds of parents with queer kids, and how David has influenced him to “to try to live my life more out loud.”             

— Chris Azzopardi

Dallas Voice: As a gay man, how personally rewarding is it to you to have one of the healthiest, most normal relationships on the show be between two queer men?

Dan Levy: You know, all I really can do is think back to a time when I didn’t think being myself was ever going to be a possibility. It’s such a full circle moment for me right now to be writing this love story for them and to look back at it and just remember that there was a time in my life when I honestly didn’t think that would be a possibility for myself. So, it’s incredible. And to have the network support to really be able to tell the kinds of stories that I want to tell with it and not have any interference is rare and a privilege. When you have that kind of freedom, there’s also a certain level of responsibility to try and tell the most authentic story you possibly can. I think with these two characters I didn’t want to reduce it to caricature. I didn’t want it to be some kind of lesson that we’re trying to ram down someone’s throat. It was really about presenting a story of two people who have found love with each other.

You’ve made very deliberate choices regarding the treatment of David’s sexuality both as it relates to him but also as it relates to the other people in his life.

Personally, I never learn when someone is trying to teach me something. I learn through experience, and presenting complete tolerance and acceptance across the board is the only scenario that should be existing right now. I want to show this without trying to make it feel like an educational lesson for people who don’t quite understand it.

The letters that I’ve gotten from families who are more conservative-leaning and who have never quite understood the fight — to have letters from these people explaining that they’ve never had a point of entry before, that was the most amazing and eye-opening part of this whole conversation. In a way, it opened my eyes to understanding them a little bit better and understanding that sometimes I look at it with, “How can I not see the bigotry?” But at the same time, if people do not know what they do not know, all you can try to do is guide them with a gentle hand.

You guided Larry King with a gentle hand last year when you were on Larry King Now to  talk about the show. It was really interesting to watch the dynamic between you and Larry as you explained pansexuality to him — that must’ve opened up a lot of eyes who hadn’t even heard the word “pansexual.”

It’s about having conversations. We should have more of them. Talk to people instead of coming at things with bats swinging — and don’t get me wrong, there are times when that is absolutely necessary. But I think when it comes to the world of sexuality, which is ever-changing, try to have a conversation with people and lead them down the path of acceptance by way of setting an example.

I’ve had great conversations with people on the streets who’ve come up and told me that when they came out of the closet their parents didn’t quite understand them, but by watching the show and seeing how accepting Johnny and Moira Rose are to their kids — the fact that it was never a question — allows them to feel safer, allows them to feel like, “Oh, why am I having such a problem with it when these people who I’ve come to know and love are not asking the same questions that I’m asking? Why am I asking them then?” And it’s changed the conversation in their house. You can’t ask for a more rewarding takeaway from the experience.

Did you need characters like them when you were younger?

It’s interesting, because it’s still kind of an ongoing conversation on the show in terms of Patrick being fresh out of the closet and exploring what that means. There’s fear on either side. And, yes, I grew up knowing that my parents ultimately would not have a problem with it, but when you’re going through that and you’re internalizing that much fear you get to a point where you ask yourself, “Well, maybe they will have a problem with it; maybe I’m misreading the situation.” There are so many questions that I think we’re forced to ask ourselves because we’re alone in that process.

Which show with queer themes did you gravitate toward most as you were coming into your own?
I guess it would be Will & Grace. I think Will & Grace really opened up the conversation. My So-Called Life affected me more just because I was such a huge fan of the show. I think we’ve come a long way, and there’s still a long way to go, but all you can really do is seize the opportunities that are given to you and try and make good with the power that TV can offer.

I watched the sixth episode of the new season, “Open Mic,” and it was the first time that I ugly cried watching the show. In fact, until then, I hadn’t cried listening to Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” either. When is the last time you serenaded a man?

Never! Because the intention is always to keep them! [That scene] all stems from a conversation I had with a friend of mine who was seeing someone who chose to sing to them and it really just disrupted the whole momentum of their relationship because, unlike Noah who has such a beautiful voice, this person did not, and it just didn’t work out in the end. But I knew Noah could sing, and I knew he was a musician going into it, so it was always my intention to somehow find a way for him to sing.

You know, I don’t love writing dialogue where people are talking about their feelings. I would much rather bring some fun, interesting and dynamic ways of showing that kind of feeling, and the idea that David would be so off-put and embarrassed by his partner choosing to sing in front of a room full of people — and then to know that Noah has this voice, and that in the end we could use this as a device to really cement them as a couple in ways that I don’t think they even expected — was really special.

And I had always had this fondness for the lyrics for that song, and for a long time whenever it came on at a bar or something, I would always be the person turning to someone saying, “The lyrics to this song are really beautiful.” When you’re listening to the Tina Turner version it’s just a pop song and people are like, “Yeah, I know, it’s fine,” and it’s like, “No, no, no — the lyrics are really beautiful.” So, when we thought of this idea, it was the only option, this idea that Patrick would sort of tease David with a flashy pop song but make it his own.

What is so lovely about that scene is it really subverts stereotypes about small town small-mindedness — the townies are there, and they’re celebrating Patrick and David’s love for each other right along with them.

It was our intention from the get-go to never make the town the butt of the joke and to always make the family sort of the joke. We wanted the town to always be this safety net for these people, and for them to always feel safe there.

Well, it gave me lots of hope.

Oh, good! That’s what we’re aiming to do, to be just a bit of a safe place for people for 21 minutes and 50 seconds a week.

Where does the line between Dan Levy and David Rose start and end?

Uh, there’s a big one! It’s interesting. Yeah, I would kill for his confidence.

I’d kill for some of his style. Every time I watch him I’m like, “Clearly, I need more black and I need more flow.”

[Laughs] It’s funny, ‘cause in promoting the show we talked to someone who was going through some of the outfits and it was sort of a “yea” or “nay” situation and it came upon the outfit that we wear when we’re doing the number [in Episode 3, “Asbestos Fest”]. I’m in, like, black with a baby’s breath sweater with matching pants and the person decided to “nay” the outfit, and I had to gently tell her that those pants were actually my own from home! Generally speaking, I wouldn’t wear it with a matching top, but I did wear it at one point in my real life.

I think I’ve always been excited about fashion, so to be able to style the show with our costume designer really just scratches that itch for me. As a character, though, I don’t think we’re alike. I think some of our neuroses probably exist — the lack of patience [laughs] — but you know, it’s funny, you start the first season of the show and these people are, on paper at least, really hard pills to swallow, and the intention of the show was to always make the takeaway “love doesn’t cost any money” and these people will slowly start to realize that. My takeaway from David has been to try to live my life more out loud because I think his unabashedness when it comes to just being authentically himself at all times is something I wish I employed in my own life.

But you do seem to be much more open about your sexuality than before the show.

I think when you start out it’s a really tough track to navigate. You can be really comfortable in your personal life, but the professional world is a very different beast. When gossip blogs were outing people — I really do feel like it’s such a tender thing; it’s a very sensitive thing for people, and there should be no pressure to do anything until you’re ready. I do know that there’s obligation, obviously, that comes with being someone who’s in the public eye and being able to use that, but for me it was just that you grow into yourself and you grow into what you want to share with people publicly. Because yeah, I do think that conversation is a tricky one, and actually, I am sort of naturally quite private and don’t like attention. (Laughs)

Last year your co-star Emily Hampshire, who plays Stevie, told me men expect her to be Stevie on dates and that she feels bad she’s not.

I know. She always says that: “Stevie’s so cool … and then I show up.” [Laughs]

Do you have an example of that happening to you?

Being a disappointment to people? Yes! … No — I think David has brought out the best in me as a person in terms of what I want to stand for and the kinds of things I want to fight for. I also have realized in ways that I never did before the reach that this show has to actually affect change in people’s homes, and you know, you have to run with that and you have to wave that flag proudly because there’s a lot of opposition out there. You have to constantly make sure that your megaphone is being heard over all the noise, which is why it was such a thrill for GLAAD to sponsor our L.A. event and to participate in the fundraising campaign. And again, you get to see people coming out of the woodwork and people of all different sort of backgrounds sending love to David and Patrick. It’s incredible to watch.

They’ve instilled hope that, maybe, people aren’t just looking for a quickie on Grindr.

Exactly.

It’s refreshing.

Yeah, it’s been really fun to play, and in a way, I often wonder if I wrote that as almost some kind of personal manifestation. If you write it, they will come.

Are they coming?

Not at the moment, but hopefully soon. It’s all so tricky because we put so much of our times into this show and, for me, it’s a 13-month commitment, so it’s hard to be open and available to someone in a relationship when my eye will always tend to wander back to the show. It’s finding the balance. But yeah … one day.

Are you interested in creating or playing more realistic portrayals of queerness that cut beyond caricature in the way David has?

Of course, yeah. There is a new show that I’m working on right now with quite an amazing queer character that I quite love. I wish I could tell you more about it. It’s pretty fun, and if it all works out we will talk again and I will give you the lowdown. But yes, if all goes to plan then there might be a new show coming out in the next couple of years.

The post Dan Levy is da Schitt appeared first on Dallas Voice.

In 1996, Dana Carvey, the breakout star of mid-’80s SNL’s deep bench, was the top sketch comedian in a generation, so the idea that he would launch a primetime network series seemed like a no-brainer. He and producer Robert Smigel assembled a creative team of then-nobodies, among them Stephen Colbert, Steve Carell, Louis C.K., Charlie Kaufman, Bob Odenkirk, Robert Carlock and a host of now-legends, who wrote and performed the surefire mid-season hit, The Dana Carvey Show.

It ran for seven miserable episodes.

Now, more 20 years later, the team reconvenes to do a post-mortem on one of the greatest failures in broadcast history. Too Funny to Fail: The Life and Death of the Dana Carvey Show was either ahead of its time or a hubristic boondoggle, where too-smart-for-their-own-good comedy artists bucked the network and even insulted their sponsors in search of a larf. But while a core coterie of fans saw the genius, the audience from their lead-in show, the massive, middle-brow hit Home Improvement, darted like lemmings in the 8:30 time slot, costing ABC a fortune and Carvey tons of credibility.

The documentary, which airs exclusively on Hulu, is full of Inside Baseball behind-the-scenes anecdotes, hilarious recollections and the good nature of people who acknowledge their failure, but have the distance to be candid about their own errors. It’s said comedy equals tragedy plus time; by that measure the tragedy that was The Dana Carvey Show now feels like comic brilliance.

— Arnold Wayne Jones

The post WHAT WE’RE WATCHING: ‘Too Funny to Fail’ appeared first on Dallas Voice.

Remember when the word “queer” was an insult hurled by homophobes against gay people? Remember a time before the words “metrosexual” and “zhuzh” has entered the lexicon? If not, good for you. But either way, we have a TV show to thank for it. Queer Eye for the Straight Guy was a cultural phenomenon from 2002–06, making household names out of Carson Kressley and Ted Allen and doing extreme makeovers before that term existed, either. It ran its course, but all things just keep getting better… especially given a lapse in time. (Will & Grace, X Files, Roseanne…. We’re looking at you.)

The new incarnation of the show, called simply Queer Eye, has returned via Netflix for an eight-episode tryout, and what a welcome return it is. The set-up is essentially the same, with five out gay men descending on schlubby, mostly middle-aged straight men from Greater Atlanta, to teach them how to live better lives with style. I say mostly, because one notable episode involves AJ, a ripped, shy but secretly freaky gay man who hasn’t come out yet. If you’re not sobbing openly by the end, you might wanna seek counseling. And that happens over and over.

Forget the tongue-clucking about how the show promotes stereotypes, and just enjoy what it has to offer: Feelings of pride, hope and joy. Hey, we’re called “gay” for a reason.

— Arnold Wayne Jones

The post WHAT WE’RE STREAMING: ‘Queer Eye’ on Netflix appeared first on Dallas Voice.

She’s a polarizing figure, but we’re still anxious to see the rebooted sitcom break new ground

Roseanne Barr knows how to keep tongues wagging. From her infamous bungling of “The Star-Spangled Banner” and my-way-or-the-highway tyranny on the set of her groundbreaking sitcom to her failed presidential bid and accusation that Ireland (yes, the whole darn country) is anti-Semitic, the self-proclaimed domestic goddess has been a controversial pop-culture mainstay for more than 30 years.

This month, the legendary comedienne will return with her original TV family and friends to ABC’s primetime lineup tonight. How will she make us laugh, side-eye, and ask WTF next? Who knows, but here are six things I’d like to see the series tackle in Season 10.

Gay Darlene. In the finale of Roseanne’s original run, it was revealed by newly widowed matriarch Roseanne that her daughter Darlene (Sara Gilbert) was married to her sister Becky’s (Lecy Goranson) husband Mark (the late Glenn Quinn), not his brother David (Johnny Galecki), whom she had been with since Season 4. The latter storyline was explained as a fictional plot in a story that Roseanne had written about her life, which, as it turned out, encompassed the entire series. Nothing that we had watched over the past nine years was as it seemed. That fan-disappointing decision will be retconned in the reboot, leaving everything leading up to S9 of the original series as canon. Praise Jesus. In the reboot, however, Darlene and David will be separated, opening up the potential opportunity for her to date women, which seems appropriate since Sara Gilbert is a lesbian in a real life. Just don’t expect it to happen immediately since Darlene’s 9-year-old gender-nonconforming son Mark (Ames McNamara) will be the basis for any initial LGBT diversity storylines. Not complaining, though; representation is representation.

George Clooney cameo. Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) was known for her revolving door of one-night stands and sometimes boyfriends — and a very tumultuous but short-lived marriage to her baby daddy Fred (Michael O’Keeffe) — but none shared the kind of chemistry with her as first-season love interest, Booker, played by George Clooney. Of course, GC’s a big-shot Hollywood movie star now — and has been for the past 20 years — so it’s probably a long shot that he’ll make a guest appearance. On the other hand, the Oscar-nominated Laurie Metcalf is a star in her own right, and Friends landed Brad Pitt and Julie Roberts in its heyday, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

The return of Kathy Bowman. Roseanne and Dan Conner (John Goodman) dealt with their fair share of neighbors over the years — who could forget the elderly nudists? — but the most formidable was “needle-butt” Kathy Bowman (Meagen Fay), Roseanne’s arch-nemesis from the minute she and her husband Jerry moved next door to 714 Delaware St. It was a rivalry for the ages until Roseanne inadvertently helped burglars dressed as good Samaritans (one of whom looked like Bob Hope) rob Kathy’s house, which ultimately drove the snippy housewife back to her hometown of Chicago. Fay is still a fixture on television — she most recently guested on ABC’s Dr. Ken — and if the network knows what’s good for its loyal Roseanne lovers, she’ll at least make a pit stop in Lanford one more time.

All the grown-up babies. When we last left the Conners in 1997, Roseanne had baby Jerry Garcia, Jackie had baby Andy, and Darlene had just popped out baby Harris before the series finale. Baby Harris will be featured in the revival (now a teenager of 14 years old instead of the actual age of 21 she would be in real time) — as will her brother Mark and cousin Mary (Jayden Rey), daughter of D.J. Conner (Michael Fishman). As for Jerry Garcia and Andy, they’re still part of the continuity, according to Roseanne, but the characters will not appear in Season 10.

Dan’s boat. What ever happened to Dan’s boat? Some Roseanne-philes consider it a casualty of the writers’ room, just another abandoned plot point, while others seem to remember Dan’s mentally ill mother setting it on fire. Whatever the truth is — which is hard to discern from a show like Roseanne — I hope it makes a comeback. If they can resurrect Dan from the dead (it was revealed he died of a heart attack in the series finale), surely they can put a half-completed boat back up on cinderblocks.

Topical subject matter. One of the greatest legacies of Roseanne, and why it was a top 20 show for eight of its nine seasons (No. 1 overall in 1989), is that it never shied away from controversial subject matter. From first periods and teenage masturbation to gay marriage and race relations, Roseanne blazed a trail across the television landscape, the effects of which can still be seen in sitcoms today. You can expect more of the same from the reboot — Roseanne the comedienne is still as feisty as ever — as they tackle the Trump administration (Roseanne the character admits she voted for the kook in an early episode), gender-identity issues, for-hire surrogacy, and mixed-race families. Throw an episode about gun control in there and we’re halfway to an Emmy nom.

—Mikey Rox

The post Make ‘Roseanne’ great again appeared first on Dallas Voice.

The comedian returns to a TV classic, and doesn’t mince words on Roseanne’s politics and Kathy Griffin’s activism

Before unloading her frank thoughts on TV co-star Roseanne Barr’s alt-right politics and fellow comic Kathy Griffin’s viral Trump-beheading pic (“It just wasn’t funny”), Sandra Bernhard proclaims herself quite aptly as “no-nonsense.” That has been, after all, her way since the ’70s, when lambasting Hollywood’s who’s-who first proved lucrative for the fearless comedian, actress and musician.

Then, from 1991-1997, she famously put a face to bisexuality not just as herself – Bernhard was out from the get-go — but as Nancy Bartlett on ABC’s hit sitcom Roseanne. Introduced in season four as the estranged lesbian wife of Arnie Thomas (Tom Arnold), Nancy, who later came out as bisexual, gets chummy with Roseanne Conner and Jackie Harris, Roseanne’s younger sister (Laurie Metcalf).

Bernhard, 62, will revisit her groundbreaking character during the show’s revival (its second week begins tonight; it has already been renewed for a second season). As for the controversy regarding Roseanne and her TV alter ego’s support for President Trump? “Roseanne is gonna be another round of really fun and really smart television,” she tells me. “Roseanne has never turned on the gay community. Roseanne likes to stir the pot. She always has. So, I guess that’s the way she’s doing it now, and I don’t agree with any of the Trump shit, but I think she’ll transcend that and the show will still be amazing.”

— Chris Azzopardi

Dallas Voice: What can we expect politically from the Roseanne reboot?  Sandra Bernhard: I think they’re gonna do a deep dive into where the working class is at right now. I mean, maybe not as deep as you would need, considering that half of the working class who don’t have their industrial-ass jobs anymore are strung out on opioids. That’s not very much fun; I don’t think they’ll go there [laughs]. But I think we’re in a real crossroads in this country, and Roseanne has always been good at revealing that, and at the same time making it funny and moving and insightful. I’m only in the last episode, so I don’t know exactly how they’re approaching it. I know there will be very personal stories like there always were, as opposed to globalizing it. I think that’s what makes the show special.

I imagine you’ve been hearing about the backlash Roseanne’s politics have ignited since the reboot was announced.  I was hearing about that way before they announced the reboot, and I just dropped out of the conversation because I don’t want to get into that on Twitter. You can’t do that; it goes nowhere. And everybody who makes political decisions also has to live with the fallout. That goes for famous, successful people and for people on the street. If you voted for Trump and you thought it was gonna be a lark and funny, the results are right there in front of you every day.

My hope is that it might bridge some severe societal gaps, maybe open some minds, maybe even my own. But it’s been very difficult for people who didn’t vote for Trump to even begin to understand or empathize with someone who supported him.  I don’t have any empathy for people who voted for him. Honestly, I really don’t. It’s obvious that he didn’t know anything about the working class population; he exploited it and [his supporters] were naive and unwilling to read or to know what was really going on. He played them, and to a certain extent the few people who are still in his corner, he still plays them. So it’s just kind of a bummer.

A lot of people have strong opinions about the liberal-minded cast returning to a show led by a Trump supporter.  I’m glad they do. She should hear it. And it’s better for her to hear it from the people that have supported her and watched her show than it is from me. I mean, we’re friends, we’re friendly, and I’ll continue to do the show. But it gets underneath your skin when 20 million people who used to watch your show are like, “What the fuck?”

She seems to know how people feel about her politics based on her appearance at the Golden Globes, when she said, “I’m kind of known for creating some great drama” while presenting with co-star John Goodman.   Of course she knows.

Well, I’m excited to have Nancy Bartlett back. You told me in 2013 that you didn’t think Nancy would have a place on the show if it ever returned.  It’s not that she didn’t have a place. But I didn’t think they’d be able to fit her story back in because of all the new characters and the family and reestablishing what’s been going on politically, so when they added the extra episode and wrote me in I was thrilled.

Nancy was one of the earliest portrayals of bisexuality on TV. What surprised you most about how her sexuality was treated on the show in the ’90s?  I mean, she was fun and it was a fun concept that she ran from being married to Tom Arnold into the relationship with Morgan Fairchild. It was sort of a lark at first, and of course it evolved. They wouldn’t let me kiss Morgan Fairchild under the mistletoe — we had to cut the kiss — so that’s how far we’ve come in terms of what you see sexually on TV.

But yeah, she was a funny, kooky, free-spirited character who got to do things and say things that was part of the evolution of sexuality on TV. It wasn’t intentional — it wasn’t like we were trying to do something groundbreaking. But that is how Roseanne is and was. She just did things that felt organic and authentic. She ended up having the actual kiss with Merle Hemingway [at a gay bar that Nancy took her to], but nonetheless, Nancy’s fun, and if they picked up the show again they’ll expand her story.

We’ll get more Nancy if there’s another season?  Oh yeah, absolutely. For sure, yeah.

Roseanne will have a genderfluid grandson, Mark — played by newcomer Ames McNamara — on the show as well.  Yes.

What are your thoughts on the show continuing to be inclusive?  I just think there has to be a little bit of everything in all the shows now, and I don’t know. I’ve gotta see the show before I can comment. He’s in my episode, but to the extent of what they’re trying to do with that character, we’ll have to see.

Speaking more generally, how do you feel about representation as far as LGBTQ people go on TV?  It’s certainly gotten a helluva lot better than when Nancy first came on the scene. And I think with each year that goes by, especially with the advent of Hulu and Netflix and Amazon, there’s been major breakthroughs.

Are you currently enjoying any shows with LGBTQ characters?  I watch 9-1-1 just because I think it’s a ridiculous show. Everywhere you turn there’s new, interesting gay characters. But I don’t go to a show for that. For me, my life has never been informed by that. I’ve always been comfortable with who I am sexually. I’ve been sexually fluid, I’ve broken all the ground rules since I was 17 years old. So, I’ve never had any need for somebody to be my role model. I’ve been my own role model. So, it’s a non-issue. But I think for the public at large it’s been a great time and a revolutionary time for people to see all kinds of characters — racially, sexually, women, men — come to life in a new way.

Have you heard of the very gay-centric Schitt’s Creek?  Honey, I was one of the first people to be hip to it!

Oh, snap.  I know, yes. But yeah, of course. Love it. Dan Levy is terrific — super funny and smart.

What can we expect from you in the future?  I’ve got three scripted projects I’m trying to get off the ground right now, so that’s a lot of my focus, and it’s a lot of hard work. So, I’m chipping away at that and, of course, continuing to go up for other roles as an actress and do my live performing.

What kind of scripts are you working on?  They’re all comedic. One is based on my early years in LA when I started off as a manicurist. One is a project with [performance artist] Justin Vivian Bond. We wrote a musical about six years ago called Arts & Crafts and we’re trying to get it into a TV series.

I remember you telling me you’d never stoop so low to do a reality show. Still out of the question?  Yeah, listen, if I haven’t done it by now, I’m certainly not gonna do it at this late date.

How do you feel about the way comedy has addressed the Trump era?  Everybody’s speaking about it and being funny and creative about it, and obviously people like Bill Maher and those types do it in a more political way. I think it’s been really interesting.

Has your recent comedy reflected current politics?  Sort of, kind of through the back door. I don’t hit people over the head talking about that stuff because so many people are good at doing it verbatim, so I try to keep it more global than just obvious.

Did you think Kathy Griffin went too far with the picture of her holding Trump’s decapitated head?   It’s not about going too far — it just wasn’t funny, and she’s not political. Why is she suddenly jumping on the bandwagon? That’s not what she does. And it wasn’t smart enough or interesting enough. That was its biggest crime.

But Kathy Griffin has been politically engaged and an activist for the gay community.  She’s an activist? I don’t know. I don’t think she’s an activist, frankly. I mean, that’s – she certainly takes advantage of the gay population in her way, but I don’t think she’s done anything earth-shattering for … I mean, I don’t agree.

Who would you consider an entertainer and an activist?  I mean, I’m an activist for being a human being. There’s bigger fish to fry, and my work is inherently political, and it’s been inherently LGBTQ-informed because it’s who I am; it’s what I’ve done from the beginning. I don’t call my audience “my gays.” My audience is my audience and everybody in it forms an alliance every night. You perform for the _entire_ crowd – it’s not about singling anyone out. And if your work is very, very daring and interesting, then smart people come to it, whether they’re gay, straight, black, white, men, women. I mean, you gotta be able to get underneath what’s really going on culturally, and then you’re always gonna have a smart audience sitting in front of you.

Who else in the comedy world can really dig into the cultural zeitgeist?  I don’t have a litany of people I’m sitting here thinking about. I’m sorry. It’s, like, too hard to do that. Right now the people who are impressing me the most are all these kids from the school in Florida. They’re activists. Went through a terrible trauma and they’ve been able to transform it into total activation, and that to me is really impressive and exciting. To talk about entertainers and people – it’s easy for all of us to do all that stuff because we’re not under duress, but when you’ve been practically possibly severely injured or murdered, yeah, that’s something to really applaud and stand by.

The post Sandra Bernhard: The gay interview appeared first on Dallas Voice.

It seemed as if the reboot of Roseanne was a risk that paid off. Ever since Will & Grace announced it was coming back to a “limited run” (only to be extended to two full seasons after high ratings), it has become standard for networks to tease a reboot of a show as “limited,” while holding out hope that ratings will be good enough to cement a full season order (it’s a way to bring back the stars without the humiliation of “canceling” the show if it flops). And after Roseanne debuted in March to huge ratings — nearly 22 million viewers — ABC quickly announced it would come back in the fall.

It was risky to do that so early, though, because Roseanne Barr herself is such a divisive figure — supportive of LGBT rights, a putative hero of the working class… but also an unapologetic Trump supporter. Why couldn’t there be a right wing star or a sitcom on network TV, though? In fact, Roseanne’s success emboldened Fox to reboot Last Man Standing, a middling sitcom ABC canceled last season because, some alleged, they didn’t like the politics of its Republican star, Tim Allen.

Well, now ABC really is canceling a show because of its star’s politics… at least in part.

Roseanne tweeted what many have called an overtly racist statement, wherein she equated former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett to the Muslim Brotherhood and a monkey. (Jarrett is African American.)

“Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” Barr tweeted, with “vj” a reference to Jarrett. When some replied that the comment was racist, Barr shot back that Islam is not a “race.” (She apparently overlooked the “apes” comment.)

Wanda Sykes, who appears on the show, was the first to announce she could not return because of the comments. Co-star and executive producer Sara Gilbert (Darlene) also tweeted out her contempt for Barr. Gilbert is openly gay. Barr later apologized and and deleted the tweet, and announced she was leaking Twitter. But the damage was done. Last this hour, ABC denounced the statement, and said it was canceling Roseanne. It’s truncated season aired its finale last week.

— Arnold Wayne Jones

The post ABC cancels hit ‘Roseanne’ reboot suddenly, following racist tweets from Barr appeared first on Dallas Voice.

‘Queer Eye’ food expert Antoni Porowski, on coconuts, fame and his celebrity banquet

Even though Antoni Porowski is known for his avocados, on a recent afternoon he was contemplating the coconut — every sultry detail of the tropical fruit meticulously combed like that of someone’s body during a first date. The fleshy inside, the milky liquid.

It’s the first day of June when the Polish-Canadian wine-and-dine expert on Netflix’s Queer Eye reboot (the second season of which we reviewed last week) rings and, oh right, we’re talking about food. But gay America isn’t hungry — it’s thirsty AF. And because real lives are being changed thanks to Porowski, designer Bobby Berk, culture advisor Karamo Brown, stylist Tan France and groomer Jonathan Van Ness, it is also joyfully crying.

Season 2 of Queer Eye doesn’t skimp on giving you opportunities to feel good about this otherwise not-good world, as the Fab Five imparts their best-life insight and general gay wisdom on a diverse group of clients, including the franchise’s first woman and transgender man.

As Porowski continues to process his experience with the sudden upswing in gay male thirst and avocado sex puns (one Facebook commenter claims he was so compelled by Porowski’s hotness, “I’m now cooking my own bloody guacamole”), the 34-year-old subject of culinary controversy talked critics and why variety truly is the spice of life.            

— Chris Azzopardi

Dallas Voice: After the new Betty Who theme-song video for the show, where you’re cradling avocados and wearing a crop top, the avocado dick puns are out in full force.

Antoni Porowski: I guess I asked for it, right? I’m literally wearing a crop top and unsuccessfully trying to juggle avocados, so I shouldn’t be surprised.

I must say, I do hope the crop top becomes a regular clothing theme of yours in the third season.

Thanks! I do have to give credit where it’s due, and that was 100 percent Tan France.

When it comes to you, the thirst is real. What is that kind of attention like from the gay community?

I do maintain a certain amount of ignorance to it and a kind of detachment. I learned quite early on, because there’s been a lot of really amazing and positive and nice attention from the show. But with that, there’s also gonna be certain haters and some negative and not-so-nice comments, so I’ve sort of decided that if I’m gonna take the good, I have to take the bad, so I’ve decided to take neither.

I take it all very lightly, with a small pinch of salt. It’s entertaining and it’s funny, but I just try to focus on what my next move is with this show, with press that we’re working on, living out of hotels for the past couple of months, and hoping that people really enjoy [this season] as much as they did the first.

When you’re living out of hotels, how do you maintain a healthy diet?

I don’t! That’s the honest truth of it. My only thing is, I always love to have a proper gym, because I get up fairly early, and when you’re jet-lagged, you don’t really know what day of the week it is or what city you’re in, which is often the case with me.

When we do go on press trips, and we discovered we were in London recently and Tan introduced me to the wonders of Nando’s, which is a chain that they don’t have here yet in the States, but it’s this awesome PERi-PERi chicken. Had that for, like, four meals in a row with a bunch of PERi-PERi mayo, guilt-free with chicken livers, ’cause, I mean, I wanna live my life too. I’m not one to deny myself of the pleasures of, like, a good ripe stinky cheese on a fresh crusty baked bread in Paris.

Oh, I’ve seen you indulge on the show.

It happens.

You’re not afraid of some macaroni salad.

There ya go! Well, but that wasn’t my recipe.

It wasn’t, but you still ate it.

Oh, I ate it. I’ll try anything twice.

Are you still trying to wrap your head around your overnight fame?

Yeah. I mean, it certainly hits in waves. The next level of kind of acceptance of what’s actually going on was when we were just recently in London, and when you experience people who’ve been waiting outside of your hotel with magazines to sign. It’s kind of like, “Wow, you’re a human with a life and a job, presumably, who wanted to wait to have a moment,” and I’m grateful for it, but it’s not something I want to be too comfortable with. It’s very bizarre and very overwhelming, and it’s a perpetual state of shock.

What my therapist tells me is, “Don’t trust your feelings right now because you’re constantly basically running on adrenaline — your life right now is pure adrenaline.” It’s been like overdrive, so it’s just, take everything very lightly, focus on the next move, make sure you always have a bottle of water in your hand and that you’re not drinking too much coffee, and that you rest whenever you can. And remember not to lean into your workaholic self, which is very alive and well in this new chapter of my life.

What are your gay fan interactions outside of hotels like?

I feel like I’m pretty good at reading people, but with fans it’s very different because the connection, like the energy and the direction of it, is very different. I always think, “Oh my gosh, I’m so uncomfortable after that interaction and I don’t know why.” Tan will tell me, “No, because they’re experiencing this concept of being starstruck, of seeing someone on TV, and then you meet them in person and you don’t really know how to behave.”

So my thing is, ask them a question about themselves, try to make this a human interaction, and try to normalize it in the best way that you can, just to make sure that the person kind of has a nice, meaningful experience and they can leave happy. Sometimes I’m left, like, taking care of people. They’ll come up and their mouth opens and they don’t say anything, and you don’t want to be presumptuous and be like, “Yeah! I’m the guy from that show!” But then once it becomes clear what show I’m on and the work that I do, it’s like, I have to kind of take care of them and be like, “Are you OK? It’s fine. Here, do you want a hug? Do you want a photo?”

You don’t just go right in for the hug?

No, I have more of a European sensibility. We like to kiss twice. Or… I don’t know, healthy boundaries.

Kiss twice, though? Everyone must just enjoy meeting you.

[Laughs]

How has helping other people on this show changed your approach to your own life?

I’ve had many passions: I studied psychology, that’s what my bachelor’s is in; I worked as a gallery director; I photographed vintage furniture; and on the acting side of things, that was something that was always very ego, where it was always how I want to be perceived. I wanted people to look and see and feel my presence, whereas with the show, it actually isn’t that at all. That became very clear with episode one: the energy is directed in the other direction, so it’s really us being of service to this person that we’re helping and figuring out how best we can benefit their lives in such a short amount of time and try to impact them in a meaningful way.

We see that happen in the first episode of Season 2, with Tammye.

Mama Tammye is an example who spun it on us, and doesn’t even taken care of herself and shows up as a teacher and as a member of her church, and for the five of us.

You cried at the end of that episode. Of you five, who cries the most?

You’re talking to him! When you hear somebody’s struggle, or especially when they’ve overcome something or made a choice like Tammye — there was a lot of pain and a lot of fear and borderline hateful feelings toward gays, and she realized that it was her perspective that was wrong, and she’s a beacon of hope for people. It’s possible at any age. If you have people like Tammye who were able to figure it out, there’s no excuse for the rest of us.

Even though you’ve been with men and women, you’ve said that you don’t like to call yourself bisexual. Have you found the best way to explain your sexual orientation to people yet?

Not really. And it’s not something that I feel too pressured to figure out. Sometimes I have very strong opinions about how to cook a filet of salmon so the skin remains crispy and doesn’t stick to the pan, but with a lot of things, I don’t like being the expert. I’d rather go in and be like, “I don’t know.” There’s a power in that for me. It’s sort of like going in with humility and saying, “I’m still trying to figure it out.”

While I don’t think I’m trying to figure out my sexuality, I’m just not as concerned with it anymore. My 20s were a really hard time for me of figuring out what the hell I wanted to do with my life. And being in my 30s, now that I kind of have a point and purpose with what I’m doing in this chapter of my life, it’s just, I’m happy where I’m at and that’s all that really matters.

Look, that [coming out] conversation with AJ in that changing room in Season 1, that was seriously a byproduct. Tan brought me along because we both had similar experiences. He as a Muslim and me just as the individual that I am. We’re both so completely different, but we have the same feelings about what it was like to come out, and that it’s this dynamic process, like [out actor] Charlie Carver recently — a fellow Gay Times alum — feels he’s constantly still coming out, that it’s this continued thing, that it doesn’t just happen once and you shoot your proverbial load and it’s done; you have to keep doing it over and over again. Some people don’t, but it’s not like a start, stop. And I don’t need that pressure in my life to try to find myself in any way where I feel like I’m locked into something. I’d just rather keep it open and fluid, because that’s how I am with the books that I read, the music that I listen to. All of my interests are always changing, and it’s a constant dynamic process, and so is my sexuality.

These days, there is obviously less pressure to subscribe to any one label, or stick to the binary.

For people who want to be not binary, go right ahead. If that helps you sleep better at night and you feel more like you’re a better and truer version of yourself, then 100 percent, you should be able to pursue that with freedom and … this is June … It has me thinking about Pride and what Pride means: the ability to be the truest version of yourself without any negative consequence or fear of being persecuted or judged or criticized or hurt for it. And whatever that is for a person, however you define yourself or don’t define yourself, you should be able to do that with total freedom. I know that’s utopian and idealistic, but that’s really something to strive for and something the show has reminded me of.

I read that you were a private chef for some high-profile clients. High profile as in celebrities?

So with food, it was something that kind of happened accidentally, cooking for people. There were some I’m not allowed to discuss, but in the sports world in New York there was somebody I was working for in particular where we would host these intimate dinner parties. And I remember as a kid when we would have dinner parties at my parents’ house, everyone would always gravitate toward the kitchen; that’s where the heart of the home is.

Where the smells originate.

Exactly. That’s where the slow-roasted garlic wafts are emanating from. And for me, I’m not a traditional classically trained chef where I’m in a kitchen and I’m doing my own thing; I am an entertainer, that’s who I am. And I love food and I love playing with it, and I love preparing it for people. It’s how I show my love. So, it sort of became this whole thing. We would make short ribs and I would just talk to people. She’s a close friend who works in the sports world and she was the one who kind of started this whole thing for me, kind of recommended me to other people in the biz, and then afterwards, I met [original Queer
Eye foodie and Chopped host] Ted Allen and worked as his personal assistant but also cooked for him and we did dinners, like Chopped barbecues, for some of his cast members and crew on his show. It sort of evolved in this weird, organic way while I had other jobs. It was sort of a side thing I did every now and then. It wasn’t a regularly occurring everyday thing where I showed up and made breakfast, lunch and dinner for someone. I was never one like that for any job. I’ve always had, like, 10 different things going on at the same time.

You’re on a desert island and you can survive off one food, what’s the food?

I love a fresh coconut. You crack it and you have the milk, which is so delicious, but the flesh too. There’s that creamy part on the inside that you can scoop with a spoon, and then there’s the really hard shell part that, if you roast it with sugar, it gets caramelized and really nice and crunchy. So, I think coconuts. I’d get fed up with them after a week, but I don’t know what food I wouldn’t get fed up about, truly. Ask me again tomorrow.

I’ve never thought about the flesh of a coconut until now, and it sounds weirdly sexy.

Oh, think about it. Go buy a fresh coconut and think of me.

If you could cook for any celebrity, who would it be and what would you cook?

Dead or alive? … I would take something off of the menu at Voltaire in Paris and I would prepare it for Oscar Wilde, and I would slap my copy of De
Profundis in front of him and be like, “We’re gonna talk about this for five hours and I’m gonna feed your belly and I’m gonna get you drunk, and you’re just gonna tell me everything and answer all of my questions.” And then I would also maybe throw Allen Ginsberg in there, and why not Jack Kerouac? And who else? I’d throw in Virginia Woolf and she’d tell me all about Orlando.

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Netflix’s second season of ‘Queer Eye

3 excellent shows hit the airwaves just in time for June Pride Month

ARNOLD WAYNE JONES  |  Executive Editor
jones@dallasvoice.com

“I’m not ashamed — just scared,” says a closeted star college athlete when explaining, with distorted voice and in shadow, why he doesn’t feel empowered to come out and be an openly gay athlete. It’s an observation that resonates strongly, especially in light of how Michael Sam — the top defensive player in a tough college conference — was a last-second draft pick only after coming out. It is still almost unheard of for players in the five major American professional male team sports to be out (there have only been two — the NBA’s Jason Collins and MLS’ Robbie Rogers — and currently, there are none). That means few role models for younger gay athletes, and not a great history of tolerance in today’s environment.

DirecTV’s rewarding sports doc ‘Alone in the Game.’

Alone in the Game, which premieres on the Audience Network on DirecTV June 28 during Pride Month, interviews Rogers, and Collins, and others in the NFL, NCAA, NBA and media (including out ESPN commentator LZ Granderson) about the state of queerness in the universe of major league sports.

Some of the stories will be familiar to gay audiences who follow sports; others will be fresh even to hardcore armchair quarterbacks. But the feature length documentary does an excellent job of profiling the homophobia that still exists in the locker room and the boardrooms and back offices. You’ll be enraged and saddened, but also heartened by those unheralded heroes who make a difference for others at great personal cost.

I’m on record as saying the year’s most overrated movie was Love, Simon, which was effectively marketed as the first major-studio gay teen romantic comedy (even though it came from the indie arm of a studio, Fox 2000). “It was sweet!” people chimed like mynas taught to mimic talking points. Sweet, maybe, but not very good. Pretty bad, in fact, from plotting to character development to its middle-brow sensibilities, Love, Simon felt suspiciously like a 50-year-old gay man in 2018 making the film he wanted to see as an 18-year-old closeted teen in the 1980s. (Which is what it is.) We deserved better.

Daniel Doheny plays the goofy, wonderful Q kid in Netflix’s ‘Alex Strangelove,’

And we got better, albeit via Netflix which is, let’s face it, a more powerful entertainment entity today than the movie studios are. Alex Strangelove, newly out on the streaming service, is the film Love, Simon wanted to be and fans pretended it was. Alex Truelove (Daniel Doheny, who’s adorable) is the nerdy high school senior who also happens to be fairly popular with all the cliques. He’s had a hot girlfriend for months, but they haven’t gone “all the way” because, well, he wants his first time to be special. (It’s not her first time, but she finds his prudishness quaint.)

Then Alex meets another teen who is openly gay, flirty and genuinely nice. They become bros… but is there more to it than that? Even Alex isn’t sure, and it’s not because he’s in the closet. He is the Q in LGBTQ. And the audience can’t be certain, either.

“I think I’m bisexual,” Alex confides to his best friend, who is neither shocked nor bothered, but dismissed the suggestion out of hand anyway. “Do you listen to Panic! At the Disco while jerking off to pictures of vampires? … Then you’re not bisexual,” the friend advises.

It’s lines like that — and the overall tone set by writer-director Craig Johnson (The Skeleton Twins) — that makes Alex Strangelove such a charming winner. Yes, it still cleaves to many of the tropes of the teen sex comedy; that’s why we see rom-coms. But it doesn’t pander, it doesn’t create unreasonable conflicts and it plays out its emotions exactly the way real people would who are friends and supportive and also easily hurt. There are no artificial bad guys, unbelievable eleventh hour redemptions. Just a modern romance for millennials. Good for them.

Also on Netflix now is the (already) second season of the reboot of Queer Eye. The first season, which debuted just months ago, was a smash hit with its emotional power and discussion of serious issues — not just gay acceptance, but coming out, racism and romance. If you thought Season 2 would slide into routine, or miss the bar set by Season 1, well sister, think again. One of the great developments on the reboot is the dropping of For the Straight Guy part. This series of eight episodes kicks off with a straight woman diagnosed with cancer who leads a church, so the makeover is not just of the hair-and-makeup variety, but of perceptions of religion and faith and mortality. (It took me all of six minutes into the first ep to get goosebumps.) The Fab Five don’t shy from expressing their personal conflicts with organized religion; they aren’t being the mainstream “aren’t-we-adorbs-as-we-zhuzh?” gays of the original series. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) The guys also invade small towns in Georgia, not the cosmopolitan centers of the Atlantic Corridor or Midwestern metropolises. The show is truly about winning hearts and minds… but also being wholly yourself.

I haven’t watched every episode of this season of Queer Eye yet; that would feel like a disservice to how it has been designed to be savored. No need to rush through such heartfelt emotions.               

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Iconic actor and activist Sean Hayes, on changing TV — and the culture — as Jack on ‘Will & Grace’

Where would our queer world be without Will & Grace? That’s where my head was just before Sean Hayes phoned, recalling my lonely teen years, when gay white men on TV alone — here’s to evolved representation! — was unprecedented and life-changing for people like 15-year-old, closeted me.

It’s not enough to say Hayes portrays Jack McFarland on the NBC sitcom, then, because some roles become legend, upstaging even the actor giving him life. Jack is one such character. And so a call from Hayes is like being a kid and spotting your fifth grade teacher at the grocery store: It doesn’t quite feel real, and yet Hayes is a real man with a real life and even a real husband, music producer Scott Icenogle. But to the late-’90s TV landscape, it was the actor’s half-fiction as Jack and his exploding-rainbow persona that cut through heteronormative programming with gay jokes even your grandma could get down with.

And then, there’s Karen. You obviously don’t need me to ramble on about Jack’s best socialite friend (played by Megan Mullally), who never met a martini she didn’t like. You know her, you love her. And together they truly make all of our friends out to be absolute fucking bores. The sitcom’s recent revival reinstated #friendshipgoals when the snarky pals, along with titular housemates Will (Eric McCormack) and Grace (Debra Messing), came swishing back last September for a ninth season after ending its initial 1998-2006 run.

Hayes isn’t Jack, exactly, but you could be fooled if he called you, too, his usually-unflashy voice sometimes picking up wind and taking on the kind of rapid-fire cadence his famous Cher-worshiping alter ego is known for. With season 10 premiering Oct. 4, and nine now available on DVD and digital, we caught up with Hayes, 47, to talk about those who’ve long criticized Jack for being “stereotypically” gay, the history of the legendary Karen-Jack slap fights, and who helped him be OK with being gay.

— Chris Azzopardi

Dallas Voice: It’s hard to put into words exactly what it feels like to talk to the man who gave me such an iconic gay character when I needed it most. Sean Hayes: Oh my god. That’s so sweet. I really appreciate that. And you just answered the reason why when people ask me what’s the best part about playing it — that’s the best part.
Is it? One hundred percent.

When did you first know that Will & Grace had impacted the LGBTQ community the way it has? Just a couple of weeks ago! [Laughs] No, I’m joking. You know what’s so funny — first of all, you have no idea how much that means to me. You saying how much I mean to you, it means equally as much to me, so thank you.

So when did I know I had an impact? I think when I was young and doing the show I was so wrapped up in myself, in acting, in getting the part: “Am I going to get fired? Am I gonna learn my lines?” I was just happy to have a job.

It’s such a fascinating thing to discuss, and I’m so glad you asked: I felt normal growing up, so when I got a job, playing a gay character on a television sitcom I just thought, “Oh, I just have to be me, kind of, a heightened version of myself.” I didn’t think it would have that much of an impact because of the bubble I grew up in. I surround myself with people who are accepting of me, so naively I was like, “The rest of the world must be OK with it.” I mean, I knew the stories out there. I grew up and knew it wasn’t accepted, but I just didn’t think on any big level it was any big deal, so that gave me the confidence to play him as outrageously as I could because, again, I’m surrounded by writers and actors — everybody else — who embrace this, so I felt loved, I felt supported and I felt confidence. So, I wasn’t going to work thinking about how this is going to affect anybody.

It was a wonderful byproduct later, and I was like, “Oh, ohh!” And once it started and all the press and blah blah blah, and we never got any backlash for being political in that sense, meaning how they politicized gay people, which is wrong. That’s another interview.

Over the years, people have criticized Jack for being “flamboyant.” How aware were you of that concern when the show returned for its revival season? Oh, I never heard that. This is the first time hearing it. So you’re saying people were worried, but I was playing him — I call it outrageous because “flamboyant” means a certain type of gay person, I think, and that’s another conversation to have. I was playing him as outrageously as I was before. So people were concerned that I was playing him a certain way?

People wondered if Jack was too stereotypical for TV in 2018 and expressed some concern over what the straight community might think of us. I think that’s insider homophobia. Because I know people like Jack, because one part of me is like Jack, and so if you’re saying people in the gay community were concerned that I was playing Jack a certain way and people would “worry” that gay people act like that, they do act like that. And there’s people who act like Will. There are people on all spectrums of human behavior in the gay community, just like there are people on all spectrums of human behavior in the straight community, so I nix that and I say “bye” to that — I say, “bye, Felicia!” — because that doesn’t make any sense to me.

Similarly, Cam of Modern Family was criticized for being an over-the-top and exaggerated version of what a gay person is, and I’m like, what exactly is a gay person supposed to be in 1998 or 2018? Yeah, exactly. What are they supposed to be? And by the way, they are exaggerated, some of them. And so are straight people. Look at Jim Carrey, look at Robin Williams. There are lots of straight people who are exaggerated as well. I hate that argument — no, I’m glad you brought it up. I’m just saying I love talking about it, because it’s ridiculous.

As a kid coming to terms with being gay, who was your person? If you’re talking about a famous person, Andy Bell [of Erasure]. Because I was in college and I was 17, 18, and I was shocked that somebody was out and proud, making a living in the arts or in pop culture by being who they are and not apologizing for it. I thought that was mind-blowing because “A Little Respect” was the No. 1 song on the radio and I was like, “Wait, the guy is gay and everybody is OK with that?” The truth is not a lot of people knew because we didn’t have the internet, but I knew and all my gay friends knew. And I was like, “That’s amazing.” So that was inspiring to me, that you could be gay and make a living by singing, acting, whatever. But as far as actors go, Marty Short and Steve Martin were my inspirations in comedy, and Marty’s a good friend now and I love him. He is the funniest person, I think, in the business.

What has it been like to be a part of a show that has existed during two very different times, culturally and politically, for the LGBTQ community? First of all, I feel very fortunate and lucky to be part of the chorus of the movement. I may not be a single voice, but I’m enjoying being a part of the chorus. And I think that we’re lucky to have the voice and the representation for people to talk about it again, because I don’t think it should ever stop being talked about because everything is not OK. There are still gay kids being bullied. And look at that [gay] couple [who was assaulted] in Florida in the bathroom during Pride. It just doesn’t end. The hate doesn’t end overnight.

So we have to keep doing things, and again, my contribution may not be as an activist, because I just don’t feel comfortable doing that, it’s just not who I am. It’s not in my blood, it’s not in my DNA to stand at a podium and speak in sound bites about how we need to prevail over the government and the system. I leave that to people who are good at it — I’m not good at it. What I’m good at is being comfortable in my own skin and showing people that I have a husband and we make stupid Facebook videos and try to show people that we’re as normal as any other human, so I try to do my best at that. So I’m happy the show is back because there’s still tons of work to do. The power of comedy is so incredible; that’s why we broke so many boundaries the first time. And hopefully we can continue to do that.

Megan Mullally has said that you’re her “second husband,” after her real husband, Nick Offerman. How does your chemistry with Megan after all these years compare to the first time that you stepped onto set and shot the pilot? It’s so funny that she calls me her second husband because Nick and I were born on the exact same day, same year, about 30 miles apart from each other. Isn’t that hilarious? But it’s like working with your sister. There’s a shorthand that nobody else would understand, so it’s like, “I’m gonna do this,” and she’s like, “I’m gonna do that,” and then we just do it together and there it is. So, we now know how to cut through all the stuff that you need to in order to get to a comedic moment in a scene, and that’s what’s great about all this time that’s passed. I understand her, she understands me, we understand each other, so the chemistry has only gotten hotter.

Tell me the history of the slap fights between Karen and Jack. There’s an episode called “Coffee and Commitment” where Jack is trying to get off of coffee and Karen’s trying to quit alcohol, so that episode was the first time we slapped each other. It just, on paper, was “Karen slaps Jack, Jack slaps Karen,” but of course Jimmy Burrows, who is incredible at physical comedy and directing, of course, said, “Let’s make a dance out of this.” So, we rehearsed the rhythm of it, because I think that’s what makes you laugh — that’s what makes me laugh: the pauses and then the slapping again and then the pause and the slap-slap. It’s music, so you have to rehearse the beats and the rhythms in order to get that. It makes me laugh even thinking about it.

What do you envision for Jack’s future? Well, I don’t want him to change too much because our friends are our friends from high school because they never change, right? Maybe get married, but still remain Jack somehow, or find a long-term relationship. Or maybe — maybe! — there’s someone close in his own life that might be a suitable partner for life. Who knows.

Will? I have no idea.

Could you see them together? Could I see Will and Jack together? Maybe!

You’ve said you want to see him with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Just so you know, I’m here for it. I think that would be a hilarious episode, and I hope Dwayne comes to his senses and comes to the Will & Grace stage to play and have a good time.

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