'Those People' :: An East Side (Gay) Story

Charlie (Jonathan Gordon) is a 26-year-old grad school art student who lives on Manhattan's Upper East Side. Sebastian (Jason Ralph) is his pampered best friend with a Bernie Madoff-type father and an inflated sense of self. Charlie pines for Sebastian, from afar. Well, really, from a-close, since the two besties are inseparable.

At the center of Joey Kuhn's sumptuous and ambitious feature film debut, "Those People," is this beguiling, unrequited gay love story where the "gay" is, refreshingly, incidental to the plot.

The newbie maverick helmer borrowed quite liberally from his own life. "The script took me about two-and-a-half years. And there were two main points of inspiration for the movie. The first: in college I accidentally fell in love with my gay best friend. And I was afraid to tell him for years--afraid of ruining the friendship. Afraid of rejection. So while it sucked at the time it definitely provided a lot of creative inspiration because I knew for my first feature that I wanted to tell a coming of age story of a young gay man who was falling in love with an amazing guy but wasn't ready because he was still infatuated with his best friend and stuck in that dynamic."

A broader backdrop

Kuhn wasn't content with the love story triangle. "I wanted to set it against a larger socio-political backdrop... I grew up in New York City and after the Madoff scandal I knew a lot of people who lost money to Madoff. At NYU, where I went to grad school, they were affected as well. I became fascinated with the story of Mark Madoff, Bernie's son, who killed himself two years after his father went to prison. What do you do when your life is ruined for something your father did and you didn't have any involvement in? I like difficult characters in film and I wanted to explore this kind of character, this publicly reviled guy, but through the eyes of someone who loved him the most who was blind with his love for him."

The writer-director merged the two stories and did his best to avoid the typical gay-themed film trappings. "I wanted to tell a sweeping gay romance, coming of age story with representations of gay men my age that were true because I felt that you don't see that a lot onscreen. My friends and I are not struggling with our sexuality. We're not falling in love with straight boys or a lot of these tropes that you see in '90s gay films. I just wanted the movie to be about people who happen to be gay, where their sexuality is just one part of them."

He continues: "In the '90s when we were fighting for representation, the stories that broke through were stories that were unique to our community and the journeys that we went on so that's why you saw a lot of coming out stories because it was the first time we were seeing ourselves reflected onscreen in a major way. I think now that there's so much representation, we get to see a plethora of stories."

An instant connection

Ralph, who brilliantly embodies Sebastian, adds: "The conversation about these character's sexuality is part of why I was drawn to the movie. It's not a movie about people being gay. It's a movie about people being people who happen to be gay. It's almost absolutely uncommented upon and I feel like as a society we're in a place right now where we have a need to define ourselves. I think the goal is, in the end, to be able to live our lives without those definitions, without those lines drawn in the sand. And it's movies like this, it's stories like this, that can help propel that process forward. To tell stories about people who are against the norm without talking about the thing that makes them different."

Central to the success of the film is the chemistry between the actors who play Charlie and Sebastian.

Jason Ralph is a triple-threat (stage, screen, TV), currently starring in Syfy's "The Magicians" as well as making a mark in J.C. Chandor's cine-gem, "A Most Violent Year." Onstage he has appeared in "Peter and the Starcatcher" and is the artistic director of his own theater company, Strangemen & Co., which just produced "The Woodsman" at New World Stages.

Jonathan Gordon is a Brooklyn-based stage, screen and TV actor with numerous theatre credits including Signature's recent revival of Arthur Miller's holocaust drama, "Incident at Vichy."

The two actors seemed to have an instant connection. "I knew that the film rested on the chemistry between Charlie and Sebastian," Kuhn shares, "...so I paired them up and within two minutes of knowing each other they were already having fun and it seemed like they had this whole history and they kind of stepped into their dynamic with Jason in control emotionally--you could really see him playing with Jonathan."

A great audition

Gordon offers: "I went in to read for Joey a few times. The last time was a chemistry read with my co-star Jason Ralph, which was an explosive chemistry read. I think everyone in the room was wowed by the inherent chemistry that we have... One of the reasons why Jason and I were cast together was because (the chemistry) was already there, magically. And the dynamic that we share in life are so like the relationship between Charlie and Sebastian."

"It was one of my favorite auditions that I ever had," Ralph effuses. "There was something very electric about it. I walked in that room and it was very clear that we were all on the same page. We were all telling the same story...There was something about Jonathan. I've never had such chemistry with an actor right off the bat. Something very magical happened in that room. Joey recently showed me those tapes and it's palpable, really exciting."

And all three artists credit and praise casting director, Susan Shopmaker. "In the acting community she's one of the favorite casting directors to work with," Ralph explains. "She invites you to take chances and risks."

The filmmaker did his best to create a set where creative gambles were encouraged. "I love working with actors; it's my favorite part of the whole process." Kuhn confesses. "Onset you try and create a safe environment for everyone. I like to give all my actors individual direction before a scene. I go over to them and I whisper to them individually...when you have good actors who can react in the moment to the person they're acting against, it's best to keep those directions secret."

"Joey wanted to explore getting the text exactly as been written, but was also interested in seeing what would happen if we went off of it," Gordon shares. "He was very eager to investigate the worth of improvisation...that scene on top of the roof, he cut an entire page of dialogue because it wasn't what was happening when we were shooting that day. And that as a director, as an artist, period, is so admirable to me, to be able to kill your darlings."

Evoking Woody Allen

Ralph expounds, "Because of Joey and because of Jonathan I was allowed to come in and discover things in the moment. And there's a certain kind of freedom that came with that. That feeling of failure being an option was just so overwhelmingly freeing that and then on top of that the chemistry with the cast. We were able to trust in each other."

A third major character in "Those People," is Manhattan itself and the film often evokes the work of Woody Allen. Kuhn: "I love Woody Allen and I've watched 'Manhattan' so many times in my life and so many times in the writing of this film too, looking at the structure of that movie and also attempting to create some iconic New York visuals in the movie. You can never really touch 'Manhattan,' especially that scene with Woody and Diane Keaton in front of the bridge. The high line scene at Lincoln Center was my attempt at that."

The theme of "first love" attracted Gordon to the film instantly. "It occupies such a huge visceral part of our psyche, even after we've moved on. There's something so rich about that relationship, something I see as very universal. And when it's wrapped up in a best friend it becomes even more heightened. And that's something I had experienced in college."

Curious questions

Along the Festival circuit, where the film has been received with applause and adulation, Gordon found there to be a palpable curiosity about his sexuality. "It became very clear how taboo it remains to portray homosexuality onscreen.
People asked a lot about my sexuality and I think there are many reasons for that question. At times, it feels like what's behind that question is this notion of the impossibility of portraying a sexuality that is not your own. And it's strange to face that. Obviously as a country, as a world, we have great strides to make as far as the way in which we view people within the LGBT community. But to experience that first hand was illuminating."

And did Gordon answer those dogging questions? "Frankly I try not to answer. I feel suspicious of where the question is coming from. In instances it seems to be if you are a heterosexual man playing a gay character someone wants to congratulate you on your ability to immerse yourself into a different sexuality but that to me is bizarre because we don't have that viewpoint on many other character traits. When we see other character traits we never really ask, is that you in real life? You just assume it's a story, fiction."

He adds: "Joey wanted to tell the best story he could and felt he could with Jason and me and he didn't ask us about our sexuality during the casting process-that was moot point for him. And I respect that."

"Those People" is currently playing in New York and Los Angeles and will be out on DVD and VOD on June 14 via Wolfe Video. For more on the film, visit the film's website.

Watch the trailer to "Those People":