There are a few gay authors whose writing can make me laugh out loud. They are Paul Rudnick, David Sedaris, Bob Smith, David Rakoff, Joe Keenan and, of course, Dennis Hensley. In fact, Hensley's 1998 novel Misadventures in the ( 213 ) is the kind of wacky, slapstick page turner that is so funny, it ought to be read in the privacy of one's own home, where you can laugh to your heart's content. That is unless you like to get stared at, then you should read it on the subway, the bus, an airplane or in your local public library. The laughs are also in abundance in his latest book Screening Party ( Alyson Books, Los Angeles, Calif., 2002, $16.95 ) , in which Hensley, and a group of movie-loving friends ( a cast of characters worthy of a movie themselves ) watch videos and provide color commentary. I recently spoke to Dennis Hensley, prior to his national book tour.
Gregg Shapiro: How much of the real Dennis emerges in the Dennis in the book?
Dennis Hensley: I made up a few things that happened. I made up a few plot things, but in terms of who the character is and what he believes and how he reacts to things, and his outlook on life... that's all me. I didn't lie about any of that stuff.
GS: At what point, in writing the "Screening Party" columns for British Premier and Instinct did you sense that they were cohesive enough for a book?
DH: Years later. The last time I wrote a screening party column was probably 1998, 1999 for Instinct. My friend that was there ( at Instinct ) left, so we weren't really doing them anymore. I always liked writing them. I always thought they were fun and I missed them. I just decided one day to go to Alyson ( Books ) with these columns and thought, "Maybe there's a book in here." My original publisher of Misadventures ..., Rob Weisbach, was between gigs. I like doing books with him, so I thought, "Why don't I show these to a different company and maybe we can knock something out quick and I can get something out on the market. Then I could do my second novel where Rob lands." Then it became this much more ambitious undertaking, after I signed the contract and they said, "Yes." I think we both thought it would be, the publisher and myself, thought it would be shorter, slighter, more of a like novelty book, but it ended up being the hardest book I ever worked on ( laughs ) . It made me nuts. I'm pleased with the finished product. It ended up being way more ambitious than I ever thought it would be.
GS: How many movies did you have to whittle down to come up with the 16 ( plus a handful of James Bond movies ) ?
DH: Ten of them had been columns before. There were 10 movies that were already chosen. Then I just picked movies that I liked. There was a longer list. I didn't expect the chapters to be so long. My fantasy list was 25 and then it became 20 and then it was like, "We're just doing 16" ( laughs ) . It's already 40,000 words longer than Misadventures, with 16 chapters. They're basically just movies that I wanted to do. I have a list in my head of movies I'd do if I was going to do a sequel like Fatal Attraction. Forrest Gump is asking for it a little bit. Enough, with Jennifer Lopez. That movie made me laugh so much.
GS: Yeah, it was pretty pathetic.
DH: It was the comedy hit of the summer.
GS: Are there any movies off limits?
DH: No. Schindler's List, maybe. I think part of the challenge is to pick a movie that is not inherently campy and try to dig for stories from the people and real reactions. Maybe it won't be super funny, but hopefully maybe it could be interesting.
GS: It's interesting because two of the movies, Basic Instinct and Cruising, were both movies that also had a level of controversy in the gay community.
DH: I think it's fun to go back and look at movies and ask, "What was all the fuss about? What made people so upset?" To see if they were really grounded in something or if people were just taking an opportunity to make a stand about something. I was fascinated with Cruising. I went and read all these articles. I found all this stuff on it. It was a really interesting time in New York City. A lot of the gay community that were involved in the movie, the extras and stuff, and how they felt like, "Why shouldn't this be?"
GS: You used authentic quotes?
DH: Yeah, they're from a real Mandate magazine.
GS: I remember when it first opened I saw it at the Carnegie Theater, which is no longer there. We walked across a picket line. The only other time I'd ever done that was when I went to see The Last Temptation of Christ, in Boston, walking through a picket line of protesters.
DH: How cool that would've been! I've never walked through a picket line to see a movie. I would love that. I sort of formed some opinions while working on this and looking at those chapters. I think we live in a country where you have the right to make the "art" you want to make. I think, in the gay community, we have to support that for everybody. If we start censoring things, if the culture starts going that way, it's going to come and bite us in the ass.
GS: How authentic are Ross's "fun facts"?
DH: They're all true to my knowledge. A lot of them were taken from the DVD commentary tracks. A lot of them were research that I did or the guys that are sort of "Ross," my film-geek friends, know. There's none that I know that are wrong, but some of them might be, "Oh I heard that a cow got blown up for Jaws." Somebody heard that. I never found that in my research, so I probably wrote it like, "I think I heard that there was a cow…" So the character says it like, "I'm not sure."
GS: How strange is it that some of the best film experts work as video store clerks?
DH: I think it's great. At least they're in there picking up something. Whenever I go into the store and there's something on, I love the idea of what they choose to watch when they're at work. I'm sure they have favorites they watch over and over. I'm sure that the clerks have wars with each other, like "Uh, you're not putting that thing on again." I'd probably get fired. I'd drive everyone crazy [ with my choices ] .
GS: What would one of them be?
DH: They'd be like, "Seriously, Xanadu again?" I like the music!
GS: The cast of characters in the book are colorful and cinematic in their own ways...i.e. Dr. Beaverman talking about herself in the third person...a comment on her profession.
DH: She kills me! They are based on my friends, but I combined people. If I were to write the real make up of the room it would be: me, one girl, my roommate, and 10 other gays. A few straight friends come over and a few guys that know a lot about movies. Two or three guys make up Ross, in my mind, and a few girls make up Lauren. My roommate's pretty much Tony. He's the other name in the book that's a real person's name. I have a friend that bakes a lot and is HIV positive. A lot of his stuff is Marcus, with a few other friends that feed in there. For example, if somebody new comes over and they have interesting things to say, but there's no character, I take their things and think who could say this and put it into one of the characters. I've had a friend for 10 years who sort of channels this alter ego of Dr. Beaverman. ... She doesn't live in L.A., so she sends me tapes, commenting. ... At one point, in one tape, she was like, "Before we start about the movie, I just want to say something about Anne Murray. How many infomercials must she have? Every time I turn on the TV."
GS: There's always been that sort of butchiness to her, but she has a daughter, who is anorexic or something. I think it really came as a shock to a lot of people when Anne Murray, all of a sudden, had this family.
DH: It's the absurd things like that are out of left field. What is Anne Murray's deal?
GS: Are you anticipating feedback from anyone involved in the movies ... mentioned in the book?
DH: I think that everything that I do happens in a vacuum. It's like if I say something about Sharon Stone. "What's Sharon Stone going to think?" Sharon Stone doesn't care about me! That's my mind-set. I hope that people would have a sense of humor and appreciate that this is a book about people who love movies and even if they make fun of things, ( they ) cherish the experience of watching Glitter or The Bodyguard. ... Part of this is this isn't a book for celebrities. It's for everyone else, because our whole world is for them.
GS: Since we're talking about movies, will we be seeing anything on the big screen with your name attached to it?
DH: I co-wrote a movie with David Moreton, who directed The Edge of Seventeen. It's called Clean Cut, and it's based on Testosterone, which was a really edgy gay novel by James Robert Baker.
GS: The guy that wrote Tim And Pete.
DH: Yeah. David and I were writing this romantic comedy together. All through the process of that he was developing Testosterone to be his next directing project. He found financing and it looked like it was going to happen. He came to me at a certain point and asked me to help him re-write the script to make it funnier.
GS: What about a film version of Misadventures in the ( 213 ) ?
DH: This one actress wants to try and make it happen for TV, but I don't know if she's going to succeed.
