Windy City Media Group Frontpage News

THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

home search facebook twitter join
Gay News Sponsor Windy City Times 2023-12-13
DOWNLOAD ISSUE
Donate

Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor

  WINDY CITY TIMES

MOVIES Talking with 'Big Eden' director Thomas Bezucha
Special to the online edition of Windy City Times
by Richard Knight, Jr., for Windy City Times
2015-10-19

This article shared 5815 times since Mon Oct 19, 2015
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email


After writing about queer cinema for more than a decade, it's probably no surprise to learn that one of the most frequent questions I'm asked is what my favorite gay movie is. Without hesitation I answer "Big Eden," out writer-director Thomas Bezucha's delightful 2000 debut feature. ( My favorite gay documentary is 1995's The Celluloid Closet, by the by. )

Bezucha's film is the story of Henry Hart ( Arye Gross ), a painter living in Manhattan who returns home to the fictional, bucolic small town of Big Eden, Montana, to care for his ailing grandfather ( Henry Coe ). Once there, Henry finds that his best friend from high school—the super-cute hunk Dean ( Tim DeKay )—has also returned home to raise his young son after the death of his wife.

Henry's infatuation with Dean is immediately rekindled but everybody in town—from his aunt Grace ( Louise Fletcher ) to gruff teddy bear Jim ( O'Neal Compton ), the general store owner, to the Widow Thayer ( Nan Mason )—works behind the scenes once they figure out Henry is gay to put him together with the man they've decided is his destiny. That would be Pike ( Eric Schweig ), the painfully shy Native American who cooks gourmet meals for Henry's ailing grandpa and silently yearns for Henry.

This quiet little comedy of manners is one of the sweetest, most satisfying movies a true romantic is likely to encounter ( I dubbed it a "gay Sense & Sensibility" ) and the film's lovely reputation has only grown in the years since its release. To mark Big Eden's 15th anniversary, Wolfe Releasing has just brought out a newly restored edition of the film on Blu-ray and VOD. Bezucha, who went on to write and direct the 2005 holiday film The Family Stone and 2011's Monte Carlo, was happy to reminisce about the film that was tagged "a little miracle" and to chat about his new movie in this exclusive interview for Windy City Times. Excerpts:

Windy City Times: I hope this isn't a pejorative—but my all-time favorite "gay movie" is Big Eden.

Thomas Bezucha: Well, I don't care if it is a pejorative—thank you! I'll take it.

WCT: I know when you made the film in 2000, to call something a "gay movie" was a badge of honor. Now, sometimes that's a bit problematic for people. Where do you stand with that?

TB: It's a little different when it's your kid, you know. I wish it could run faster, I wish it were a little brighter, but I'm happy. It's crazy how the culture has changed for gay film in 15 years but it's also changed for independent film. Better for gay film, not so good for independent film. It's just harder to get things made. Here's the thing: Fifteen years later, I can't believe it got made, let alone people are talking about it. That's satisfaction itself.

WCT: I think the reason why the film resonates so strongly still begins with your beautifully written script. It's wonderfully directed and your cast—my God, it's a wonderful assemblage of actors. You must have had tremendous casting people.

TB: The casting director, David Bloch, did such a spectacular job; I love that guy to pieces. He brought all those people to me. I got lucky. The trick was creating this family and each of them is such a strong element and it influences the whole. You have Louise ( Fletcher ) in this one part and then you have to figure out who the Widow Thayer is in another and we were lucky enough to find Nan Martin.

WCT: And she's amazing in the film—funny lady originally from Decatur, Illinois.

TB: She would smoke maybe three packs of cigarettes a day, tapping them into an ashtray the size of a hubcap, and everybody was always like, "Has Nan eaten today?" We would try to get her to eat and every take she would turn to me and say, "Well, I think that was it; that was fantastic." And I was, like, "Well, yeah that was good, could we please do one more?" [Laughs]

WCT: Is the very sweet story of Big Eden somewhat biographical?

TB: Not really. I was living in New York and I worked for Ralph Lauren, designing stores. I did that for about 10 years. I had always wanted to be involved in film and at that moment in time I was thinking, "Oh, if I could get into production design…" and so I decided that the best way to do that—I'm not terribly bright [laughs]—was to write a script; that would be the shortest path.

I wanted to change my life and get involved with film. I wasn't quite happy with my life and, aside from the film, there was just a general fantasy of changing my life and a couple of things all happened within a year that led me to Big Eden. I discovered the music of Dwight Yoakam; [also,] I read a book by Ian Fraser called The Great Plains and went on a business trip to Cody, Wyoming, for a cowboy auction and just fell in love with the West. So if there's a germ, it started there.

I had this idea of moving to Montana to teach elementary school and all my friends were saying, "You're nuts. You can't do that," and so Big Eden was a little bit of a "What if?" What if you could, what if people weren't homophobic, what if they were great, what if, what if? And so that was a way of spinning out that fantasy.

WCT: Several years ago, I had a webisode show called "Movie Queens." On one of the episodes ,each of the hosts discussed a favorite, little known "gay" movie—and I talked about Big Eden.

TB: Oh, I want to see that!

WCT: I'll send that to you ... but the reason I mention it is because after describing how the whole town tries to put Henry and Pike together, rooting for them, the guy I was talking with says, "So, it's a fantasy."

TB: It is, it is.

WCT: Well, it was at that time but, 15 years later, that's reality in many parts of this country, right?

TB: I think it's reality when you enough good-hearted people together. Big Eden exists wherever there are people of good will.

WCT: Now where do you think Henry and Pike are today?

TB: If there were a sequel, we always sort of speculated that they hung around Big Eden a little while and then got bored. [Also, we thought] that Pike's cooking thing really took off for him so they moved to New York for him to go to cooking school, and they opened a restaurant.

WCT: So this new Blu-ray edition of the film—are there new special features?

TB: They produced a new featurette with Louise Fletcher, Tim DeKay, Arye Gross, myself and Eric Schweig all talking about the movie. It's incredibly moving to me that those people who I didn't pay very much are all still willing to talk about the movie 15 years later.

WCT: What are you working on now?

TB: I've got a bunch of different studio projects but I'm really most excited because I'm working with a longtime pal, Maria Maggenti, who wrote and directed The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love. We were arrested together in 1989 during an ACT UP demonstration in New York and we've been getting together lately and talking about the '80s, and so we're writing a comedy that's pretty gay from the '80s.

WCT: Fantastic! Fifteen years on, you're getting ready to do another "gay" movie. How has the landscape changed for queer cinema?

TB: I wish there were more gay-themed films; I wish there were more films by gay filmmakers; I wish there were better films, period. I wish there were more films about real people, and not 300-foot robots and superheroes.

But at the same time, for gay film, what's exciting to me is that, unlike 15 years ago, there are out gay actors. You have people like Zach Quinto and Matt Bomer—and, God bless, Jodie Foster finally came out—and it's going to be interesting the next 15 years to see what kind of mainstream films incorporate those elements and to see where we are then, right? It's exciting.

www.wolfevideo.com/products/big-eden/ .


This article shared 5815 times since Mon Oct 19, 2015
facebook twitter pin it google +1 reddit email

Out and Aging
Presented By

  ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE

Gay News

JP Karliak morphs into non-binary character for Disney+'s X-Men '97 2024-03-22
- series X-Men '97, a revival of the popular X-men: The Animated Series that's both continuing the ongoing mutant storyline and breaking new ground along the way. The character of Morph now looks more like the comic ...


Gay News

WORLD Uganda items, HIV report, Mandela, Liechtenstein, foreign minister weds 2024-03-21
- It turned out that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam traveled to Uganda on Feb. 19-27, per The Washington Blade. He visited the capital of Kampala and the nearby city of ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer musicians, Marvel situation, Elliot Page, Nicole Kidman 2024-03-21
- Queer musician Joy Oladokun released the single "I Wished on the Moon," from Jack Antonoff's official soundtrack for the new Apple TV+ series The New Look, per a press release. The soundtrack, ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Lady Gaga, 'P-Valley,' Wendy Williams, Luke Evans, 'Queer Eye,' 'Transition' 2024-03-15
- Lady Gaga came to the defense of Dylan Mulvaney after a post with the trans influencer/activist for International Women's Day received hateful responses, People Magazine noted. On Instagram, Gaga stated, "It's appalling to me that a ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Jinkx Monsoon, Xavier Dolan, 'Frida,' Lena Waithe, out singer 2024-03-08
- Two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon is headed back to the New York stage, joining off-Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey beginning April 2, according to Playbill. The casting makes Monsoon the first drag ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Queer actors, icons duet, Hunter Schafer, Oscars, Elizabeth Taylor 2024-03-01
- Queer actor Kal Penn is set to star in Trust Me, I'm a Doctor—a film that chronicles the final days of actress/model Anna Nicole Smith, whose overdose death in 2007 at age 39 sparked a tabloid ...


Gay News

Dorian Film Awards: 'All of Us Strangers' takes top prizes 2024-02-27
- February 26, 2024 - Los Angeles, Ca. - For its 15th Dorian Film Awards, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics fully embraced All of Us Strangers, writer-director Andrew Haigh's fantastical and tear-inducing tale of two ...


Gay News

SAG Awards honor Streisand, few LGBTQ+ actors 2024-02-25
- Queer entertainers made their mark—although not a major one—at the 2024 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, held Feb. 24 in Los Angeles. The event was live-streamed on Netflix for the first time. Indigenous and Two-Spirit actor ...


Gay News

WORLD Caribbean ruling, Pussy Riot, Russian raid, Canadian warning, anti-trans bar 2024-02-23
- The top court in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines dismissed a challenge to colonial-era anti-gay laws, Reuters reported. Javin Johnson and Sean Macleish—two gay men who had pushed to decriminalize ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Kristen Stewart, Rock Hudson, Talia Keys, 'True Detective,' Marvel comic 2024-02-23
- At the Berlin Film Festival, Kristen Stewart defended her photo shoot for a Rolling Stone magazine cover that went viral and divided audiences on social-media platforms, per The Hollywood Reporter. "The existence of a female body ...


Gay News

Second Glance Productions hosts LGBTQupid Soiree 2024-02-16
- In celebration of Valentine's Day, Chicago based film and media production company Second Glance hosted The LBGTQupid Soiree. The event, which was focused on spinning attitudes on this particular day, was presented at The iO ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ Elton John, Hannah Gadsby, video game, Jennifer Lopez, queer thriller 2024-02-16
Video below - Sir Elton John has sold his Atlanta home and is now auctioning off more than 900 of his personal items that were kept in the 13,500-square-foot condo, The Daily Mail noted. The massive collection includes rare ...


Gay News

GALECA announces nominees for the Dorian Film Awards 2024-02-07
--From a press release - Feb. 5, 2024 - GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, consisting of over 500 entertainment critics, journalists and media icons, today announced the group's democratically chosen nominees for its 15th Dorian Film Awards. All of ...


Gay News

SHOWBIZ JoJo Siwa, Tom Holland, Bowen Yang, Pet Shop Boys, Mariah Carey 2024-02-02
- In the wake of Nigel Lythgoe exiting So You Think You Can Dance, queer personality JoJo Siwa is returning to the series, per Deadline. Siwa, who was a judge on season 17 of the Fox show, will replace Lythgoe, who left ...


Gay News

Leather Archives & Museum announces 2024 Fetish Film Forum 2024-01-27
--From a press release - CHICAGO, Illinois—After a wildly successful inaugural year, including a 10-film series at the Leather Archives & Museum and a 5-film series at FACETS, the Leather Archives & Museum is thrilled to announce the continuation of Fetish ...


 


Copyright © 2024 Windy City Media Group. All rights reserved.
Reprint by permission only. PDFs for back issues are downloadable from
our online archives.

Return postage must accompany all manuscripts, drawings, and
photographs submitted if they are to be returned, and no
responsibility may be assumed for unsolicited materials.

All rights to letters, art and photos sent to Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago
Gay and Lesbian News and Feature Publication) will be treated
as unconditionally assigned for publication purposes and as such,
subject to editing and comment. The opinions expressed by the
columnists, cartoonists, letter writers, and commentators are
their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of Nightspots
(Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay,
Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature Publication).

The appearance of a name, image or photo of a person or group in
Nightspots (Chicago GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times
(a Chicago Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender News and Feature
Publication) does not indicate the sexual orientation of such
individuals or groups. While we encourage readers to support the
advertisers who make this newspaper possible, Nightspots (Chicago
GLBT Nightlife News) and Windy City Times (a Chicago Gay, Lesbian
News and Feature Publication) cannot accept responsibility for
any advertising claims or promotions.

 
 

TRENDINGBREAKINGPHOTOS







Sponsor


 



Donate


About WCMG      Contact Us      Online Front  Page      Windy City  Times      Nightspots
Identity      BLACKlines      En La Vida      Archives      Advanced Search     
Windy City Queercast      Queercast Archives     
Press  Releases      Join WCMG  Email List      Email Blast      Blogs     
Upcoming Events      Todays Events      Ongoing Events      Bar Guide      Community Groups      In Memoriam     
Privacy Policy     

Windy City Media Group publishes Windy City Times,
The Bi-Weekly Voice of the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Trans Community.
5315 N. Clark St. #192, Chicago, IL 60640-2113 • PH (773) 871-7610 • FAX (773) 871-7609.