The last couple of movies Molly Shannon has starred in have seen her playing the mother of a gay man. That was her character in both Other People and Miles, the latter of which was just released in US cinemas. It turns out this wasn’t purely a coincidence (or because they were the only gigs she could get). It was partially because her father gay, although she didn’t know this until towards the end of his life.
As reported by The Advocate, at a post-screening Q&A in Los Angeles last week, she said, “My dad was gay and closeted – born in 1926, where it wasn’t an option. Married.”
Shannon was unaware of her father’s hidden sexuality growing up, although now she sees that there were certain aspects of his personality that might have been a clue. “When I went to NYU drama school, I would send him pictures of like a head shot of Judy Garland,” she said. I didn’t associate that he might be gay; I just thought, ‘He’ll love this! And then when I got my first color head shots, my dad framed it and threw gold stars all over it.”
It wasn’t until later in life that he revealed his sexuality. Molly recalls, “He was 72 when he told me. He told me he was gay right before he died.We were sitting at the pool at the Four Seasons, and I said, ‘Have you ever thought you might be gay?’ He said, ‘Most definitely.’ And then we drove to Ohio and talked about it for the next 72 hours.”
As for her recent choice of movies, she adds, “All stories about people being gay and coming out, I’m just so attracted to. It was my whole childhood. My whole life. I was the child of somebody who had to keep that secret. So anything I can do to let that out and tell all those stories is the most important thing to me.”
In Miles, longtime LGBT advocate Shannon plays Pam, whose gay son (the titular Miles) can’t wait to leave high school so he can leave the small town he grew up in and go to college in Chicago. However, when Pam’s husband dies she discovers he spent all their cash – including Miles’ university funds – on his mistress. That sets Miles off on a mission to find some other way of getting out of his hometown, while his mother starts to explore life out from under the thumb of her husband. You can read our review of the movie here.
It was a genuine shock when young Anton Yelchin was killed in a tragic accident last year. Now his final roles are making it to the screen, including We Don’t Belong Here (previously titled The Greens Are Gone), which has recently been released on DVD/VoD in the US.
Each year the day before the Oscars, the Independent Spirit Awards are held, which were set up as the equivalent of the Hollywood-centric Academy Awards but for movies made outside the mainstream. This year the big winner was Moonlight, which picked up five gongs.
It’s certainly been a good year for gay-themed films amongst the nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards, the pre-eminent indie awards ceremony (films are only eligible if they have a budget of less and $20 million), which takes place ahead of the Oscars each year. Leading the way is the acclaimed Moonlight, Barry Jenkins’ film about a young, gay African-American, which picked up six noms, equal with the Shia LaBeouf starrer, American Honey.
Other People got a lot of buzz when it debuted at Sundance, but also sparked a little controversy after reports that people walked out during a gay sex scene featuring Jesse Plemons’ character. Plemons reacted by saying, “I’d love to talk to them and figure out what it was about that scene that made them leave.”
Although it hasn’t been confirmed this one has some gay interest to, it’s about flight attendants and the lead character is called Larry Gaye – so we’re going to stereotype this one and call LGBT interest on it!
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