It is not uncommon for two longtime friends to simultaneously come to the early-midlife conclusion that their biological clocks may be winding down. For those who have reached their 30s without settling on a husband, wife or long-term partner, the idea of conceiving a child together despite the lack of physical attraction becomes more and more appealing as time goes on. Such an idea was the basis for Friends with Kids earlier this year (read Flash Gorem’s review here), but the concept gets thrown for another loop in Gayby. Making its Georgia premiere on the opening night of Atlanta’s Out on Film festival this Thursday, Gayby is based on Jonathan Lisecki’s four-year-old short film about Jenn (Jenn Harris), a single New York City yoga instructor ready for motherhood, and her gay friend Matt (Matthew Wilkas), who works in a comic book store and is still trying to get over his last boyfriend, and their decision to procreate. After premiering at South by Southwest earlier this year, Gayby has screened in numerous festivals and sees its theatrical release in New York on Oct. 12 and in Los Angeles on Oct. 26, followed by a Video on Demand and DVD release in December. As he prepares to show his Gayby off in Atlanta, writer/director Lisecki (who also plays Nelson in the film) talks to Wrestling with Pop Culture about its conception.
When did you decide to expand your short film into a full-length feature?
Writer/director Jonathan Lisecki (right) plays Nelson in "Gayby"
It played around at all these festivals, so I got to see it with a bunch of different audiences all over the country and outside of the country. So I knew it had some universal appeal and people always really responded to it and loved Jenn and Matt. A little more than a year ago, I was at a festival and the two women who wound up producing the film [Secretary‘s Amy Hobby and Lipstick & Dynamite‘s Anne Hubbell] were there with me. They were like, “When are you going to make a feature of Gayby?” I was like, “I don’t know. Are you going to help me if I make it?” And they said, “Yeah, if you write one!” Once I knew that I would have people to help me, I wrote the script last May and we were shooting by August. It was kind of a quick decision.
Even though Matt is gay, he’s not stereotypically gay and it’s easy to relate with him regardless of your sexuality. He works at a comic book store and is just a regular guy who happens to be gay. Was it your intention to make him somewhat universally relatable like that?
I knew we were going to have multiple gay characters, so we should have different aspects of that life portrayed. And I know people like Matt. I just thought it would be interesting if we saw a gay character who wasn’t quick to hop in the sack with other people, who worked in a different kind of job than we usually see, who was a little bit more shy. It all just seemed right for what I wanted to say with the movie.
I didn’t want to get too much into this, “He doesn’t act gay, so he’s not a gay stereotype” thing. In the past ten years or so, it’s swung to the reverse. There are more campy characters on television, but there are also these guys who are so butch that you’d never know they were gay. Either way it can be a stereotype, it just depends on how human you write the characters. People are quick to say a certain type of person is a stereotype, but is that really true? There are people who are like every single person in my film in real life. I think you can write any type of person and as long as you treat them with honesty and intelligence, that’s how you avoid that beginning to feel like a stereotype.
At a certain point in the movie it becomes questionable if Matt is actually the father of Jenn’s baby, which creates some tension between him and Jenn. But it’s never actually revealed if he is or is not the father.
One of many awkward moments that arises between Jenn (second from left) and Matt (right) in "Gayby"
No, it’s not. That’s not really the point. The point is they’re creating this family that’s based on a bond that isn’t specifically genetic. I thought there was no real reason to answer that question. There’s also a personal aspect to that from my life where there’s a question I never had answered that I’m fine with not knowing the answer to. To wrap every single thing up in a bow sometimes feels not real, so I just wanted to leave that open ended.
Gayby was selected to screen at Out on Film on opening night, which is a pretty big deal, right?
To the festivals it is. I think they choose the movies they like to debut opening night and closing night. For a filmmaker, it’s always lovely to be at the opening night movie screenings. It just makes it feel a little more special and it’s nice. But there’s something special about sharing a movie with an audience no matter where it’s played. I guess there’s a little bit of a bonus to be played first. It just means the people who program the festival really like your movie and want to showcase it a little.