Reverend’s Interview: Now Saving the Universe: Captain Faggotron!

The world is one big hot mess right now. Wars, pandemics, government dysfunction, natural disasters and increased animosity toward the LGBTQ+ community are taking a toll. We could use a hero, but Superman, Flash Gordon and Wonder Woman are apparently otherwise occupied. Who can we turn to in our time of need???

Enter the fantastic Captain Faggotron! The brainchild of filmmaker Harvey Rabbit, this new superhero for our community will be making his home video debut on November 21st courtesy of TLA Releasing. A low-budget but big-hearted and very creative movie, it wowed audiences earlier this year at numerous LGBTQ+ film festivals worldwide.

Captain Faggotron Saves the Universe is a campy comedy-fantasy about internalized homophobia, the tyranny of the closet, and fear of a gay planet. It was conceived by Rabbit as a direct (though admittedly absurd) response to multiple situations: the 2016 shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida; the persecution of homosexuality in Chechnya, Russia; the election of President Donald Trump in the USA; and the violence that unfortunately follows gay and queer people of all genders throughout our lives.

When Father Gaylord, a closeted Catholic priest living in Germany, loses his precious ring, he is forced to turn to Captain Faggotron for help. It turns out that the missing ring is no ordinary piece of jewelry. It is the mystical Ring of Oberon, which has the power to turn the entire population of Earth gay. Whereas Fr. Gaylord is horrified at this prospect, his nemesis/sometimes lover Queen Bitch excitedly declares “Soon, the world will be flooded with homosexuals!” Cue the maniacal laughter.

This movie truly has something for everyone: religion, furries, men used as footrests, sex demons, animated sequences, MAGA hats, full-frontal nudity, a song about Grindr and — naturally, in light of its German setting — sausages. The title character even gets his own theme song and a dance number! As Queen Bitch queries Fr. Gaylord at one point, “Why be normal when you can be extraordinarily fabulous?”

According to the film’s website: “Captain Faggotron Saves the Universe follows a tradition deeply rooted in gay/queer history and our ability to survive. Confronting ‘straight’ and heteronormative structures, camp exposes absurdities of the mainstream in a way that allows us to laugh. Humor is a weapon, and camp is a tool of joyful resistance.”

Harvey Rabbit, the film’s writer-director, is a transgender artist living in Berlin, Germany. He has a Master’s degree in dramaturgy and a Master of Fine Arts in Experimental Theater, both from New College of California. A campaigner for LGBTQIA* and sex worker rights, his activism dates back to the mid-1990’s. Using spoken word as his medium, Rabbit stormed the stages of Northern California, speaking about feminism, queerness and empowerment.

From 2013 to 2015, he produced, curated and hosted Varieté Ridiculous, a political cabaret in Berlin focusing on sex worker rights. Rabbit’s first short film, Slowdance, premiered at the 2016 Berlin Porn Film Festival and has been shown in queer film festivals in many parts of Europe, South and Central America, and the USA. In 2017, he produced We are the Fucking World, a short film for Erika Lust. Rabbit’s most recent work, The Chemo Darkroom (2018), was selected for the shorts competition in the
Berlin Porn Film Festival, Berlin Feminist Film Week, IKFF Hamburg, and the 2019 Hacker Porn Film Festival in Rome. Captain Faggotron Saves the Universe is his first feature film.

The spirited filmmaker recently spoke with me via Zoom from his home in Berlin.

Harvey Rabbit

CC: Hi Harvey! Congratulations on making such a unique, creative film. What has been the response to it so far?
HR: Well, we just won an award! Bishop Black (who plays Queen Bitch) won the Iris Prize in Cardiff, Wales for Best Non-Binary Performance. Mostly, people are loving this film. We’ve played both LGBTQ and international film festivals. Heterosexuals are loving this film and I didn’t make it for them! I’m here to convert people. (laugh) I don’t mince words.

CC: How and when did you first conceive the story?
HR: After the Pulse shooting in 2016 in Orlando, Florida. I went into a state of shock and didn’t want to leave my apartment. Then one day, the first 12 pages of the script just kind of came out of me.

CC: This is your first feature film, correct? What were some of the challenges you faced?
HR: Yes. It’s a 72-minute film and the entirety of our budget was 20,000 Euro (approximately $21,200 US). We also had two COVID lockdowns in Germany that postponed everything. We shot basically every weekend from July through the end of October, 2020.

CC: Wow, it sounds like a true labor of love.
HR: No, it was a labor of compulsion. (laugh) I had to do this movie!

CC: Your movie has a fabulous queer cast! Did you use a formal casting process, or just cast friends or people you knew?
HR: The roles of Captain Faggotron and Queen Bitch were written specifically for the actors, Tchivett and Bishop Black. If they had said no, I couldn’t have done it. I knew Rodrigo Garcia Alves (who plays Fr. Gaylord) from the community and bumped into him on the street one day. He’s from Brazil and I thought, “Hmm, he could play the priest.” (laugh) For other roles we had auditions and readings, and everyone did it for no money. Everyone involved was gay, trans or queer, with the exception of a cis-ish member of the core creative team.

CC: Talk to me about the religious content in the movie. Are you or were you Catholic?
HR: I’m Jewish. This is not my baggage. (laugh) I really don’t know where Fr. Gaylord came from. I knew someone Catholic who thought of becoming a priest but he was really closeted. My best friend as a teenager was Catholic. We were really bad. I would spend Saturday nights at her house and we would sneak out to go party. We would get back early Sunday morning and I would sometimes go to church with her family, like two hours later. I liked the music but was not religious so hated being there. I wish a Catholic priest would come out publicly. “Just come out,” as Harvey Milk said. My movie is a fantasia on religious and gay themes but I would love it if it inspired more openness.

CC: That would be awesome. What’s next for you?
HR: I’m looking for funding to write my new script, Cancer Made Me Trans. It also has comedy and fantasy elements like Captain Faggotron, and I’ll leave it at that.

CC: I can’t wait! Well, I wish you the best and much continued success.
HR: Thank you so much!

For more information about the movie, visit TLA Releasing.

Interview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film and stage critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reverend's Interview: San Diego Film Fest Exposes a Hidden Master

October brings not only Fall décor, cooler temperatures, and tricks (ahem) as well as treats to Southern California but also two major Southern California film festivals. Tales representing our international LGBTQ+ community will be spotlighted during both.

The 22nd annual San Diego International Film Festival (SDIFF) will run from October 18th-22nd. Produced by the San Diego Film Foundation, screenings of more than 100 feature and short films will take place in the Festival Village at AMC UTC 14 at Westfield Plaza. Other events include film panels, VIP lounges, receptions, and impromptu meet ups with filmmakers. Passes and tickets can be purchased at sdfilmfest.com or by calling 619-818-2221.

Among the program’s LGBTQ+ offerings will be the San Diego premiere of Hidden Master: The Legacy of George Platt Lynes on Sunday, October 22nd. Lynes (1907-1955) began his career photographing celebrities, and it's those portraits along with his extravagant fashion work that he's best remembered for today. As this documentary reveals, however, Lynes' heart, passion and greatest talent lay elsewhere: his work with the male nude. This work, sensuous and radically explicit for its time, has only recently begun being fully discovered and appreciated for the revolution that it represents.

Directed by longtime art director turned filmmaker Sam Shahid, Hidden Master features a stunning collection of long-hidden photography from the 1930s-50s. Shahid literally exposes the life of Lynes less- known: his gifted eye for the male form, his long-term friendships with Gertrude Stein and Alfred Kinsey, and his lasting influence as one of the first openly-gay American artists.

According to the director, “George Platt Lynes was an artist endowed with an almost endless well of creative gifts. However, because of the restrictions – social, moral, artistic, legal – imposed upon him by the era in which he lived and created, he was unable to share his true talent with the public and, of equal import, future generations of artists who may have built upon and furthered his contributions to his genre. He was an artist who was never able to share what he considered to be his very best work, and more importantly what he considered his true craft.”

Sam Shahid has been leaving his mark on the world of fashion and advertising for four decades and counting. When he became the creative director for the in-house advertising agency for Calvin Klein in the early 1980s, he helped to turn the brand into the internationally recognized name it remains today with advertising campaigns that are remembered for their clean yet sensational visuals. In the early 1990s he did the same for Banana Republic before opening up his own creative design firm and advertising agency, Shahid & Company, in 1993.

Sam Shahid

In the years since, Shahid has created original and striking campaigns for brands as divergent as Versace, Perry Ellis, Gucci, Valentino, and Abercrombie & Fitch. He was also the Creative Director of Interview magazine, and he’s designed a library’s worth of fine art books for artists and photographers such as Bruce Weber, Kelly Klein, Herb Ritts, Joel Grey and Jessica Lange, amongst others. Hidden Master: The Legacy of George Platt Lynes marks Shahid’s feature directorial debut.

The energetic, affable director recently took time out of his busy schedule to speak with me:

CC: Congratulations on a great documentary and thank you for taking time to speak with me! How and/or when were you first introduced to Lynes’ work?
SS: I’d known his work for a while but I didn’t know about his life. All of us in the fashion world knew of his work, but I was asked to design a book about him in 2010 and thought “You know, there should be a film about this man! The world needs to know about him.”

CC: What made you decide to make him the subject of your first feature film?
SS: He was so brave. But it is so sad that he destroyed so much of his work. When I told people I was making a film about him, they said to me “Well, good luck.” We weren’t sure we would find enough info to make a feature film. He had so much courage to keep those male nudes because it was illegal at the time.

CC: How long did it take to develop or create?
SS: Since 2012. The project became like a client (laughs). It took 10 years to make it, mainly because it took so long to track down people who knew (Lynes) who were still alive. They’re all dead now except Don Bachardy. Then we lost two years due to COVID, of course, but I did read about 300 letters (that Lynes wrote) during that first summer of the shutdown.

CC: Someone in the film refers to Lynes as a “cross-pollinator,” which I like. Would you say this continues today?
SS: Oh yes, definitely. He was at the center of that art circle of the time which has continued to inspire artists. Robert Mapplethorpe, Bruce Weber, Herb Ritts were all influenced by George.

CC: You could say you’ve been pollinated by him yourself.
SS: (Laughs) Yes, you can.

CC: Has Lynes’ work directly inspired your career as an art director at Calvin Klein or Abercrombie & Fitch, or as a filmmaker?
SS: No, because I really didn’t know about his work beforehand. He did influence many artists I’ve work with though, including Bruce Weber and Don Bachardy.

CC: What do you hope viewers will take from Hidden Master?
SS: I hope the film will generate enough interest to mount a major exhibition of his work. That’s mentioned in the film by the Kinsey Institute representative as their hope as well. I didn’t want the film to come across as a competition between Robert Mapplethorpe and George Platt Lynes. The biggest surprise in the film is the final footage of George and writer Christopher Isherwood.

You know what’s exciting? The film has been selected to play the Lebanese Independent Film Festival (LIFF) in Beirut. George will soon be known in the Middle East! Isn’t that amazing?

The 24th annual Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) will be held just prior to SDIFF, from October 12th-19th at various Orange County locations. Tickets are on sale now at NewportBeachFilmFest.com. A number of LGBTQ+ feature films as well as short films will be screened. Among these are:

FEATURE FILMS:

Asog: A tragicomic road film that follows a non-binary Filipino comedian pursuing their dream of becoming a pageant Queen. By day, Rey teaches high school students and by night they perform at bars as a proudly gay comedian named Jaya. En route to a pageant on a neighboring island, Jaya encounters a series of people living on the frontlines of the climate crisis. 100% of the cast members are Filipinos who survived Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest storm every recorded at landfall.

 

Egghead & Twinkie: After coming out to her parents, 17-year-old Twinkie takes off on a road trip to meet her online crush with the help of her nerdy best friend, Egghead. As they make their way across the country, Egghead wrestles with his unrequited feelings for Twinkie, while Twinkie learns to embrace her identity as a gay mixed-Asian woman.

 

 

The Mattachine Family: Thomas and Oscar are a couple very much in love. But after their first foster child returns to his birth mother, they find they have different ideas about what it means to make a family. The movie is co-produced by actor-director Zach Braff.

 

 

 

SHORT FILMS:

• (In)convenience
• Alive & Well
• Blue Square Heart
• Boundaries
• Friends/Aikane
• Get Up the Nerve
• I Thought the Earth Remembered Me
• Lambing
• Mud Queen
• Face to Face/Tête à tête
• The External-Internal Monologue of an Interdependent Insomniac
• West of Frank
• Zenaida

By Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film and stage critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reverend's Reviews: Sharks, Imelda Marcos and More Currently on NYC Stages

It's probably needless to say, but Steven Spielberg's breakout, 1975 movie Jaws became the template of the modern movie blockbuster. Adapted from Peter Benchley's novel about a massive Great White shark terrorizing a seaside New England community, the film has grossed more than $2 billion (adjusted for inflation) over the years off a production cost of approximately $40 million (also adjusted for inflation). It also famously made a generation of beach-goers, myself included, think twice before going into the water. As a kid, I was even afraid of going into my apartment complex's swimming pool for a while after watching Jaws.

The film notoriously went over budget during production due to inclement weather and the continuous malfunctioning of several mechanical sharks created for it. The Shark is Broken, an aptly-titled new play written by and starring the son of one of the movie's stars, is currently serving as a Broadway exposé of behind-the-scenes Hollywood mayhem. I attended a recent performance expecting it to be a comedic, potentially campy rehash of film-industry mythology, but was pleasantly surprised to instead find a heartfelt exploration of often tempestuous relationships between actors as well as between fathers and sons.

Spielberg teamed veteran actors Robert Shaw (his son Ian wrote the play, largely drawn from Robert's journals) and Roy Scheider with relative newcomer Richard Dreyfuss. Ian Shaw gives an uncanny performance as his father, honestly yet sympathetically depicting the senior Shaw's alcoholism as well as his hope to outlive his own, suicidal father (sadly, Robert was unsuccessful in this regard). Two-time Tony Award nominee Alex Brightman entertainingly plays Dreyfuss as a then-insecure wannabe movie star desperate for his co-stars' validation. The lesser-known Colin Donnell gives the play's most centered, Zen-like performance as Scheider, who just wants a free, solitary afternoon to work on his tan... yummily stripped down to a Speedo bikini in one scene. Donnell also has what is arguably the play's funniest line, when he vows as Scheider to never be part of a potential sequel. (Scheider headlined 1978's Jaws 2.)

Directed by Guy Masterson, The Shark is Broken is set solely on the Orca, the famed shark-hunting boat in the film. Some impressive projections are employed to make it look like the boat and the waters surrounding it are moving. It becomes an amusing guessing game for audience members to try to determine the various hiding places on the set where Robert has hidden his booze, which not even the actor/character himself can remember.

As a cinephile, I enjoyed this play's depiction of the tortured process that went into making the classic Jaws. But I also appreciated The Shark is Broken on its own theatrical yet deeply personal terms. I recommend as many people as possible see it during its current limited run at Broadway's Golden Theater through November 19th, 2023.

If they can mount a Broadway musical about the life of Argentinian first lady Eva Peron (Evita), then why not one about Imelda Marcos, notorious shoe-loving first lady of the Philippines from 1965-1986? Thanks to Talking Heads auteur David Byrne and master DJ-musician Fatboy Slim, Imelda is now a singing & dancing sensation in the pair's fantastic Here Lies Love.

First produced off-Broadway 10 years ago, it took heartfelt dedication to mount the version now playing at the Broadway Theater. Though one of NYC's oldest and largest theaters, director Alex Timbers and scenic designer David Korins removed most of the venue's orchestra seats to reconfigure the floor level into an interactive discotheque environment. Attendees can buy tickets to either stand on the floor and be part of the action or to be seated in the more traditional mezzanine section. I sat in the mezz and appreciated having a bird's eye view of the floor, including a central stage/platform that rotates 360 degrees. Dancers and even some of the lead actors still made their way up to the mezzanine, and the show's DJ got all of us up on our feet twice to teach us choreography for two standout numbers.

Here Lies Love is a sung-through, necessarily abbreviated account (100 minutes without an intermission) of Imelda's life. Continuous video projections courtesy of Peter Nigrini fill in some of the details but, for better and worse, the show leaves one wanting more from a historical perspective. Still, it is effective at showing how easily political popularity can turn to tyranny, definitely a timely lesson here in the good ol' Trump-infected US of A. It is also the first Broadway musical to feature an all-Filipino cast, which is its own historic achievement.

Many musicals send audiences out singing or humming some of their tunes. In my experience, though, Here Lies Love is the first to send audience members out literally dancing in the street! One must see/experience it, and I sincerely hope the show enjoys a well-deserved long life.

In light of the ongoing strike by Writers Guild of America (WGA) members, Pay the Writer is certainly an appropriate title for a new play. Written by Tawni O'Dell and directed by Karen Carpenter (no relation to myself), it is now having its world premiere through the end of this month at the Pershing Square Signature Center in NYC.

A starry cast headed by out actor Bryan Batt (Mad Men), Ron Canada (The West Wing) and Marcia Cross (Desperate Housewives) definitely commands attention. The plot actually doesn't involve the current WGA strike, but it instead relates a decades-long relationship between (fictional) acclaimed author Cyrus Holt and his gay literary agent, Bruston Fischer. Cyrus (played by Canada) has been diagnosed with a terminal illness and is trying to mend fences with Bruston (Batt) as well as his ex-wife Lana (Cross) and two adult children during his remaining time.

O'Dell's script entails many important topics including racism, homophobia, personal and professional legacies, the Vietnam War and its after-effects, and mortality. It's ultimately a bit too much content for a 2-hour play performed without an intermission, and could be improved with some further development and fleshing out of its characters. For example, we have no idea what Cross's character, Lana, does for a living or really anything else about her personal/professional life. Similarly, we don't know how Bruston spends his personal time aside from hanging out on the front stoop of Cyrus's apartment building. There is also mention of a horrible gay bashing/attempted murder incident Bruston endured that is too quickly brushed aside.

Still, Pay the Writer is worth seeing for its fine cast and their performances. In addition to the three leads, Garrett Turner is excellent as both young Cyrus and his son Leo, and Stephen Payne makes a memorable impression in his one scene as a nameless, homeless Vietnam vet with whom adult Cyrus crosses paths.

20 Seconds, a powerful one-man show, just opened on September 21st and is also playing at the Pershing Square Signature Center. Reverend was privileged to attend a preview performance on September 16th. Powerful might not be a strong enough word to describe Tom Sweitzer's autobiographical saga: I highly recommend the producers post a currently absent "trigger warning" on the play's website for its graphic descriptions of child abuse, spousal abuse and animal abuse, plus attempted murder and suicide.

This isn't to scare audiences away from the production. Sweitzer bravely, cathartically recreates his often-horrific upbringing by his physically abusive father and emotionally abusive mother. The actor-writer-music therapist plays all the parts in 20 Seconds. These include himself as a boy, his parents, the kindly church minister who takes him under her wing, and numerous other male and female characters. Sweitzer is openly gay and the play also addresses his coming of age in this regard.

He is impressive in many of these dramatic moments, but both the friend who attended with me and I came away feeling Sweitzer has taken on too much. 20 Seconds could potentially benefit from a more objective approach, employing multiple actors to portray Sweitzer and the other roles. There are moments in the current production when one fears Sweitzer is risking re-traumatizing himself... and traumatizing unsuspecting audience members along with him. That being said, I applaud Sweitzer for his courageous, ultimately hopeful work. One can catch it now through October 21st.

Last but certainly not least among NYC productions Reverend has attended recently is the off-Broadway sensation Titanique! I streamed an early, online version of this hilarious spoof during the COVID shutdown and loved it. But I finally decided to see the fully-staged production at the Daryl Roth Theatre after learning the fantastique Drew Droege was joining the cast. Droege — who has an extensive resumé that includes The Groundlings comedy troupe, numerous sitcom appearances and indie films, plus roles in acclaimed plays (several of which he wrote himself)— has been a friend since we crossed paths at Outfest Los Angeles approximately a decade ago. He is also well known for his sublime YouTube videos in which he portrays actress Chloë Sevigny, pontificating on various mundane topics.

In brief, Titanique recreates James Cameron's 1997 Oscar-winning film for which French-Canadian singer Celine Dion immortalized the song "My Heart Will Go On." But in this off-kilter rendition, Dion inserts herself into the film and even claims to have been physically present on the ill-fated luxury liner when it collided with an iceberg and sank in 1912. The very funny Jackie Burns has assumed the role of Dion from original star and book co-writer Marla Mindelle. I was especially amused by the multiple ways Burns intentionally mispronounces her diva character's name, including what sounds like "So-long" instead of "Celine." Though some die-hard fans might consider the show's depiction of Dion as disrespectful, it is actually quite loving even as it highlights some of the real-life singer's quirkier behaviors.

Droege is a hoot in the role of Ruth, Rose's bitchy mother (played by Frances Fisher in the movie). Also new to the cast is RuPaul's Drag Race alum Willam, although he was out the evening I attended. Now extended through January 7th, be sure to book passage on Titanique when in NYC!

Reverend's Ratings:
The Shark is Broken: B+
Here Lies Love: A-
Pay the Writer: B
20 Seconds: B-
Titanique: A-

Reviews by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film and stage critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.

Reverend's Interview: Dressed for Success in Bottoms

Many of us have been captivated this past month by season 2 of Heartstopper, the acclaimed Netflix series about a group of nice, largely well-behaved LGBTQ teens. Well, get ready for Bottoms, a raunchy, politically-incorrect new movie that serves as the virtual antithesis of Heartstopper but I still recommend. It is now playing in select theaters.

This comedy directed by Emma Seligman (Shiva Baby) focuses on two queer girls, PJ and Josie, who start a high school fight club in an effort to lose their virginities to cheerleaders. Their bizarre plan works. The fight club gains traction and soon the most popular girls in school are beating each other up in the name of self-defense, with some self-discovery worked in. But PJ and Josie soon find themselves in over their heads and in need of a way out before their plan is exposed.

Rachel Sennott, who previously starred in the similarly provocative Shiva Baby, headlines the cast as PJ and co-wrote the screenplay with Seligman. Ayo Edebira (also currently seen in Hulu’s The Bear) plays Josie, and British actor Nicholas Galitzine co-stars as a charmingly narcissistic football player. Galitzine is currently making viewers swoon as Prince Henry in Amazon Prime’s hit gay-themed romance Red, White & Royal Blue. Bottoms also boasts a music score co-composed by pop singer-songwriter Charli XCX.

There are an abundance of LGBTQ teen characters in Bottoms, which was actually titled Gay High School Fight Club while Seligman and Sennott were writing it. As Sennott recalls in the film’s press notes: “Emma had this idea to do a queer teen high school story, and I wanted to do a comedy where the women behave badly and the main characters are sort of unlikeable. We connected over that and spent the next few weeks outlining and brainstorming.”

Seligman described the inspiration behind the script. “Our initial references were Superbad or American Pie or the many other teen movies with male leads trying to lose their virginity,” she said. “Rachel and I felt that there are just as many flawed, superficial, horny teenage girls as there are flawed, superficial, horny teenage boys. Those were the initial references, then Wet Hot American Summer, Bring It On, Sugar & Spice and Drop Dead Gorgeous, and all these Y2K teen movies helped shape the tone of the movie.” While they aimed to have positive representations of queer teen sexuality, Seligman and Sennott really wanted to show just how messy women can be.

1999’s homoerotic drama Fight Club, which co-starred Brad Pitt and Edward Norton and was directed by David Fincher, is another inspiration referenced multiple times in the film. Ultimately, Bottoms has abundant heart as well as moments of bad taste plus a great montage set to Bonnie Tyler’s classic song "Total Eclipse of the Heart", an awesome finale, and some hilarious bloopers during its end credits.

Eunice Lee

Another standout element of the movie are its character’s costumes, drawn from influences spanning different time periods, film genres and dramatic tones by designer Eunice Lee. Lee began her career as a high-fashion stylist and a fashion journalist before entering the film industry. She is currently designing costumes for the upcoming Twisters, a big-budget sequel to/reboot of the 1996 tornado thriller Twister.

Lee recently took time out of her busy schedule to speak with me via Zoom:

CC: Hi Eunice! I’m really excited because in my 25-plus years of interviewing filmmakers and other talent, I’ve never interviewed a costume designer! Maybe for myself and the less familiar, can you kind of explain what exactly a costume designer does or how do you approach your work?
EL: Oh wow, sure! Costume designers are responsible for designing the overall look and every outfit for every character that you see on set or in the film.

CC: Where does the design process typically start for you? I know some directors will read scripts and they’re picturing certain actors in certain roles. When you’re reading a script, are you picturing the costumes or the fashions the characters might be wearing that immediately or does that come later on?
EL: Well, the first time I read the script I read it in totality so I don’t really think about the fashion. I think about who these characters might be. My process is really to create backstories for characters, like what makes each character a whole person and not just a character. We see them for an hour and a half to two hours and that’s not their full story, and to create something, or a person or a character, that doesn’t feel shallow you kind of have to understand what got this person or this character to this place to begin with. And so I just start creating these backstories for everyone.

CC: That’s cool, that’s interesting. And you got your start in fashion journalism, is that right?
EL: That’s correct, actually. I went to Parsons School of Design (in New York City) and while I was there getting my BBA I interned my way through Conde Nast. Then I moved to London and got my Masters at another fashion school in fashion journalism, and I kind of stayed in that high luxury fashion space for a very long time (laugh).

CC: So, what inspired you or led you into costume design?
EL: It’s more serendipity than anything else. Long story short, I suppose: After London and being in this very competitive space as a stylist, I went to Seoul for a holiday and I was introduced to this Italian filmmaker who felt very passionate about setting me up with this Korean-American director because he was in town prepping for his next indie film. I had never done a film before, I had never even considered it. But this director asked me to go to LA and meet with this designer that he had hired, and he let her know that he wanted me to be a part of this project. And so, a few months later, I was in Seoul and traveling around South Korea on that film and that’s where I met (actor-producer-director) Justin Chon, who I’ve collaborated on multiple films with including Blue Bayou and Jamojaya, which premiered at Sundance this year.

CC: That’s awesome. Yeah, serendipitous is definitely the appropriate word there. So, talk to me about Bottoms. How did this film or project find its way to you?
EL: It’s not very exciting. I got sent the script through my agents and I’d heard of Emma Seligman because she had just done this great film called Shiva Baby. I love dark comedies and I just felt like, “here’s this really young girl who just graduated NYU doing something.” I mean, she really had her finger on the pulse in terms of comedy and I thought she would just be really fun to collaborate with. So I really fought to be a part of this film and I really wanted to work on something that really highlighted the LGBTQIA community.

CC: Bottoms is a very funny movie and your designs for the women in the cast are certainly noteworthy, but one of the funniest things about the movie for me was the football players and how they’re in their uniforms the entire film. Was that how it was written or was that the director’s choice or your choice, or was there consultation about that?
EL: (Laughs) For sure. That was an Emma idea. We had multiple conversations about this but I really used Fight Club as an example for this film, not just for the obvious but because I love the way that Michael Kaplan, who designed Fight Club, utilizes the use of gender to signify or kind of juxtapose these really masculine, macho acts of fighting and beating each other up. But then you have Brad Pitt wearing women’s robes and these tight floral shirts and, like, these really camp glasses. It just kind of normalizes it as a masculine thing, and I loved the idea of making the silhouettes for these football players as feminine as it can get within the parameters of it still being a uniform. So, we used smaller padding. We used very, VERY tight uniforms. I mean, I sized down for everyone and it was a nightmare! (Laughs) Most days, we thought the seams were going to rip. The boys could hardly get themselves inside the uniforms. It took two costumers to help every football player.

CC: That is too funny! You mentioned Michael Kaplan and that raised a question for me: Are there other costume designers, either living or deceased, who have really inspired you or you really kind of admire?
EL: Oh, I mean I don’t want to leave anyone out but I love Sandy Powell (a 15-time Oscar nominee and 3-time Oscar winner). I think Heidi Bivens (Euphoria, Reservation Dogs) is very exciting; I think that she is just a phenomenal designer who really has her finger on the pulse. And Jenny Beavan (an Oscar winner for Cruella and Mad Max: Fury Road). There are so many, honestly, I just don’t even know how to answer that question. I think the one thing about choosing designers, for directors, is that everyone will bring a different perspective. You’re never going to have two separate designers who bring the same thing to the table.

CC: Hmm, that’s interesting to think about. In the film’s press notes, it mentions that you “connect with characters from diverse and LGBTQ communities.” Can you talk a little bit about that connection or attraction?
EL: Sure. I mean, I’m gay and I’m a Korean-American who grew up in Orange County in a very Christian, Korean bubble (laughs). It was suffocating for me but I luckily escaped. I moved to New York and, you know, just seeing different representation of our community there and then, furthermore, moving to London and getting to see the variety of style and types of people in our community just really opened my eyes to the diversity and the individuality of each person.

I also think the way that gay people are portrayed to mainstream media is so different from how we see ourselves and, sure, in the gay culture there’s going to be super-camp men or there’s going to be women who present themselves as super-butch. But the reality is that’s not the entirety of our community, and I really wanted to do a film where I could show that there’s this ultra-feminine character who you don’t know if she’s gay or not. And there’s another character who’s still trying to figure out who she is and her place in the gay community and how she wants to express herself to the world. I thought that it was really important to bring these different types of style and show each character as a full human as opposed to just a caricature or stereotype.

CC: Are there any other big-name or known filmmakers who you really hope to work with sometime?
EL: Yeah, I’ve always wanted to work with Wes Anderson (Asteroid City, Moonrise Kingdom, et al), which kind of feeds the stylized side of my brain, but there are other really exciting people. I think Jonah Hill is an incredible filmmaker. I loved what he did on Mid90s and that version of storytelling is really exciting as well. There are so many people I want to work with!

CC: I can see you working with Wes Anderson. I think your sensibilities and style would line up really well.
EL: Thank you! We’ll see, but I do think that things that are meant for you do come and things that don’t just aren’t meant for you. But it’s been exciting so far!

Interview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film and stage critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.