Tuc Watkins – The Boys in the Band

By starrymag | September 30, 2020

By: Kelly Kearney

 

 

Q) For anyone who is not familiar with this play turned film, talk a little bit about the themes of The Boys in the Band and how your character “Hank” fits in.

A) Well, The Boys in the Band was written in 1968 and I think Mart Crowley sort of drilled a peephole through an apartment door in New York City and gave us an evening of what it was like when gay men got together in the late ‘60s. It’s funny, it’s sad, it’s difficult to watch at times, but I think it’s a true representation of what it was like to be gay in the late ‘60s. Hank fits into the story in that he’s recently left his wife and children to be with Larry, played by Andrew Rannells, because he’s fallen in love with him. And I can only imagine how difficult that must have been to do in the late ‘60s. He must have been vilified, ostracized and it must have taken an incredible amount of courage because people just didn’t really do that then. You know, when I was playing the part I thought, “What must have that been like? How could he have done that?” What came to mind, to me, was that he could not, not, do it anymore. He couldn’t continue to live inauthentically and somehow he summoned the courage to be true to himself.

Q) There are so many tense and tumultuous moments in this piece. How did you prepare for some of those scenes?

A) Well, kind of like Hank, a lot of my younger years were spent really not being comfortable being gay. There was a lot of fear and shame behind it and I think that when these guys get together, it’s a real introspection into “What does it mean to be gay?” I think the nine different characters in the play, and the movie, have levels of comfort with what that means to them; just like I did, I think like everyone does when coming to terms with “Who am I?” That it wasn’t easy for Hank and it wasn’t easy for me because I feel like a lot of the things I saw around me or I saw on television were caricatures that didn’t fit like who I felt like I was. So, I thought, “Well, I’m not that. So, I must not be gay?” It wasn’t until maybe Hank met like-minded people when he went to New York, just like when I met like-minded people when I moved to California in the ‘90s, and I thought, “Maybe that’s where I fit in? That’s my tribe.” I think Hank really gets pulled into this group because of Larry. Larry was probably, initially, friends with Jim Parsons’ character, Michael, and Hank is there is because Larry is there.

Q) When filming some of the more intense scenes, what was the mood on set?

A) Well, we shot the movie a year after we did a five-month run on Broadway. So, we were pretty comfortable in the shoes of our characters that by the time it came around to doing the film…which fortunately we got to shoot mostly chronologically and in sequence. That set is such a claustrophobic space, that apartment. It’s raining outdoors and all nine of us are closed inside that apartment like life on a submarine. There is a lot of tension. So, when they would yell “CUT!” we would pretty frequently make jokes about each other [laughing] so that we could relieve some of that tension and then get back into it. I think we were able to do that because we knew the material pretty well.

Q) Did you get any advice from the original off-Broadway cast on how to approach this role or did you steer clear of that and look for your own inspiration?

A) Well, the original cast was from 1968, so that was fifty years ago. And, unfortunately, many of those cast members had passed and tragically a lot of them passed during the AIDS epidemic. There were only two cast members who were still living and that is Peter White and Laurence Luckinbill. Lawrence played the original “Hank” and I reprised that role in the reboot. It wasn’t that we were specifically kept apart, but the first time I met Larry was opening night of the play. I had not seen the movie, but mostly because I always had a hard time. For example, if I’m doing a Shakespeare play I don’t watch previous film directions because I don’t want to inadvertently be stuck in someone else’s portrayal of my part. It basically boils down to not wanting to inadvertently pull from them. So, I had not seen the film and I felt like, I was working with Ryan Murphy and Joe Mantello, who are producing and directing it, and Mart Crowley who wrote it was also available to us. So, I felt like I was in good hands.

Q) Most actors will admit the key to a great performance is finding the parts of a character they can relate to. Something that both actor and character have in common. What do Tuc and Hank share in common and how do they differ?

A) The thing we have most in common is that we both have children. So, I kept thinking to myself, “What would it take for me, personally, to leave my children to go live a more authentic life?” And I couldn’t come up with anything to tell you the truth, but I’m also afforded the luxury to live that way. Any freedom that I feel as a gay man is because of the gay men from fifty years ago who paved the path and who did led a more difficult life. Those who stood up made it easier for those who came after them. I think where we differ is, maybe Hank had more courage than I do. How incredibly courageous it was to do that and still maintain a sense of self and be able to feel that he was doing the right thing. To make that choice and to still feel like you’re doing the right thing, when everyone around you is telling you you’re a bad person, I think that would be maybe more than I could handle.

Q) The Boys in the Band was written by American playwright Mart Crowley, who sadly passed away this March. Were you able to speak with him about this remake and do you think he would be pleased with the final result?

A) I really do because the film and our production on Broadway are very true to each other and he was very happy with the Broadway production. It led to the Tony award he has deserved his whole life for this play. He was around during filming and we would talk to him on set and he’s even a barfly in the opening sequence at Julius’ bar where Andrew’s character is flirting with someone. Mart is at the other end of the bar, so he makes an appearance in the movie. I think he would have been very happy with it.

Q) Let’s talk direction. You starred in the Broadway revival and now the film. What were some of the challenges of taking Hank from the stage to the television screen and what kind of guidance did you get from director Joe Montello that helped ease that transition?

A) I would say the biggest difference between taking it from the stage to film was trusting the nuances that a camera could find that didn’t need to be sold with a heavy hand. When we were doing the play, you know, you need to play to the back row and there’s not a lot of room for stage subtlety. But there’s so much nuance. There’s so much dialogue between the characters that’s unspoken that the movie really reflects that. Joe kept telling us, “Just trust yourselves to react to what’s happening and I’ll find it.” I think since we played the characters for a good amount of time previously, we showed up with our guns loaded. We walked around in those shoes long enough that it started to feel like a second skin and you could trust that it’s there without having to present it.

Q) The Boys in the Band was the first-time gay themes were embraced by the theater and film masses. It unapologetically delved into what it was like to be gay in a time when the community was often shoved into the shadows. While society has now embraced the LGBT community, we still have a long way to go towards acceptance.  What does this level of representation mean to you, a gay working actor, and why is it so important to tell stories like this today with an openly all gay cast?

A) Ryan Murphy said, as we were starting rehearsal for the play, “There needs to be more stories told about the history of the LGBT people; there just does,” and I completely agree with that. Whether it makes us look good, look bad, like heroes or villains, we just need to know our history better and while it’s a work of entertainment and it’s great fun to watch. It’s also a bit of a history lesson. I think what it means for today, I feel like it moves the needle forward in terms of representation because I think it’s important to note that nine out gay actors made up this cast and it’s as if when we were all invited to be a part of this production Ryan handed us our capes and Joe coached us on our superhero powers. And it felt like we were individual members of a Gay Justice League. So, when we would come to the end of the stage every night at the end of the show and take hands, it felt empowering. To show “here’s who we authentically are and these are the characters that we play and it’s safe out here,” and hopefully others will find the comfort to join us.

Q) Working with Ryan Murphy is a rite of passage now in Hollywood. What is it about his style that attracts so many fans and actors to his projects?

A) I think he does really exciting stories with fantastic characters. It’s fun to play a character in a Ryan Murphy production and it’s also fun to work under his umbrella because his vision is extraordinary. He’s really good with the big picture of what the world should look like, with the theme and the feeling of a production is. You know when you watch any of his shows from “Glee” all the way up to his new show “Ratched” you feel like you’re actually immersed in that world and you feel it’s just a fun place to walk around. I think audiences appreciate that.

Q) Everyone has a different reaction to this piece, but most would agree that it changed them in some way. When was the first time you saw The Boys in the Band and what was your first impression?

A) I was familiar with this play and the movie, but I never, ever watched it when I was younger. I think the reason I didn’t was I thought if I read that play or if I watch that movie and someone sees me reading it or watching it, they’ll know I’m gay. So, I avoided it out of fear. So, I wasn’t very familiar with it and when I read it, it really is a period piece. It’s very specific to what it was like to be gay in that era and it wasn’t pretty. I remember when I first read it, I thought, “Why do you want to redo this? We’ve come so far since then. Why are we revisiting this? We should be doing new projects that are more evolved?” And I came to learn, or I came to appreciate, that we have to reinvestigate our past because if we don’t reinvestigate our past, we may repeat it. We must know where we come from. As a gay person, that’s just where I come from. I am an evolution of this evening in that apartment and so I thought we needed to look at it and learn from it.

Q) You, like the rest of the cast, also did the Broadway rival in 2018. Any chance we can see you back on stage in the future or are you concentrating on film and television right now?

A) Well, I’m back out in Los Angeles now. I was working on “Black Monday with Andrew most recently, but I would jump at the chance to do a great project on Broadway. But the actor’s nomadic life takes us where the work takes us.

Q) The original off-Broadway play that hit the stage in 1968 was later turned into a movie and eventually revived for Broadway in 2018. So, what is about this film version that sets it apart from the rest? How will it make its mark in the series of remakes and revivals?

A) I think there’s providence behind it’s back. I think that the original play, and the original movie, were produced at the time it was currently happening, when it was part of the zeitgeist. Now, we can reflect on it and look at it with perspective. I think it will certainly stand on its own, but it will always have perspective to it. As someone from the twenty-first century looking back and seeing what it had been so that we can make it better as we go forward. I bet most millennials haven’t heard this title before and many people who may watch this movie on Netflix will not know it is a remake of any kind. They might just think it’s a script written to reflect a certain era of time, but I think that is why we celebrate works from the past at their fiftieth anniversary; to reintroduce them to a whole new generation. I hope what this does is it opens the eyes of young people who fortunately live more courageously than I did when I was young, but that they’ll have an understanding of why they get to. I’m at an age where growing up I didn’t have any gay role models to look up to and the gay role models who were starting to come about fell to the AIDS crisis in such great numbers. And now that we have a movie like this with out gay actors, the generation that come up under us will be able to point to somebody and go, “Well, those guys are gay. They’re out, they’re working, they’re not hiding. Maybe I can follow one of their paths?”

Q) What is next for you, Tuc? Are you working on any other projects the fans can keep an eye out for?

A) I recently worked on a pilot for Disney and we’ll see what, if anything, happens with that. In the meantime, I’ve written a children’s book about having my children through the surrogacy process and I’m working on getting that published.

Q) What would you like to say to the fans and followers of your work?

A) Well, I appreciate anyone who’s been around for the evolution of me. To watch an actor go from being someone who was afraid to talk about who he truly was to feeling more emboldened to do that and embraced having done that means the world to me.