QAF Paley Fest-2002...
I've been going crazy trying to find my notes from that event. I think it was my first Paley. But I couldn't find my recap that I posted online many moons ago. But work brought me to the Museum of Television and Radio so when I finished, I accessed their archives and watched their recording of the QAF panel.
I smiled the entire time. Even had tears in my eyes. I miss my boys.
I remember crawling on the floor and the bottom step of the stage to reach Gale and having the security stand over me telling me to ‘get off the stairs’.
Also, I remember hating the moderator. I’ve seen her introduce panels since, but I forgot why I didn’t like her. After watching the footage again, I remember. She knew nothing about the show, didn’t ask any good questions, she called Gale Harold “Gale Harrod” and she kept saying Bobby “Grant”.
Panel set-up: Michelle, Tony Jonas, Sharon, Hal, Daniel Lipman, Gale, Ron Cowan, Randy, Peter, Scott, Sheila Hockin, Thea and Bobby.
They each come out after their introductions. Sharon and Gale receive the most applause. When Scott took the stage, he came out and gave what I call a “Carlos Santana bow” ; you know, Carlos Santana clasps his hands together and points it towards the audience and does a half-bow. It’s funny if you notice it. To which Peter chants: “Cheeseball! Cheeseball! Cheeseball!
CowLip introduces the eppy: we were shown a new one, Episode 208 in which Justin breaks the rules (or as Ron referred to it as “Their Gay Manifesto”) oh, three times in one night.
The panel itself begins with the question from the moderator about the process of adapting QaF for Showtime. Was Showtime hands-off?
Ron: It was daunting. We saw the British version and we were shocked by it. We knew if we did it, we’d have to be as brave as Russell (Davies). We had to match that. That was the difficulty. That and the casting, and boy did we luck out. We found great people. Everyday we would go to the casting office and there would be pages and pages of people who had said, “Not interested. Not interested.” There were a number of actors who didn’t’ want to go out for it or agents who didn’t want their clients to be involved. We are so blessed to have remarkably talented actors who are so smart and so committed.
Dan: Brave and committed in regards to the character work as well as the sexuality of the show and how we use sex to explore the internal aspects of the characters. One moment (during casting) was especially dark and Sharon (Gless) and there was no one else who could ever play that character, Sharon came and said, “Don’t get dismayed. You’ll get it done.” She was a ray of sunshine that day and still is.
Tony: Jerry Offsay (head of Showtime) felt that QAF worked in the UK, but that the US was too homophobic and not as enlightened in terms of being receptive to the show. There was a brief tug-of-war with HBO who wanted the show. They contacted me, at that time Joel Shumacher was attached to the project. He left the project and it went to Dan and Ron. There were heated discussions regarding casting, but gentlemanly discussions.
Dan: Ron and I come from a network TV background. At Showtime we don’t get the interference we get from Network TV. It’s very liberating.
Mod: What was the casting process like?
Bobby: Ooh, this is so exciting. You guys (the audience) are amazing. My agent gave it to me and I felt like I was reading about myself in so many ways (me: at this point in time Bobby hadn’t come out, so it’s funny watching him switch up in the midst of answering a question) with the spirituality aspects and so many other things about the character. I went in a few times. A month into the process, they flew me out to Toronto and I had a beautiful connection with them, but I still didn’t get the job. I think they wanted to make sure I had chemistry with Hal. (the cast laughs at this point, I believe because they’re referring to the Chris Potter situation) I went out a few more times and they gave me the job.
Thea: Before I got the role, I was very disillusioneed with my career, so when I got the script it was like a magic ball had come into my life. I flew to LA, it was the first time I had been there, I saw Peter first and then I saw Randy and I couldn’t help but think how beautiful he was. Then I met Michelle and we were like (imitates bullets firing). She told me I could do it. She was so strong, she carried me through the audition, she and her musicles She literally carried me in (laughter). Then I saw Gale and I thought, “I hope he gets the part.”
Scott: Oddly enough I was jerking off for a website for accountants. I didn’t have to audition, they just gave it to me.
Peter: (Trying to tell the story through his laughter) All of us had to audition a few times, Scott only auditioned once. Jerry Offsay, the head of Showtime came up to Scott and said, “You are the most pathetic sad sack I have ever seen in my life!”
Scott: I told them if they wanted me they’d have to hire people less attractive than me.
Peter: I was hanging out in LA, living my life and I was haning out at the gym and everyone was talking about the British QAF. I had never seen it, but I remember asking people if they ever thought there’d be something like that here and everyone said no. One day a casting director friend of mine said (affecting a deep voice) “Showtime bought QAF. I suggest you make a phone call.”
Scott: Was it James Earl Jones? Is he casting now?
Peter: I went in and did a callback with Scott. Scott was the first person in the room with me.
Randy: I was there, right? I was there with you?
Daniel: Peter read for Ted.
Peter: That’s true.
Daniel: And Ron ran up to him and said, “Not Ted. You’re Emmett.”
Scott: Not sad enough! (They all laugh, especially Gale. And this is also what I remember; Scott makes Gale laugh hard. What sucks about how they shot it for the Museum’s archives, is that it’s a series of close-shots and not a wideshot on the panel, so unless you were there, you can’t see the other cast member’s reactions.
Peter: I was too sad to play Ted.
Daniel: Then Hal came in, so it was Scott, Peter, Hal, bang, bang, bang. Easiest day.
Hal: Then I turned it down.
Peter: We screen tested twice and initially they wanted someone of color to play Emmett, so there was me and two Black men and I looked around and said, “I guess I’m not getting the part.” I was so upset. I went home and laid on the floor and put on ‘Shakespeare in Love’, which is my favorite movie…not that you need to know that, but then the phone rang and I got the call (that he’d gotten the job) I’m gonna cry.
Ron: You? (sarcastically) I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry.
Randy: I had moved to New York two months before. I made a video (an audition video) and I forgot all about it, then a week and a half later, I found out that I got a call back, but I was already on my way to do a play in St. Louis. I flew to LA read, was on my way back to St. Louis and was leaving the hotel when I got the call saying I got the part. A week later, I was in Toronto.
Scott: I know Peter and I had the same experience when we went to the first test and we thought Randy was 14-years old.
Peter: I asked him. We were sitting there in silence and I was like, “I-I have to know how old you are because if you’re like 11 and your mom signed a permission slip, I can’t be a part of this.”
Gale: (with a Southern twang) I won it in a raffle!
Ron: Talk.
Gale: That’s it.
Hal: I had been fired from Talk Soup and was working on ‘Dude, Where’s My Car’ and my manager said, “You should read this. It maybe too risky and you just read it and tell me what you think.” And I said, “I’m in a bubble wrap jumpsuit, what do I have to worry about?” She told me that there were 200 people that they wanted and no one wanted to go in for it, so anytime I’m 2001 for something and I still get it, I’m there. I head in and Gale was there, because at that point they had the cast down, but were just doing the packaging. Seeing how people looked together. It seems that they were still going back and forth with the Network and the Network still wanted to see people, so I felt that if they don’t want me, they need to go after someone they want and I had my manager withdraw my name for the role. (Hal goes on to say how he had his agent lie to CowLip saying that he had to go back to NY, when he actually didn’t have to go, he just didn’t want to deal with the casting issue and then he makes a comment which makes me understand why so many people hate Hal/Mikey)
Hal: I was very protective of the character. I felt he was the heart of the show. I didn’t want him to end up in the second season jerking off for a porn website.
Peter: (jumps up) You’re lucky I’m wired!
Hal: It’s true. I wanted Michael to say neutral.
Sharon: I was in Chicago doing a play and my friend told me about the part. I read the script and I called them and asked what did I have to do to be a part of it. And they said that I could bring a touch of class to the project and I said, “Class wasn’t what I had in mind.”
Peter: What’s unbelievable is that you actually do.
Sharon: I flew out and I stopped out of the elevator, saw Peter and I walked in and it was such a black day for them (CowLip).
Ron: It was. She walked in and we said, “You’re hired.”
Michelle: There’s always casting going about, and I got the script for the show and the part where Melanie says in the pilot about not needing a man, I thought, “ I really want to play her.” I was so tired of seeing these scripts for the woman in the little dress who just goes, “I can’t live without a man. I want a man.” I called my agent and said, “Don’t fuck this up for me” because you know how they get involved and it gets away from what the actors really want. I had never seen the UK version, but I thought “If I walk in and there’s this big blonde bimbo with fake boobs playing Lindsey, I’m walking out the door.”
Peter: Michelle! Thea’s right here!
Scott: So Thea took out her implants.
Michelle: I walked in and there was Thea in overalls and Keds and she was so cute. Thea’s so natural and so unaffected by anything.
Peter: It’s true that most of us tested with each other at least once. We just found each other.
Michelle: Yeah, we had all went around and exchanged numbers (during the testing process). When I met Randy I thought he must be 13 and I put his widdle punnum in my hands and said, “I just want to take care of you!” because he’s so sweet and cute. I decided that he was my love child.
Ron: As luck would have it, he’s been taking care of us ever since.
Tony: Back to Gale.
Bobby: Yeah, we kinda skipped over that.
Tony: The role wasn’t part of a raffle.
Gale: But I won, man.
Tony: We couldn’t find this guy (Brian). We needed him to be fascinating, sexy, arrogant, a total prick and confident.
Peter: And in walked Gale.
Randy: Peter, he’s right here!
Ron: Everyone kept telling us to wait, we’ll find our Brian. Everyday: “He’ll come, he’ll come, he’ll come.”
Tony: He was the last person who walked in before we went to Network. He walked in and we said, “We got our guy.”
Gale: I sound like an impulse buy.
Ron: It was Friday night at 5:45 and we got a call saying “He’s here!” and Gale walked in and he was incredible. We told him, “Gale, you have to test for Network at 8:30 Monday morning and he said in a Brian-esque way (smokes a fake cigarette) “I don’t know. I’m striking a set for my theater I work with. I don’t think I can do it.” So we had to send him the script for him to read and we had to send it to the Cat and the Fiddle (which everyone died laughing about because it’s a bar).
Gale: Didn’t you read it to me?
Dan: No.
Hal: The bartender read it for him.
Gale: Oh, right, right.
Hal: The paramedics finished .
Ron: We get a call Saturday night by a voice I had never heard before and it says, “Hello, this is Brian Kinney”.
Gale: That wasn’t me.
Ron: Actually it was Scott Lowell.
Peter: I find it fascinating that Gale was the last one to show because …
(Everyone responds) He’s always the last one to show.
Hal: We call him “snail” on the set.
Gale: No, Randy calls me snail. Randy is the only person who calls me snail.
Hal: We call you “jail”.
Gale: Don’t call me in Detroit, ‘cuz you won’t get me.
(Then the Moderator tosses it to the audience)
Q; Are there limits for certain actors (again I think this ties into the Chris Potter/Hal situation)
Hal: Well, you won’t see a Claymation musical about the Holocaust on Showtime. Emmett and Michael will be watching that for Christma.
Peter: I always say ‘Showtime doesn’t have limits except when they have limits.’
Ron: We love and trust these people and we would never make them do something they don’t want to do. It may be an emotional limit, but they are not contractual limits. These are flawed characters. Like when Michael takes a bump in the bathroom of Babylon. We’ve heard from people, “We love Ted, but he was so mean to Roger!”
Peter: Put him back in his coma.
Ron: We don’t always take the usual point of view. We try to to to places that aren’t comfortable or safe. We call it our ‘uh-oh’ moment. When you’re afraid to tell that story.
Q: Will there be more lesbian scenes. (It was a man who asked this)
Hal: You sick bastard!
Q: I’ve noticed that the tone has changed this season. The camera work isn’t as rapid. Was it a conscious decision?
Ron: It’s on Xanax.
Hal: It’s called ran out of money. ::coughs:: Cash flow.
Sheila: Russell Mulchahey brought his own personal style and energy and no one can recreate that. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to join us this season. We try to create an environment for indie filmmakers to treat this like a mini-movie. So maybe not as much ramping and swooshing.
Scott: In the meantime, there will be vamping and poofing.
(Gale dies laughing. Peter rubs Scott’s chin and he kisses Peter’s hand)
Q: Can we see any of you in upcoming projects?
Hal: I’ll be doing a non-musical version of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Gale: That’s episode 20, right?
Peter: We’re starting to line up stuff now.
Gale: I’ll be doing wedding videos.
Hal: Now there’ll be rumors of Gale getting married.
Q: I’m from Philly.
Hal: (into his coat) Quick, get her out of her. She’s on to us. She knows it’s (the show’s setting) nothing like that.
Q: Randy what do you do in your spare time?
Randy: Sleep. I play with my cats.
Peter: He reads.
Randy: Reads.
Hal: Snowboards.
Randy: Yeah. I guess I work so much, I try to use my spare time to reconnect with my friends and family.
Q: Randy, I watched an old episode of ER. Was that you on the gurney?
Randy: No, I’ve never….
Scott : (Laughing) Was that you on the gurney? Was he fucking somebody? Then no.
Gale: That was my old roommate actually.
(The next question comes from a woman who brought her 16-year old with her to the panel. They watch the show together)
Q: She’s probably the youngest fan.
Hal: They’ll arrest her on the way out.
Peter: There’s younger fans.
Bobby: I was shooting a scene with Hal one day across from a middle school and this girl comes up screaming and she didn’t care about me because my stuff hadn’t aired yet, but she starts (he begins gasping for air and flapping his arms) and I thought, “Is she trying to fly away?” It was adorable.
Q: Do you know your ratings or your fan base. At my job a lot of the heterosexual males watch the show…
Gale: That’s just sick. How well do you know them?
Hal: Do they criticize your shoes? I hear we’re popular with 9-year olds.
Peter: We’re all going to jail.
Hal: Prisoners and grandparents love us.
Bobby: I was getting my haircut the other day and my..
Peter: You’re hairdresser likes the show? Really? That’s shocking. Marketing pays off I guess. Sorry, Bobby.
Bobby; that’s alright. It’s all good. (He goes on to tell a story on how as he was getting his hair done, an older customer there was saying how she and her daughter were trying to buy tickets for the Paley fest and as he was telling the story, the woman in the audience shouted out. She had made it) These anecdotes show how vast the audience is.
Peter: That’s the most gratifying part. It’s great to be on a hit show, but I’m so glad that I’m not on “Step by Step” or something. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s great that I have people who come up to me with tears streaming down their faces saying that they came out to their parents because of the show or that they watch it with their parents.
Scott: That’s what I’ll be doing.
Peter: What?
Scott: (acts like he’s pointing to a TV) That’s what I’ll be doing Mom and Dad. See his legs hooked around his neck?
(At this time Michelle and Gale point out someone who has been raising their hand. Michelle pushes for the mod to call on him. The guy turns out to be with a group called Queers Against QAF and he his organization has a problem with how they portrayed the Ben and Michael storyline where all of his friends tried to tell him to not date Ben).
Man: Not even Debbie Novotny, Ms. PFLAG mom was accepting.
Gale: Tune in next week.
Michelle: Keep watching.
Debbie: You know what, I know it seems shocking, but I thought it was great. Debbie is accepting, but when it comes to her son all bets are off. It’s real.
Peter: I want to say that I think it’s great that you’re here and that you’re outraged. Isn’t it good that there’s a show that tackles this? Bobby’s sitting right here, do you think that means his character went away? I don’t.
Hal: It’s a drama. There’s no heroic moments or joy unless you start someplace low. It was very difficult to shoot those scenes. It was painful.
Daniel: You have to continue to see how it plays out. It’s like closing a book before finishing…
Man: It’s not a novel.
Dan: Yes it is.
(Michelle keeps trying to jump in but everyone’s clamoring to respond to the man)
Michelle: Can I say..I’m at the end..FUCK! (they finally let her answer) I’m going to sound pretentious for a moment, but I called on you, so what the fuck. Picasso’s city burned to the ground, so he painted Grincia(sp). It’s up to us artists to spotlight these things. It’s the only way to bring it to the surface. We have to do this. We have to educate.
(Then Bobby has to fight the moderator to speak. Again this is why I hated her. She kept telling him they didn’t have enough time and he kept saying “It’s really important for me to answer this.” And she kept looking as if she wanted to run off the stage, so Bobby just answered)
Bobby: I really respect and appreciate how you feel. HIV and AIDS is the most defining moment in the gay world. It created a sense of family and angst. This story means so much to me. I would’ve never taken the role if it had portrayed this fight in a bad light. I encourage you to stay tuned. We’re challenging..
Man: You’re not challenging me! I’m challenging you!
Scott: Obviously, it’s challenged you if you’re here.
Peter: You’ve apparently made up your decision so.
Scott: Next.
(This was the out the moderator was looking for and she quickly wrapped it up with some mealy-mouth speech about she’s glad there was this discussion. They threw to the Meet & Greet and that was it).
I smiled the entire time. Even had tears in my eyes. I miss my boys.
I remember crawling on the floor and the bottom step of the stage to reach Gale and having the security stand over me telling me to ‘get off the stairs’.
Also, I remember hating the moderator. I’ve seen her introduce panels since, but I forgot why I didn’t like her. After watching the footage again, I remember. She knew nothing about the show, didn’t ask any good questions, she called Gale Harold “Gale Harrod” and she kept saying Bobby “Grant”.
Panel set-up: Michelle, Tony Jonas, Sharon, Hal, Daniel Lipman, Gale, Ron Cowan, Randy, Peter, Scott, Sheila Hockin, Thea and Bobby.
They each come out after their introductions. Sharon and Gale receive the most applause. When Scott took the stage, he came out and gave what I call a “Carlos Santana bow” ; you know, Carlos Santana clasps his hands together and points it towards the audience and does a half-bow. It’s funny if you notice it. To which Peter chants: “Cheeseball! Cheeseball! Cheeseball!
CowLip introduces the eppy: we were shown a new one, Episode 208 in which Justin breaks the rules (or as Ron referred to it as “Their Gay Manifesto”) oh, three times in one night.
The panel itself begins with the question from the moderator about the process of adapting QaF for Showtime. Was Showtime hands-off?
Ron: It was daunting. We saw the British version and we were shocked by it. We knew if we did it, we’d have to be as brave as Russell (Davies). We had to match that. That was the difficulty. That and the casting, and boy did we luck out. We found great people. Everyday we would go to the casting office and there would be pages and pages of people who had said, “Not interested. Not interested.” There were a number of actors who didn’t’ want to go out for it or agents who didn’t want their clients to be involved. We are so blessed to have remarkably talented actors who are so smart and so committed.
Dan: Brave and committed in regards to the character work as well as the sexuality of the show and how we use sex to explore the internal aspects of the characters. One moment (during casting) was especially dark and Sharon (Gless) and there was no one else who could ever play that character, Sharon came and said, “Don’t get dismayed. You’ll get it done.” She was a ray of sunshine that day and still is.
Tony: Jerry Offsay (head of Showtime) felt that QAF worked in the UK, but that the US was too homophobic and not as enlightened in terms of being receptive to the show. There was a brief tug-of-war with HBO who wanted the show. They contacted me, at that time Joel Shumacher was attached to the project. He left the project and it went to Dan and Ron. There were heated discussions regarding casting, but gentlemanly discussions.
Dan: Ron and I come from a network TV background. At Showtime we don’t get the interference we get from Network TV. It’s very liberating.
Mod: What was the casting process like?
Bobby: Ooh, this is so exciting. You guys (the audience) are amazing. My agent gave it to me and I felt like I was reading about myself in so many ways (me: at this point in time Bobby hadn’t come out, so it’s funny watching him switch up in the midst of answering a question) with the spirituality aspects and so many other things about the character. I went in a few times. A month into the process, they flew me out to Toronto and I had a beautiful connection with them, but I still didn’t get the job. I think they wanted to make sure I had chemistry with Hal. (the cast laughs at this point, I believe because they’re referring to the Chris Potter situation) I went out a few more times and they gave me the job.
Thea: Before I got the role, I was very disillusioneed with my career, so when I got the script it was like a magic ball had come into my life. I flew to LA, it was the first time I had been there, I saw Peter first and then I saw Randy and I couldn’t help but think how beautiful he was. Then I met Michelle and we were like (imitates bullets firing). She told me I could do it. She was so strong, she carried me through the audition, she and her musicles She literally carried me in (laughter). Then I saw Gale and I thought, “I hope he gets the part.”
Scott: Oddly enough I was jerking off for a website for accountants. I didn’t have to audition, they just gave it to me.
Peter: (Trying to tell the story through his laughter) All of us had to audition a few times, Scott only auditioned once. Jerry Offsay, the head of Showtime came up to Scott and said, “You are the most pathetic sad sack I have ever seen in my life!”
Scott: I told them if they wanted me they’d have to hire people less attractive than me.
Peter: I was hanging out in LA, living my life and I was haning out at the gym and everyone was talking about the British QAF. I had never seen it, but I remember asking people if they ever thought there’d be something like that here and everyone said no. One day a casting director friend of mine said (affecting a deep voice) “Showtime bought QAF. I suggest you make a phone call.”
Scott: Was it James Earl Jones? Is he casting now?
Peter: I went in and did a callback with Scott. Scott was the first person in the room with me.
Randy: I was there, right? I was there with you?
Daniel: Peter read for Ted.
Peter: That’s true.
Daniel: And Ron ran up to him and said, “Not Ted. You’re Emmett.”
Scott: Not sad enough! (They all laugh, especially Gale. And this is also what I remember; Scott makes Gale laugh hard. What sucks about how they shot it for the Museum’s archives, is that it’s a series of close-shots and not a wideshot on the panel, so unless you were there, you can’t see the other cast member’s reactions.
Peter: I was too sad to play Ted.
Daniel: Then Hal came in, so it was Scott, Peter, Hal, bang, bang, bang. Easiest day.
Hal: Then I turned it down.
Peter: We screen tested twice and initially they wanted someone of color to play Emmett, so there was me and two Black men and I looked around and said, “I guess I’m not getting the part.” I was so upset. I went home and laid on the floor and put on ‘Shakespeare in Love’, which is my favorite movie…not that you need to know that, but then the phone rang and I got the call (that he’d gotten the job) I’m gonna cry.
Ron: You? (sarcastically) I don’t think I’ve ever seen you cry.
Randy: I had moved to New York two months before. I made a video (an audition video) and I forgot all about it, then a week and a half later, I found out that I got a call back, but I was already on my way to do a play in St. Louis. I flew to LA read, was on my way back to St. Louis and was leaving the hotel when I got the call saying I got the part. A week later, I was in Toronto.
Scott: I know Peter and I had the same experience when we went to the first test and we thought Randy was 14-years old.
Peter: I asked him. We were sitting there in silence and I was like, “I-I have to know how old you are because if you’re like 11 and your mom signed a permission slip, I can’t be a part of this.”
Gale: (with a Southern twang) I won it in a raffle!
Ron: Talk.
Gale: That’s it.
Hal: I had been fired from Talk Soup and was working on ‘Dude, Where’s My Car’ and my manager said, “You should read this. It maybe too risky and you just read it and tell me what you think.” And I said, “I’m in a bubble wrap jumpsuit, what do I have to worry about?” She told me that there were 200 people that they wanted and no one wanted to go in for it, so anytime I’m 2001 for something and I still get it, I’m there. I head in and Gale was there, because at that point they had the cast down, but were just doing the packaging. Seeing how people looked together. It seems that they were still going back and forth with the Network and the Network still wanted to see people, so I felt that if they don’t want me, they need to go after someone they want and I had my manager withdraw my name for the role. (Hal goes on to say how he had his agent lie to CowLip saying that he had to go back to NY, when he actually didn’t have to go, he just didn’t want to deal with the casting issue and then he makes a comment which makes me understand why so many people hate Hal/Mikey)
Hal: I was very protective of the character. I felt he was the heart of the show. I didn’t want him to end up in the second season jerking off for a porn website.
Peter: (jumps up) You’re lucky I’m wired!
Hal: It’s true. I wanted Michael to say neutral.
Sharon: I was in Chicago doing a play and my friend told me about the part. I read the script and I called them and asked what did I have to do to be a part of it. And they said that I could bring a touch of class to the project and I said, “Class wasn’t what I had in mind.”
Peter: What’s unbelievable is that you actually do.
Sharon: I flew out and I stopped out of the elevator, saw Peter and I walked in and it was such a black day for them (CowLip).
Ron: It was. She walked in and we said, “You’re hired.”
Michelle: There’s always casting going about, and I got the script for the show and the part where Melanie says in the pilot about not needing a man, I thought, “ I really want to play her.” I was so tired of seeing these scripts for the woman in the little dress who just goes, “I can’t live without a man. I want a man.” I called my agent and said, “Don’t fuck this up for me” because you know how they get involved and it gets away from what the actors really want. I had never seen the UK version, but I thought “If I walk in and there’s this big blonde bimbo with fake boobs playing Lindsey, I’m walking out the door.”
Peter: Michelle! Thea’s right here!
Scott: So Thea took out her implants.
Michelle: I walked in and there was Thea in overalls and Keds and she was so cute. Thea’s so natural and so unaffected by anything.
Peter: It’s true that most of us tested with each other at least once. We just found each other.
Michelle: Yeah, we had all went around and exchanged numbers (during the testing process). When I met Randy I thought he must be 13 and I put his widdle punnum in my hands and said, “I just want to take care of you!” because he’s so sweet and cute. I decided that he was my love child.
Ron: As luck would have it, he’s been taking care of us ever since.
Tony: Back to Gale.
Bobby: Yeah, we kinda skipped over that.
Tony: The role wasn’t part of a raffle.
Gale: But I won, man.
Tony: We couldn’t find this guy (Brian). We needed him to be fascinating, sexy, arrogant, a total prick and confident.
Peter: And in walked Gale.
Randy: Peter, he’s right here!
Ron: Everyone kept telling us to wait, we’ll find our Brian. Everyday: “He’ll come, he’ll come, he’ll come.”
Tony: He was the last person who walked in before we went to Network. He walked in and we said, “We got our guy.”
Gale: I sound like an impulse buy.
Ron: It was Friday night at 5:45 and we got a call saying “He’s here!” and Gale walked in and he was incredible. We told him, “Gale, you have to test for Network at 8:30 Monday morning and he said in a Brian-esque way (smokes a fake cigarette) “I don’t know. I’m striking a set for my theater I work with. I don’t think I can do it.” So we had to send him the script for him to read and we had to send it to the Cat and the Fiddle (which everyone died laughing about because it’s a bar).
Gale: Didn’t you read it to me?
Dan: No.
Hal: The bartender read it for him.
Gale: Oh, right, right.
Hal: The paramedics finished .
Ron: We get a call Saturday night by a voice I had never heard before and it says, “Hello, this is Brian Kinney”.
Gale: That wasn’t me.
Ron: Actually it was Scott Lowell.
Peter: I find it fascinating that Gale was the last one to show because …
(Everyone responds) He’s always the last one to show.
Hal: We call him “snail” on the set.
Gale: No, Randy calls me snail. Randy is the only person who calls me snail.
Hal: We call you “jail”.
Gale: Don’t call me in Detroit, ‘cuz you won’t get me.
(Then the Moderator tosses it to the audience)
Q; Are there limits for certain actors (again I think this ties into the Chris Potter/Hal situation)
Hal: Well, you won’t see a Claymation musical about the Holocaust on Showtime. Emmett and Michael will be watching that for Christma.
Peter: I always say ‘Showtime doesn’t have limits except when they have limits.’
Ron: We love and trust these people and we would never make them do something they don’t want to do. It may be an emotional limit, but they are not contractual limits. These are flawed characters. Like when Michael takes a bump in the bathroom of Babylon. We’ve heard from people, “We love Ted, but he was so mean to Roger!”
Peter: Put him back in his coma.
Ron: We don’t always take the usual point of view. We try to to to places that aren’t comfortable or safe. We call it our ‘uh-oh’ moment. When you’re afraid to tell that story.
Q: Will there be more lesbian scenes. (It was a man who asked this)
Hal: You sick bastard!
Q: I’ve noticed that the tone has changed this season. The camera work isn’t as rapid. Was it a conscious decision?
Ron: It’s on Xanax.
Hal: It’s called ran out of money. ::coughs:: Cash flow.
Sheila: Russell Mulchahey brought his own personal style and energy and no one can recreate that. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to join us this season. We try to create an environment for indie filmmakers to treat this like a mini-movie. So maybe not as much ramping and swooshing.
Scott: In the meantime, there will be vamping and poofing.
(Gale dies laughing. Peter rubs Scott’s chin and he kisses Peter’s hand)
Q: Can we see any of you in upcoming projects?
Hal: I’ll be doing a non-musical version of “Fiddler on the Roof.”
Gale: That’s episode 20, right?
Peter: We’re starting to line up stuff now.
Gale: I’ll be doing wedding videos.
Hal: Now there’ll be rumors of Gale getting married.
Q: I’m from Philly.
Hal: (into his coat) Quick, get her out of her. She’s on to us. She knows it’s (the show’s setting) nothing like that.
Q: Randy what do you do in your spare time?
Randy: Sleep. I play with my cats.
Peter: He reads.
Randy: Reads.
Hal: Snowboards.
Randy: Yeah. I guess I work so much, I try to use my spare time to reconnect with my friends and family.
Q: Randy, I watched an old episode of ER. Was that you on the gurney?
Randy: No, I’ve never….
Scott : (Laughing) Was that you on the gurney? Was he fucking somebody? Then no.
Gale: That was my old roommate actually.
(The next question comes from a woman who brought her 16-year old with her to the panel. They watch the show together)
Q: She’s probably the youngest fan.
Hal: They’ll arrest her on the way out.
Peter: There’s younger fans.
Bobby: I was shooting a scene with Hal one day across from a middle school and this girl comes up screaming and she didn’t care about me because my stuff hadn’t aired yet, but she starts (he begins gasping for air and flapping his arms) and I thought, “Is she trying to fly away?” It was adorable.
Q: Do you know your ratings or your fan base. At my job a lot of the heterosexual males watch the show…
Gale: That’s just sick. How well do you know them?
Hal: Do they criticize your shoes? I hear we’re popular with 9-year olds.
Peter: We’re all going to jail.
Hal: Prisoners and grandparents love us.
Bobby: I was getting my haircut the other day and my..
Peter: You’re hairdresser likes the show? Really? That’s shocking. Marketing pays off I guess. Sorry, Bobby.
Bobby; that’s alright. It’s all good. (He goes on to tell a story on how as he was getting his hair done, an older customer there was saying how she and her daughter were trying to buy tickets for the Paley fest and as he was telling the story, the woman in the audience shouted out. She had made it) These anecdotes show how vast the audience is.
Peter: That’s the most gratifying part. It’s great to be on a hit show, but I’m so glad that I’m not on “Step by Step” or something. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s great that I have people who come up to me with tears streaming down their faces saying that they came out to their parents because of the show or that they watch it with their parents.
Scott: That’s what I’ll be doing.
Peter: What?
Scott: (acts like he’s pointing to a TV) That’s what I’ll be doing Mom and Dad. See his legs hooked around his neck?
(At this time Michelle and Gale point out someone who has been raising their hand. Michelle pushes for the mod to call on him. The guy turns out to be with a group called Queers Against QAF and he his organization has a problem with how they portrayed the Ben and Michael storyline where all of his friends tried to tell him to not date Ben).
Man: Not even Debbie Novotny, Ms. PFLAG mom was accepting.
Gale: Tune in next week.
Michelle: Keep watching.
Debbie: You know what, I know it seems shocking, but I thought it was great. Debbie is accepting, but when it comes to her son all bets are off. It’s real.
Peter: I want to say that I think it’s great that you’re here and that you’re outraged. Isn’t it good that there’s a show that tackles this? Bobby’s sitting right here, do you think that means his character went away? I don’t.
Hal: It’s a drama. There’s no heroic moments or joy unless you start someplace low. It was very difficult to shoot those scenes. It was painful.
Daniel: You have to continue to see how it plays out. It’s like closing a book before finishing…
Man: It’s not a novel.
Dan: Yes it is.
(Michelle keeps trying to jump in but everyone’s clamoring to respond to the man)
Michelle: Can I say..I’m at the end..FUCK! (they finally let her answer) I’m going to sound pretentious for a moment, but I called on you, so what the fuck. Picasso’s city burned to the ground, so he painted Grincia(sp). It’s up to us artists to spotlight these things. It’s the only way to bring it to the surface. We have to do this. We have to educate.
(Then Bobby has to fight the moderator to speak. Again this is why I hated her. She kept telling him they didn’t have enough time and he kept saying “It’s really important for me to answer this.” And she kept looking as if she wanted to run off the stage, so Bobby just answered)
Bobby: I really respect and appreciate how you feel. HIV and AIDS is the most defining moment in the gay world. It created a sense of family and angst. This story means so much to me. I would’ve never taken the role if it had portrayed this fight in a bad light. I encourage you to stay tuned. We’re challenging..
Man: You’re not challenging me! I’m challenging you!
Scott: Obviously, it’s challenged you if you’re here.
Peter: You’ve apparently made up your decision so.
Scott: Next.
(This was the out the moderator was looking for and she quickly wrapped it up with some mealy-mouth speech about she’s glad there was this discussion. They threw to the Meet & Greet and that was it).