'Fire Island' Stars on Gay Rom-Coms and Not Sugaratg the Story - Variety

Contents:

• “SOMETHG SPECIAL AND UNIQUE AND GAY”: YOUR FIRST LOOK AT FIRE ISLAND
• THE FIRE ISLAND ST AND CREW ON THE GAY ROM-’S SIGNIFINCE
• ‘FIRE ISLAND’ STARS ON THE SRCY OF GAY ROM-COMS AND NOT SUGARATG THE STORY
• FIRE ISLAND: WHY WE’RE EXCED ABOUT THIS NEW GAY ROM-COM
• 'FIRE ISLAND' TRAILER: 'PRI AND PREJUDICE' GO GAY WH JOEL KIM BOOSTER, BOWEN YANG
• POLAROIDS OM THE SET OF GAY ROM- FIRE ISLAND ARE A NNECTN TO THE BEACH GETAWAY'S PAST
• ‘FIRE ISLAND’ DELIVERS GAY ROM COM SUMMER FUN WH A JANE ATEN TWIST
• JOEL KIM BOOSTER DON’T NEED GAY ROM-COM ‘FIRE ISLAND’ TO BE PALATABLE FOR ‘CERTA PEOPLE’
• BOWEN YANG SAYS HE 'LUCKED OUT' ON 'GENI' NEW GAY ROM-COM 'FIRE ISLAND'

“SOMETHG SPECIAL AND UNIQUE AND GAY”: YOUR FIRST LOOK AT FIRE ISLAND

We’re all head to the same place: Fire P—a queer hamlet on the larger Fire Island, though the nam n be ed terchangeably—is a gay mec.

“We ma somethg really, really special and unique and gay, ” Fire Island star and scribe Joel Kim Booster tells me over the phone, about six months after that ferry ri.

This is what gay men do all the time. ”In a world where queer ntent typilly skews toward the treacly (thk Love, Simon), or the tragic (thk The Power of the Dog), makg a story about gay love for a major movie stud is self somethg of a radil act.

THE FIRE ISLAND ST AND CREW ON THE GAY ROM-’S SIGNIFINCE

(Though not too radil: Billy Eichner’s gay rom- Bros, which also featur an all-queer prcipal st, hs theaters this September.

’” Booster shelved the ia for years, only for to reemerge an say he wrote for a now funct blog about his nnectn to Aten as a gay man. Was there a gay Amber Alert we all somehow missed?

”“Sometim if you’re gay, you don’t thk you n be classist or racist, ” Cho tells me between tak. ”Or, as Booster puts : “What happens when gay men are put together on an island and there are no straight people to opprs ? ”“There is this ia that ’s only for whe mcle gays, ” Booster says, of the P—or for gay men wh money.

‘FIRE ISLAND’ STARS ON THE SRCY OF GAY ROM-COMS AND NOT SUGARATG THE STORY

Fire Island is the exceptn to the le of our liv, the same way that a gay romantic edy wh four Asian Amerin stars is an exceptn to the le of Hollywood. ”“I want people—pecially gay men, pecially queer people—to walk away om the movie happy that they’re gay, ” Booster says. “I thk that there are so many movi about the gay experience that are ght wh people who are unsure if they’re happy beg gay or stgglg wh g out….

Jam Scully: Bee a big part of the story was explorg the racial tensn between whe cisgenr gay men of privilege, and basilly like everyone else the queer muny, I was like, this is a space that I n take up.

I was also like, wow, like a gay, a gay rom-. He really r about the gay havens and gay spac. Which might not sound so monumental until one clus the part about how this ntemporary adaptatn of Pri and Prejudice is set at a hedonistic gay vatn statn, featur an all-LGBTQ st, clus plenty of sex, dgs and Marisa Tomei-imprsns and is beg released by Disney.

FIRE ISLAND: WHY WE’RE EXCED ABOUT THIS NEW GAY ROM-COM

The Ben sisters bee a chosen fay of gay men headg to Fire Island for their annual week-long adventure. "As much as is a safe space om straight people, 's still a risky or unfortable space for people who don't necsarily f to this whe, cisgenr, mcle gay kd of role. And aga, I go year after year and I evangelize for bee I don't thk that should jt belong to whe gay guys wh seven per cent body fat who have all the expendable e the world.

My dream is to be rich enough to create a sort of gay birthright for queers of lour om red stat to vis Fire Island so they get to experience that every now and aga. So like Big En, Trick, Mambo Italiano, Adam & Steve or any gay die rom- I was vourg at the time.

'FIRE ISLAND' TRAILER: 'PRI AND PREJUDICE' GO GAY WH JOEL KIM BOOSTER, BOWEN YANG

"I've talked to gay edians that have been dog this for 20 years who talk about how isolated they felt g up this dtry, bee there was this ia that there uld only be one of that was succsful. The dtry would have their gay guy and that would be . "It would be very easy for me to look at Bowen's succs and be like, 'Well, 's over for me bee they have their gay Asian guy now.

He joed Tom Power to talk about havg the chance to fally show his leadg man potential the new movie Fire Island, which reviss Pri and Prejudice among a group of vatng gay bt iends. The film featur a group of gay Asian men, led by Booster and Yang, who head to the P for a fal summer weekend before their host (played by Margaret Cho) sells her beach hoe.

POLAROIDS OM THE SET OF GAY ROM- FIRE ISLAND ARE A NNECTN TO THE BEACH GETAWAY'S PAST

Still, as a gay romantic edy, “Fire Island” mt ntend wh the evable srcy of s genre. “I take the rponsibily of beg one of the few mastream gay movi very serly.

This year, the summer will see jt one other film “Fire Island’s” archetype, Universal Pictur’ “Bros, ” which bills self as the first gay romantic edy to be released by a major motn picture stud. June is LGBT Pri Month, and rporatns often e the month to highlight their gay ctomers and ers. The film follows a group of iends who ed to work for a rtrant at the famo gay statn Fire Island.

‘FIRE ISLAND’ DELIVERS GAY ROM COM SUMMER FUN WH A JANE ATEN TWIST

Of urse, a gay romantic edy would not be plete whout a pair of seemgly ill-sued and tic men om two different sis of the track fallg for each other.

While the film seems to follow some of the stereotypil gay and rom- trop, has some trigug and excg aspects, namely the historil settg and some tertg them the trailer. Much of New York's gay populatn would pe the cy to the more remote and private island to dulge salac and illic activi.

Today, Fire Island boasts two s on the Natnal Register of Historic Plac part bee of their role LGBT history and “Ameri's First Gay and Lbian Town, ” Cherry Grove. As tim have changed, so has the gay mographic who have the abily to make Fire Island a statn of fun and rpe.

JOEL KIM BOOSTER DON’T NEED GAY ROM-COM ‘FIRE ISLAND’ TO BE PALATABLE FOR ‘CERTA PEOPLE’

A central issue still plagug the LGBT muny, pecially among gay men, is the notn of stat. It is often seen that gay men who are not mcular, pristely drsed, and affluent are of lower value. " Of urse, that type of classist tensn is a mon trope many romantic edi, and Fire Island is certaly not the first gay film to e .

And a gay edy would not be legimate if did not clu some mp and obscure pop-culture referenc. As mentned before, Fire Island is a popular rort statn for the LGBT muny, so the entire settg exus gay mps.

Margaret Cho plays a motherly figure to this group of misf gays their makhift fay. Durg one scene of the trailer, the character Howie (Bowen Yang) drops a le om the movie Cluels, a particularly revered film by the gay muny.

BOWEN YANG SAYS HE 'LUCKED OUT' ON 'GENI' NEW GAY ROM-COM 'FIRE ISLAND'

Another scene at the very end of the trailer picts two gay iends actg out a famo scene om My Co Vny to get Will to gus the name Marisa Tomei durg a game. A morn take on the classic Jane Aten novel “Pri and Prejudice, ” “Fire Island” foc on two gay bt iends, Noah (Booster) and Howie (Yang), who take a trip to the P, a hamlet on New York’s Fire Island that’s a hotspot for queer culture. “I want people — pecially gay men, pecially queer people — to walk away om the movie happy that they’re gay, ” Booster told Vany Fair.

“I thk that there are so many movi about the gay experience that are ght wh people who are unsure if they’re happy beg gay or stgglg wh g out… I want people to e away om this movie feelg the joy of our experienc and that ’s not all tragic. Still, Fire Island self, for all s unpredictable, diva-ish antics, was but one star of the movie, which has all the beargs of an stant gay classic: a morn reimagg of Pri and Prejudice wh an entirely LGBTQ ma st, cludg Margaret Cho, Bowen Yang, Matt Rogers, Tomás Matos, and Torian Miller.

Specifilly, they evoke the work of Tom Bianchi, a famed figure of queer photography who, wh his Polaroids, ptured timate imag of the liv of gay men on Fire Island. "People were aaid that the photographs would promise them work, " he says, alludg to the time when gay men uld be fired om their jobs if outed for their sexual orientatn.