Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} This Gay Utopia by John Butler John Butler Gay Rumors? Online poll shows 66 percent think he might be gay. It seems like every celebrity has been called gay at some point or another. Many of the gay rumors surrounding John Butler ( April Uprising , Sunrise Over Sea ) seem to be tied to his obsessive attention to his body, like most singers. However the poll suggests that a big majority - 66% - of fans don't care about his sexual orientation. Take the poll: What do you think about the gay rumors surrounding John Butler? Disclaimer: The poll results are based on a representative sample of 2067 voters worldwide, conducted online for The Celebrity Post magazine. Results are considered accurate to within 2.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20. Handsome Devil director John Butler on finding his own voice. Handsome Devil is the big film out of Ireland this summer. Already critically acclaimed and doing brisk business at the Irish box office, it’s like a classic teen summer comedy drama from the eighties that’s been made for 2017. CAHIR O’DOHERTY talks to director John Butler about the film and finding his own voice in his chosen career. Remember all those classic John Hughes coming of age dramas from the eighties like The Breakfast Club , Sixteen Candles , Pretty In Pink and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off ? They were so successful that it’s hard to think of that era now without thinking of those films. So when Irish director John Butler decided to make Handsome Devil , he knew it would be an Irish version of a feel good crowd pleaser exactly in that eighties vein. Focusing on a spirited young teen named Ned (played by gifted newcomer Fionn O’Shea) who’s trying to make his way in a world that won’t listen, the basic outline is pure Hughes. Even the title is a reference to a classic song by The Smiths. “I wanted to make a comedy drama about two boys who think they’re different to everyone else and really aren’t,” Butler tells the Irish Voice . “It kind of springs from my own childhood – I’m gay and I’m really into sport and for a long time I found it really hard to reconcile those two things about myself. I grew up in a place that liked to keep things very black and white, so I wanted to make a film about feeling the pressure to be back or white, to pick a side.” When the film opens Ned is a social outcast. Mocked for his dyed red hair and his taste in music at his all boys rugby mad school, he retreats into himself and his pretty justified persecution complex. But when he is forced to share a room with new transfer student Conor (Nicholas Galitzine) he learns that the new guy is a rugby prodigy and he expects more torment. Instead, though, a life changing friendship takes root, upending everyone’s presumptions and setting the film in motion. Ned and Conor soon are caught up in a tug of war over the competing destinies being offered by their inspired English teacher and their tough as nails rugby coach. And it doesn’t help that Andrew Scott and Moe Dunford, two of the most accomplished and charismatic Irish actors currently working, play them. “I wanted it to be funny and serious at the same time because that’s what life is,” says Butler. “Everything is in the mix. It’s a bit of a sports film, it’s a bit of a music film, it’s half about adults and half about kids. It’s a balancing act in a way and it was enjoyable.” Butler can completely identify with Pascal, Dunford’s rugby coach character. “He is right when he says it’s stupid to be teaching the rugby team player songs to sing in a talent contest. When he’s coaching the boys he says there is no place for empathy on the sports field, it’s a war. I totally agree with that.” Director John Butler. But it’s also important to understand who you are and what your full potential is, and so Scott’s character Mr. Sherry is given ample time to make his points and steal scenes too. “It was important to me to write a film where there are no villains. You’re right that I did have to come to terms with those competing characters in my real life and they all of them had good things and bad things to say you know?” Butler said. So Butler isn’t interested in binary thinking like gay/straight, artist/athlete, old/young, and the film makes his point. “For me the subversive point of the film is the happy ending, without giving spoilers away. For LGBT characters our stories too often have been framed with negative outcomes in films. They can be desperately sad. Stories of love that is doomed and so on.” That’s not Handsome Devil , which seems to be set some undetermined time between the eighties and now. And if the subversion is the happy ending, it has growing roots in reality if you think of the outcome of the marriage equality referendum a few years ago. “It was carried and passed by young people coming home to vote,” Butler says. “It’s the idea of knowledge flowing upward too. The teachers have so much to learn from the kids in every aspect of this film, so do the parents. “That represents the Ireland that I see and love. The journey of growing up can involve taking on stupid lessons that we have to get rid of. You become cynical about the world as you get older and more naturally conservative. But young people get it.” That Ned is the lead in the film and not 100 percent likable is actually part of the engine of the story. “You come around to his point of view because you understand that he’s talking from a place of woundedness, you know? He’s not a hero and there isn’t really a hero in the film. That’s a reflection of life, in that for the most part people are neither heroes nor villains. There are so many other things that constrict us as we move though life that anyway.” The film is also about friendship and O’Shea, in a star making turn, is pitch perfect in every scene he plays. While it’s never explicitly spelled out if there’s a romantic element between Ned and Conor, it doesn't need to be. They’re mates and they’re willing to fight for it. Speaking of fighting, what does Butler make of Ireland’s likely soon to be gay taoiseach Leo Varadkar? “I think it’s really important to have a socially conservative homosexual in the world as well, but I think his politics are hateful and I can’t believe his response to the Citizens Assembly on repealing the 8th Amendment (which amounts to a constitutional ban on abortion),” Butler says. “I think he absolutely chickened out of that one in the most despicable way. If you grant that all homophobia is underpinned by misogyny then he should know better than anyone how important that issue is. He absolutely no hero of mine. I respected him greatly for coming out when he did. I think it’s important to have political figures who are gay and that you don’t agree with at that level, and that's who he is to me.” As a gay Irishman who directs, will he always seek to include LGBT characters in his films? “I’m really obsessed with that,” he says. “I really want to make a mainstream comedy drama stories and I want to write LGBT characters. I want both of those things to happen and I don’t see why they have to come into conflict with each other, you know? I’d love to make bigger films and work in the mainstream in Hollywood, but not if I’m sacrificing representations because that's how I see life. We’re like moles we get everywhere and our stories deserve to be told in the mainstream. “I would love to see me get a $40 million film with an LGBT couple at the center of it and I think that's an ambition worth holding onto because we have come a long way but God we have so much further to come. This is such a conservative business and it always is when there’s money involved, but it’s certainly worth going for.” Handsome Devil is the home to vote movement made manifest, Butler says. “Young people carried the marriage equality referendum in Ireland. It should give us hope for the future. You can get cynical about the world as you get you older so it’s really important to remember what they did. Just like in the John Hughes films in the eighties, it’s the adults that get confused and lack courage in Handsome Devil .” Does he realize he’ll give hope to a new generation of young people? “If that’s the case I would be absolutely delighted. Some of the most rewarding experiences on this film have been working with transition year students in Ireland and having them tell me about their life in 2017. That’s the audience I want to reach. They’re the smartest and most self-aware. If you can get young people to like a film about young people then you’ve done something incredible.” Butler Out As GM Of Bills. Buffalo fired general manager John Butler on Tuesday, saying it couldn't wait any longer for him to decide whether he would be staying with the Bills. The 54-year-old Butler, recognized as one of the best at spotting talented players, was in the final year of his contract, and he was being courted by other teams. News of his firing was first reported by the Buffalo News . "John Butler has been dismissed of his duties as executive vice president and general manager of the club effective immediately," owner Ralph Wilson said in a statement. "The reason for the dismissal is because John has refused to give me an answer as to his future intentions," Wilson said. "The time has come to move forward and therefore I can wait no longer to see who will be the Bills' general manager after this season." A source close to Butler's family, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Wilson broke the news to Butler in a phone call to Alabama, where he was on a scouting trip. The team has made no announcement on a successor. Trending News. Butler has been mentioned as a candidate to become the next general manager for the San Diego Chargers, without a GM since Bobby Beathard retired last spring. Butler, general manager since 1993, broke into the NFL as a scout with the Chargers in 1985 before being named Buffalo's director of college scouting in 1987. The Bills (7-8) went to the Super Bowl in Butler's first season, losing to the Dallas Cowboys 30-13. The team made the playoffs in five of Butler's seasons as GM. During the 1990s, the team posted the second best won-loss record in the league. The team has struggled this year and missed the playoffs after a season that saw a public feud between quarterbacks Rob Johnson and Doug Flutie. The Bills were also hamstrung by the NFL salary cap, which forced the team to purge 16 players last off-season, including veterans Bruce Smith, Thurman Thomas and Andre Reed. In early December, with the playoffs out of reach, Butler challenged the team to end the season on a strong note. Instead, the team fell to last-place New England, 13-10. The Bills close out their campaign this Saturday at Seattle. ©2000 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. First published on December 19, 2000 / 2:52 PM. © 2000 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Fitting In, Standing Out. The Irish import “Handsome Devil” is out gay writer/ director John Butler’s absolutely charming coming-of-age story about two boarding school roommates. Ned (Fionn O’Shea) is a wiry, red headed, music-loving gay outsider, while Conor (Nicholas Galitzine) is a closeted star athlete on the rugby pitch. The film may tread familiar gay teen angst territory, but Butler wisely has the pair connect as friends rather than lovers, a choice he discussed. Via Skype from Ireland, the filmmaker spoke about “Handsome Devil” with Gay City News. GARY M. KRAMER: What was your inspiration for “Handsome Devil?” JOHN BUTLER: The experience of being young is one of ritual humiliation, and that experience is amplified for LGBT kids. As a teen, I was always embarrassed at one level or another. It’s emotional autobiography — not the facts, but the feelings. I’m 50 percent Ned and 50 percent Conor: a gay boy madly into sport, but also a very pretentious music fan and self stylized outsider — the whole “look at me/ don’t look at me” thing. They are both me, and it was fun to pull them apart and have them drift together. John Butler’s fresh take on the high school buddy flick. GMK: What were you like as a teenager? JB: I was good at soccer, not rugby; that was the sport of my childhood. But I thought it impossible to be both gay and an athlete. I had great friends, some of whom I still have. I was reasonably happy. I also had that thing that all kids have — the only thing you want more than to fit in was to stand out. GMK : Like “Handsome Devil,” your previous film “The Bachelor Weekend” [aka “The Stag”] dealt with male bonding. Can you talk about this theme in your work? You make homoerotic things feel unthreatening. JB: I’m interested in gay-straight alliances. I’m interested in men — obviously I’m interested in men! [laughs] — and how men relate to each other. I make comedies and buddy films. It’s a reflection of my life. I’m friendly with straight and gay men, and they are just my friends. Conor and Ned didn’t have to hook up. That’s interesting to me — that their relationship doesn’t have to land at a level of sexuality, but at identity. It’s a buddy movie. GMK: What is your purpose in telling gay stories? JB : To make them mainstream. There are not enough gay happy endings. Comedy films have happy endings. Another gay publication asked me about the film’s fairy tale ending and I got quite annoyed, because in 2017 the ending should be achievable for any LGBT kid who is good at sport. Why do we have to live in the realm of fantasy? GMK : “Handsome Devil” contains some of the tropes of the coming of age/ coming out film, but they never feel forced. Can you talk about how you made the genre feel fresh? JB: I always thought it was in the genre of the American high school comedy film — John Hughes’s movies, “Election,” and “Dead Poets Society.” I wanted to make a film like those and update the homophobia. Some of those films don’t age well. GMK: Conor’s rugby coach, Pascal [Moe Dunford], is almost too homophobic. Can you talk about his character? JB: He’s true to my experience in the area of sports. I think the root of Pascal’s homophobia is that femininity is a perceived weakness. So all his comments are about gays being like a woman. GMK: “Handsome Devil” also features an inspirational teacher, Mr. Sherry [gay actor Andrew Scott]. Did you have an inspirational teacher when you were in school? JB : I did. I had a great English teacher who taught me about “not speaking in a borrowed voice” as Mr. Sherry does. English and art and music teachers are invariably able to access you in a way. They have to be able to talk about authenticity. GMK: Mr. Sherry insists, “Reveal who you are if you dare!,” while Pascal insists that rugby is a way to “express yourself.” How does “Handsome Devil” reveal who you are and allow you to express yourself? JB: It doesn’t pick any sides. The truth is gray, there’s never any black and white. GMK: The music in the film is pretty significant, especially the use of the Rufus Wainwright song in the end. Can you talk about how you chose the tracks? JB: I was obsessed with getting that Rufus Wainwright song in the film. I wanted an LGBT song to close the film. The Housemartins’ song “Think for a Minute” was selected because I wanted the boys to sing in a high voice, a feminized voice, to expose them as weak. GMK: Why did you choose the title “Handsome Devil?” JB: It’s about masculine allure. Beautiful men making other men do stupid shit. Knowing Which Way the Wind Blows. “Papi Chulo,” the affable new comedy-drama by out gay writer/ director John Butler, chronicles the charming, tender bromance that develops between Sean (Matt Bomer), a gay weatherman in Los Angeles, and Ernesto (Alejandro Patiño), a married-with-kids day laborer he hires to paint his deck. Their friendship develops because Sean is lonely. He pays Ernesto for his companionship. However, over time, each man sees a way of helping the other; they are able to give the other man something he wants — even though it is not necessarily something they would want for themselves. In a recent Skype interview, the Irish Butler said he came up with the idea from his observations driving around Los Angeles and his outsider perspective. “I was looking at the relationship between the working class Latino community in Los Angeles and the middle class gay community in West Hollywood,” he explained. “It’s under-explored, and I’m interested in stories with a gay everyman and, in this instance. with a Latino everyman, and how they might interact.” As a buddy movie, “Papi Chulo” does not play up the gay or Latino migrant angle. Butler deliberately does not make the story about the gay character’s anxieties about sexuality or the misery of the migrant experience in America. “It’s hard to make an apolitical film in 2019,” Butler said. He succeeds brilliantly, however, in having written and directed a film where absolutely nothing is made whatsoever about Sean’s sexuality. It is not an issue in his workplace, for Ernesto, or for anyone the men encounter. Sean is not defined by his sexuality, nor does it negatively impact how he is perceived by others, which is refreshing. What “Papi Chulo” does show is how the emotionally adrift Sean copes with his loneliness (or, rather doesn’t) after his last relationship ends. “The media tells us you can get whatever you want, but there is no app for [curing] loneliness,” Butler observed. “You enter into transactional relationship with your own parameters and hopes. I like the idea of a potential hookup that goes off the rails. I’ve experienced great kindness and friendships on apps. That’s lovely to think about, but it was interesting to push this idea in a different way.” Sean is a gay man who simply wants what everyone wants — love and happiness. He projects that onto Ernesto as the characters bond in going boating on a lake and hiking in the mountains, and Sean talks about his feelings. That Ernesto knows little English makes him a good listener. But the guys do sing along to Madonna’s “Borderland” in the back of a Lyft after attending a party together. “Ernesto brings the music into Sean’s life, and he lightens the scene,” Butler said about one positive impact the Latino man has on him. Elaborating on the dynamic between his characters, the filmmaker added, “I like the idea of two lonely people connecting in a city. I was reading think pieces about an epidemic of gay loneliness. This strain of loneliness pertains to members of the gay community who have not built a family biologically or logically — to borrow Armistead Maupin’s term — and a man who has built a family who is happier than a guy who has it all. Who are these humans, and how do they interact?” Butler lets viewers find out by letting his film unfold at its own pace and allowing the comedy and drama to gently interact. “It’s told in a measured way,” he explained. “All my films are on that scale. It’s a replication of the human experience. Life is absurd and serious and hilariously funny.” “Papi Chulo” plays with the rules of the buddy film subgenre, adhering to some elements, but subverting others. This is Butler’s strength in his approach, and why his films (which also include “Handsome Devil,” and “The Bachelor Weekend”) are so disarming. He includes signposts, such as cleansing rain — Sean is a weatherman, after all — to deliver an emotional payoff. But he also features only a few scenes of Ernesto alone to underscore that is story is about the impact the two men have on each other. The absence of Ernesto from parts of the story (because Sean’s point of view is the focus) makes viewers want to see more of the Latino man. Such is the magic of Butler’s film (and Patiño’s performance). Bomer is also extraordinary in the film, playing Sean in a way that captures his self-pity and humility but also his humanity. The director applauded Bomer’s commitment, intelligence, and courage in playing the role. As for finding his own personal happiness (outside of making films), Butler said, “I’m a work in progress. I’m not in a position to offer anything that sounds close to wisdom on that. It’s the job of a lifetime for all of us. But I’d never underestimate the value of friendship for making you happy.”