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AE: For example?
AB: Like the character who’s a womanizer. He fucks everything he can, but in the end, he ends up “sticking” with somebody. I’ve changed that character into a girl. She’s a “manizer.” She’s the gigolo who gets every guy she can, until she finds one who really turns her around.

AE: That’s certainly not like American Pie.
AB: But I still consider it that genre, and it fits really well. But there is a difference--it’s gay, but it’s also straight. All the genders are switched all over the place. But it has the same story arc, the same happy ending.

AE: Is there any character in the movie based on you?
AB: I was always like the “Anthony Michael Hall-type” kid. I mean, he wouldn’t always get a girl, but he was always there to help the girl get the guy. Yeah, I always wanted to be Anthony Hall. I always wanted to help the girl get the guy. Of course the only reason I would be helping her was because, if I couldn’t get the guy, I wanted someone else to. So, I got rid of the middle man.

AE: What makes Eating Out so popular?
AB: Sex and frivolity. It’s the same thing that attracts people to the straight versions of the genre, but I did this one for us. There’s so many inside, gay jokes, and there’s so many ways we can see ourselves in the characters. And, like the straight versions, the characters are only nineteen years old. And the most important thing that could ever possibly happen in your life at that age is getting laid. That’s the premise of the genre.

AE: But the critics haven’t always been so kind.
AB: I’m finding, because it’s a gay film, critics--and even some audience members--expect a higher bar. I feel the film is being held up to a higher standard, than if they went to see for example, Porky’s. After all, it’s called Eating Out. I didn’t try to give it any pretensions at all.

AE: What movies do you like to watch, personally?
AB: There are films and people that I love artistically, like Fritz Lange. But the stuff I end up watching over and over are the films like Clueless and Heathers, or any of the John Hughes movies. Those are the things I end up sticking in the VCR, when I want to watch something that I’m familiar with and makes me happy. As far as gay films, the one movie I end up watching is Trick. I really love that movie. Critically, I may think it has some problems, but I’ll end up watching that over Poison or Swoon.

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