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AE: What was the process of adapting the novel into a screenplay like for you?
DH: David had already done several drafts of the script so when I came on board, I was working from David’s original script. I did go back and read the novel, and thought it’s really, really different from our script in terms of setting and story line, I hope that Baker’s spirit comes through. There was one turn of phrase he used in the book that I wish we could have gotten into the movie and didn’t. At one point, Baker has Dean describe Pablo as an "emotional serial killer." The line that made David want to do it is still present and accounted for; where Dean’s losing his shit and he says, "I can’t save Pablo. I’m not Jesus. I’m not a magician. I’m just a fag with a gun who needs a chainsaw." I think that last bit should be the tag line on the poster.
DM: Adapting a novel is both easier and harder than writing from scratch. For me, it's somewhat easier to have that blueprint in front of you, because know where you are headed, and in this case, there were already many amazing scenes that could be lifted straight from the book. But the difficulty comes in translating scenes that work well on the page (scenes that have a lot of internal monologue, for instance) but are hard to be "acted" by actors in a satisfying way without employing wall-to-wall voice-over, or some other artificial trick. But by far the biggest challenge was to make changes to the story that were needed to translate it into a movie, without changing the intent of Baker's vision. Even though we changed the setting of the story from Los Angeles to Argentina, it was always very important to me to stay true to the spirit of Baker's book.

AE: Dennis, for someone who is known for his humorous writing, Testosterone is rather serious. What was that transition like?
DH: It came really naturally actually. Nothing is funnier to me than the brutal, ugly truth…and there’s lots of brutal, ugly truth in this story. Something I share with a number of my best friends is that we’re at our funniest when things aren’t going well.
AE: There is some comic relief in the presence of Jennifer Coolidge as Louise, Dean’s (David Sutcliffe) friend/agent. Is she a national treasure or what?
DH: She is. I’m surprised she hasn’t gotten some kind of plaque denoting that. Whenever I’m describing the movie to someone and list the cast, when I get to her name, they light up like Christmas trees. It’s a shame the democrats aren’t running a Kerry-Coolidge ticket. We’d win in a landslide.
DM: Let's put her in the Smithsonian.

AE: In these E. Lynn Harris days, we’ve been hearing a lot about “down low” culture, and there is something of that in Testosterone–-a man having sexual relationships with men and women. What do you think about all of that?
DH: I find the whole down low thing fascinating and think J.L. King has balls of steel to go on Oprah and basically tell her and her whole audience that their husbands and boyfriends are probably banging each other as we speak. The difference in our movie is that Pablo’s never been secretive about his needs for “mansex.”
DM: The idea that there is some kind of politically correct standard of behavior that should be projected onto characters in a movie is kind of silly. In fact, we've heard some criticism because our broken-hearted gay hero has a one-night stand with another guy in the movie. I mean, are we getting to the point where our characters are being forced to behave in a completely unrealistic and idealistic way, just so that we feel better about our culture?

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