AE: Your two big movies in 2006 Running With Scissors and Flags of Our Fathers are both period pieces. Is there something appealing to you about that?
JC: I think that there is. My little brother, who was 13 when he told me this, said “The way to go is period pieces and movies based on books.” And I said, “Thank you, James” (laughs). But, yeah, I think there is something that attracts me about it. It feels classic. It's an additional challenge, and it's helpful because the music is helpful and the clothing is helpful, and everything just sort of brings you back.
AE: Do you have a favorite costume from Running With Scissors?
RM: He hated his costumes.
JC: (laughs) I was watching shows like Sonny & Cher Show and Johnny Carson before doing it, and I kept wondering, “Why did everybody walk that way in the '70s? People don't walk that way anymore.” At my costume fitting I but on the pants and shoes and realized why people walked like that.
AE: The movie has a lot to say about mother/son relationships. And Ryan, you spoke a little about your relationship with your mother. Joe, do you or did you both have good relationships with your mother?
JC: I had a great relationship with my mother and I still do. She was at the premiere. My relationship with my mother was strained during my teenage years in the way that it is for everybody. You're saying, at 15, “Leave me alone,” and she's saying, “I still need to guide you for a couple more years because you don't understand yet.” For that time, it was strained in the natural way it should be. My parents have been married for 28 years and I have four younger siblings and we're all very close.
AE: I bet a lot of mothers are going to be sitting in the movie going, “Whew! I look really good.”
JC and RM: (together) Yeah!
AE: Ryan, following last year's spate of popular movies with prominent queer characters, includingBrokeback Mountain, Capote, and TransAmerica, 2006 is also holding its own, especially this season with Running With Scissors, Shortbus, and Infamous. Do you think that says something about movie audiences, and if so, what does it say?
RM: I think it says that there is an audience for those movies. If you look at our movie, which is going up against really big muscular studio movies, I think it says that there's a place for everybody. I think the fact that this is an independent movie that's being released by a major studio, looking at the subject matter, shows that studios know they can make profits with them, because there is such an audience. People want something to relate to. I don't know what else we're against, but we're so unusual. I think we will get a lot of gay people who will go to the film just because of Augusten's following, perhaps my following. I think that's good.
AE: You both work in film and television.
RM: No, Joe doesn't do TV anymore. He's absolutely refusing.
JC: (laughs)
RM: He's becoming a film snob. He'll only work with A-list directors from now on.
JC: (laughs)
AE: Well, then, Ryan, do you have a preference for one over the other?
RM: I think the rules used to be that you could do one or the other. If you did TV you were ghettoized. I only got a lot of these people because of the TV show. Brian Cox, for example, had never missed an episode of Nip/Tuck. Jill Clayburgh and Alec Baldwin were on Nip/Tuck. Gwyneth and Annette were fans of the show. I'm going to go back and forth. I have a lot of things coming up that are equally split. I'm forming a big television company in the new year. I have a couple of new TV shows that I'm doing. I think it's an interesting combination to do both. I like mixing it up. TV is so quick and expedient. I wrote a scene yesterday that is shooting today. There's nothing like that. I worked on this script for two and a half years. It's very different thing.
