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AE: The gay son and his partner are totally integrated into the family, is that the way it’s been with your family?
TB: I’m lucky that way yeah. I came out when I was 17 so (laughs) nobody thought twice in my family.

AE: The couple is biracial, was that particularly important for you to portray?
TB: Yeah. The thing with it that I wanted (to show) is that Meredith, who has I think a very rigid notion of what she wants for herself in terms of a marriage, I definitely wanted a couple that would be the most unlikely version of that for her. And that the couple, who would seem like such a cultural patchwork, would be the Ozzie and Harriet of the group. I think Tad and Patrick have a better handle on what real marriage and commitment means than Meredith has for sure.

AE: Are either of those actors openly gay or gay?
TB: Neither are gay.

AE: Do you know someone who’s gay and deaf? Do you have people in your life like that at all?
TB: No, none, which is the really weird thing. I think part of it is I went to Parsons School of Design in New York and my subway stop for school was (near a) deaf high school and so I would see these packs of teenagers fighting or telling jokes in this crowded subway station with all this noise and they were doing it without making a sound and I was floored by this parallel culture that nobody else seemed to be aware of and fell in love with the way their language looked.

AE: How did Big Eden lead to this film, what happened as far as getting the ball rolling to this project?
TB: Well it didn’t I would say. I did Big Eden and you know for it’s scale, it was really successful, we won all these awards at festivals and it was a big deal DVD thing for gay film, and it did well in theaters, it just never sort of landed on any kind of industry radar. And I don’t think I’m some visual whiz bang director – I’m much more focused on story and character.

So there wasn’t a lot of appetite for me as a director as a result of that…It was really hard to get made…While people really loved the script and thought it was really well written, the thing I got told a lot (by studio executives) was that it was a feathered fish.

AE: What does that mean?
TB: Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? And the studios really want to minimize their risk and if you tell them they’re taking a trip down the comedy road, they want the road to be straight and only comedy. It’s tricky.

AE: How long were you trying to get the movie made?
TB: Like four years. It came together and fell apart twice with previous producers....I was working for Ralph Lauren and then Coach. I’m very pragmatic and the whole deal I made with myself was that I would not quit those jobs until I had a five year next egg. So I did, I saved enough to not earn a penny for five years and quit, moved out here and made Big Eden which I was paid maybe two pennies for.

My light bulb moment was on one of the vacations I would take every year to Sundance…I thought, “Oh you know, maybe someday I’ll write or I’ll do something or go into production design,” and I remember vividly being in the lobby of the Yarrow and standing in front of one of those posting walls where all the posters were up for all these people’s films and I was just struck by how many people this wall represented and then the epiphany moment was realizing that nobody had tapped any of them on the shoulder and said, “Okay it’s your turn.” The only reason they were there was because they did it. And realizing that nobody was going to tap me on the shoulder, I just had to do it. And so look what happens.

AE: I think that part of Big Eden’s success was that there just aren’t these low key, normal stories out there about gay men.
TB: I think that’s part of maybe the inspiration for Big Eden was going and seeing gay films and feeling like I never saw myself.

AE: I’m just amazed with all the talent that gay men have, so many are putting out these same crappy indie films.
TB: You’d think they’d stop telling the same fucking story over and over again (laughs). Nobody cares.

AE: What’s your personal life like away from movies?
TB: I don’t really have one, which is fine, it’s very much about bringing this baby to bear…I’m lucky in that my best friends in the world that I made in New York – and we’re talking about three guys that we never thought we would leave Manhattan Island – all moved to Los Angeles and so my two my best friends are here and neither of them are in the industry and it’s fantastic.

AE: You’re single, are you looking for any particular kind of guys as far as being in a relationship?
TB: It’s so funny, I was in a relationship for years and years and years and I’m confident that it’ll happen again but I am not lookin’. I feel like I’m not really wanting for anything right now.

Lydia Marcus is a Film Critic and Entertainment Journalist who has written extensively about queer and indie film since 1995. This native Los Angeleno has contributed numerous cover stories to Frontiers (where she serves as Senior Film Critic), and for Girlfriends Magazine and the LN (Lesbian News), where she also writes the monthly “At The Movies” column. She has also contributed reviews, features and photos to many websites and publications including The Los Angeles Times, AOL, The Advocate, Planetout.com, Gay.com, GO NYC Magazine, afterelton.com/afterellen.com, and indieWIRE.com.

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