With great precision, openly gay writer/director Ryan Murphy (of Nip/Tuck fame) has created a faithful adaptation of Augusten Burroughs's popular memoir Running With Scissors. The exceptional cast, including Joseph Cross as Augusten, Annette Bening as his mother Deirdre, Alec Baldwin as his father Norman, Brian Cox as psychiatrist Dr. Finch, Jill Clayburgh as Finch's wife Agnes, Evan Rachel Wood and Gwyneth Paltrow as Finch's daughters Natalie and Hope, respectively, and Joseph Fiennes as Neil, the older man with whom Augusten becomes romantically linked, bring the story into sharp focus. Murphy and Cross graciously agreed to an interview at the Four Seasons while in Chicago on a promotional tour for the film.

AfterElton.com: Ryan, since this interview is taking place a couple of days after the 17th annual National Coming Out day. Did you do anything special to observe the occasion?
Ryan Murphy: I went back in the closet (sly laugh). My sexuality was always just a given and I always accepted it, like Augusten. I never really had a coming out. I was out in utero, I think. I had a very strong sense of self, like Augusten. It was never an issue for me. I never struggled with it, I never did.

AE: Joe, had you read Running With Scissors or any of Augusten's other books before signing on to play him in Running With Scissors?
Joseph Cross: Prior to signing on, yes, but not prior to meeting with Ryan. I read the script, then I met with Ryan at the Mercer Hotel in New York. He asked me if I would come out to L.A. to read for Dede Gardner, who is one of the producers. Then I read it immediately after meeting with Ryan.

AE: What was it about Running With Scissors that compelled you to adapt it for film?
RM: We had very similar childhoods, as shocking as that sounds, in that our mothers were very similar. I think our mothers were the same in that they were both seeking a sense of identity outside of the suburban housewife thing. When I read the book, I was shocked at how much we were alike. I had never met anybody else, other than me, who had polished their allowance, and things like that. I was very attracted to the “shiny things” thing, movies and glamour and escape. We had that in common. I loved what it was about. I had been offered a lot of things to make my film debut on, and I turned them down. Then I read it, and I thought, “I know how to tell that story.” It was a personal story to me. I wanted to protect it.

AE: Are there other books of his that you would also consider adapting?
RM: No. I don't think I would ever do that. I'm doing all these other things. I just loved this story. And I loved this story basically because of Augusten and the mother character. I really did.

AE: Joe, what attracted you to the role of Augusten?
JC: When I read the script, the first thing that I thought was that I didn't expect to have the opportunity to play this meaty and this important a role until I was in my thirties. Because you don't get to do that as a 20 year old, or I was 18 at the time. So that was tremendous. That was something that I was just blown away by. I didn't have an upbringing anywhere near Augusten's. I had a very almost conventional American upbringing. But the thing I was able to identify with was that confusion in those formative years, because I think everybody goes through that.

Those teenage years when very confusing and disturbing things are happening to your body and things are happening around you that you don't understand. I was able to remember and identify with that. Also, the idea of isolation and loneliness, because I had just gone to college and I didn't know anybody and I wasn't sure if it was the right school for me and I wasn't sure if I even wanted to be in school at that moment and I was having a lot of doubt. It felt very isolating and very lonely. That's the first thing that I said to Ryan when he asked me what I could identify with. That's what I told him.

Page 1 / 2 / 3 - Next