Interview with “Hero” author Perry Moore

Perry Moore might be best known as a producer on the wildly successful The Chronicles of Narnia film series, but he also served as an intern in the Clinton White House and worked on The Rosie O'Donnell Show. Moore can now add published author to his list of achievements with the release of Hero, a young adult novel about a gay teen superhero. Moore recently sat down with AfterElton.com to talk shop on comics, gay heroes, and about bringing Narnia to the screen.

AfterElton.com: It’s really hard to miss your love for science fiction and fantasy. Given that Hero is a book aimed at teens, did you feel a lack of gay role models when you were growing up?
Perry Moore: Absolutely. I think it’s the whole reason I wrote it. My partner had done this documentary on Maurice Sendak and he’s known for writing Where the Wild Things Are and books for kids but he’ll tell you, “I never wrote a f***king thing for kids.”

When I set out to write it, I don’t think I intended it to be “young adult”, I just wanted the story to be true to itself and then it turned out that way. The publishers really liked it for that.

Who is a gay role model right now? There just aren’t any. There’s no one out there, like typical mass media types — there’s no sports legend, there’s no actors, there’s no stars, there’s just no gay men. And part of me is why can’t a superhero be gay and star in his own series of books and stories? I couldn’t believe actually, that it has taken so long for someone to do it, but I’m really proud that I did it.

Everyone told me it’s crazy. A couple years ago I’m sure people would have said that there’s no way, you can’t do a book like this, especially for young people … but when I met with Hyperion, it was such a non-issue for them that he was gay. They loved it.

AE: It’s not just about his being “gay”.
PM: It’s not an “afterschool special” kind of thing like “Timmy has a problem.” I mean, he is gay, that is part of his identity, but in a lot of ways he just happens to be gay. It’s one of many things he has to deal with, one of many challenges he has to confront and overcome and integrate into his life.

My whole mission was what you got from the X-Men, where anyone could relate — black, white, young, old, gay, straight — if you’re alienated in any way, you could relate to the X-Men. But then they were also empowered by their differences … I wanted to teach people that what makes you unique is actually very special and that very thing that may make you feel alienated, if you’re willing to embrace it, can become the most empowering thing in your life.

AE: Superhero comics have a history of characters that do these bigger-than-life things thanks to their superpowers — such as save the world — but their personal lives also tend to have a bigger-than-life drama. Did you look at the superhero genre and put a gay character in those bigger than life scenarios?
PM: I took a genre that I knew inside and out. I always wanted to tell the story about a son and his father and I based the father character on my dad. He was a Vietnam vet and I thought what better way to tell the story, sort of an allegory of a Vietnam vet because people used to treat — it’s very different the way they treat veterans now than they did then … People didn’t used to talk about it and these scars were so deep, and growing up with them was very interesting. So I wanted to tell that story.

Then I just have this rabid love of comic books and I thought that was the way to do it, and in some ways I decided that the most radical thing about it was telling a great story that’s comic book inspired, but really the big radical thing at the center of the story is the world’s first gay superhero. I thought that was probably enough to play with the genre.

AE: Given that Thom’s father, Hal, is inspired by your father, how was the relationship between Thom and Hal like your relationship with your father?
PM: There are things obviously in that book that are very raw and personal — you can probably figure some of them out — that were very real. I gave the book to my dad to read and he was reading it and halfway through he was like “Oh, I wasn’t — was I this much of a monster?” I was like “No, keep reading, keep reading.” So, yeah, there are a lot of similarities.

I think there are a lot of very specific passages that were things that happened to me. I was a basketball player, too. A lot of things happened to Thom and me on the court, too. I had a crush, I met a guy who was probably two years older than me on the basketball team and he never knew it. You just couldn’t tell, you couldn’t do anything back then. That’s very tragic and powerful, but everybody can relate to that. Everyone has had a crush in school. It doesn’t matter if you’re gay or straight. And I like that. It gives universal appeal to the book in that regard.