Despite his uncertainty over some of the material, Martin
took the meeting with Schamus and Lee.
I went into the Ang Lee meeting and I had read the book and
they’re like, ‘I don’t know how much you know, but we want to do this movie.
We’re kind of interested in you as a character. We’re not going into as much of
the like underground New York
gay scene and that stuff. We’re focusing more on the family relationship and
this guy’s personal journey, as a gay person who is in the closet in 1969 as
that relates to making Woodstock happen and finding yourself as a generation is
finding itself.’
A week later Schamus asked Martin to come back and read for
Lee.
I did four scenes [and] I was like, this is a long shot, but
this is for real now. And then two days later, they were like, ‘Okay. We’ll do
this with you.’ Wow! I’m in every scene in that movie! It’s crazy! I’d been in
like two or three movies before and did like two scenes, tops. Now I’m in every
scene, and I’m working with Ang Lee?
Given Martin’s comedy background and lack of training as an
actor, did he have any concerns about just taking on such a dramatic part? “I
can improvise and be myself, but I’m going to do legitimate scene work here
with a really accomplished director who’s got a strong visual and ...
interpersonal sense.”
Given that this is Martin’s first big role and is likely to
garner a great deal of attention, did playing gay give him pause?
No. You know what I thought? It’s funny when those guys do Brokeback
Mountain and they get credit for being like – people assume, ‘Oh this is a
straight guy. Oh, so now we add that on to the layers of acting appreciation.’
But the funny thing is for me, nobody knows who I am, so I just remember
thinking that was funny – they’ll be like, ‘Oh, yeah, he’s pretty good. Now
they got that young gay actor to do that.’ But wait! That was part of my
acting! Come on! Give me some credit for that! But that’s also kind of stupid.
Martin on location for Taking Woodstock
Photo credit Bobby Bank/WireImage
While Martin had no concerns over playing a gay character,
he did want to get the character right.
I have to veritably
play a gay character in the 60s who’s closeted. I fall in love with a guy –
it’s not a big storyline, but there’s a guy I’m really in love with in the
movie. … I think a lot of people forget before Stonewall, and as someone who
doesn’t know a lot about gay history, but I know enough between friends and
just history, you do take certain things for granted and I don’t think most
people my age or younger quite comprehend just how marginalized people were and
how this was treated as a criminal thing and everything.
