Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (April 4, 1997)
j u s t o u t ▼ a p rii 4 . 1 0 9 7 ▼ 21 INTERVIEW Continued from page 19 1 don’t know if it’s voyeurism on their part, but they want to know. Like the character o f Basil Henderson, who people love to hate. would seem to be viable commercially. Closer to 800,000 now. But after they get over the gay thing, they have to get over the black thing. I think if [a film] was made independently, it would probably surprise them. A couple of schools, including Florida A & M ,have approached me about translating them into stage works. That might be a way to go. I’d like to see a film character on the screen, though, that I can identify with before I leave here. He's been the villain in two of your books, Just As 1 Am and A nd This Too Shall Pass. 1 did a luncheon last week with about 150 black women and when I told them he was a major character in my book that’s com ing out this sum mer, a lot of them said, “Ooh, I can ’t wait to read that!” I see him as having no redeem ing qualities at all. He starts out a chapter by saying, “Let me get one thing clear. I am not gay. 1 am not bisexual. I have dealt with men, but I have dealt with them for a reason.” I don’t know if you saw the film Jeffrey, but it was the first time I ever saw a real gay love story at the movies. Your books could be like that, if they were done well. So he’s not going to admit his true sexual identity? Another thing that is interesting is that white actors jum p at the chance to play gay characters. W hite straight actors, that is. In his mind he believes he isn ’t gay, even though he has sex with men and is attracted to men. I have interviewed about 10 guys for this book who all fit into that category. One minute they were talking about how erotic it was to be with a man, but if I asked them if they considered themselves bisexual, they said no, no, no. They would never have a relationship with another man— but they would definitely have sex with another man. There is a rule in Hollywood that if you see an actor in a film or on television playing a gay character, you can be assured that actor is not gay in real life, no matter what we’d like to believe. I was told by someone in Hollywood that if a black actor played a character from one o f my novels it could put them on the map. One good thing is that I have made some really good friends in H o lly w o o d . T he p re sid en t o f W hitney H ouston’s company, who was the producer of Courage Under Fire and The Preacher’s Wife, loves my books. Since the homosexuality of male athletes is a recurring theme in your work, what was your take on the cover story The Advocate did re cently on homosexuality in the NFL? I thought it was really weak. Maybe Whitney could play one of the parts. W ell, there was some resistance in W hitney’s company because o f the rumors circulating about her. Eventually something may happen with them. T hey’ve come to me and asked me to write other things for them, look at scripts they’re working on. They like the way I write. They have taken some heat for it since then, in letters to the editor. One letter said that the reason the article was weak was because there was no homosexuality among professional ath letes, in the NFL or elsewhere. You have been quoted as saying that you have been contacted anonymously by more than one athlete who is gay. Is that still happening? Your books, particularly the last one, seem especially well suited for movies. Recently I received an e-mail m essage from an athlete who said, “ I am Basil Henderson.” Unzipped expressed interest in the first two books, A lot o f people say that. The people who did but now 1 let my agents deal with that. A professional football player? Yes, getting ready to get married, believe it or not. I think what happens is they duck and dodge around. Any sports writer who is told by an ath lete, “ I am not gay, I don’t care what you’ve heard,” would believe him because they’re men and it’s what they want to believe. It’s like the whole Troy Aikman thing. W hile I was doing some research for And This Too Shall Pass, a sports writer told me that one of the N FL’s golden boys was gay. Now since I am black, and the sports writer was black, I thought that it was somebody black. I spent a lot of time thinking: W ho is it? The sportswriter said that he knew it to be a fact, and that if the world found out they would be shocked. It never dawned on me that it could be somebody white. [Athletes] would never come out, though. Travel the world, but call us first. 232-5944 Ri8'60 1 - 800 - 232-5944 1939 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Portland, Oregon E. Lynn Harris But we will probably never know for sure, because those guys are making so much money and their careers are so important to them that they would be willing to do anything to avoid the truth getting out. T hey’ve been out there forever. But within the black gay com m unity, we all know, but we would never tell. The same sort of thing exists in Hollywood, where the same producers who are afraid to make your books into movies are probably gay themselves. There are circles, though, and [the athletes] do get around. I think that especially in the black gay community we protect our chosen ones. R&B singers, pro athletes, O lym pic athletes, we know they’re gay but we protect them. No black track and field athlete could come out like Greg Louganis did. Basically my agent told me that. Scott Rudin has looked at all my projects, and he is openly gay. He was one o f the first ones to ask to see my books, even in m anuscript form. There have been rumors about Carl Lewis. After sales of over half a million books, they How do you answer the criticism you’ve faced from some gay readers about being “too mainstream?” It’s hurtful, but I understand. I see what I’m doing on a larger scale, a bigger mission, so I’m prepared to take the heat. One thing I’ve consid ered doing is putting out a novel once a year, instead o f every two years, and alternate, doing a totally gay love story and then a more commercial book. The people who want to complain or to criticize always get noticed. Thankfully, I see from my crowd, and from my mail, the people appreciate what I’m doing. And This Too Shall Pass by E. Lynn Harris. The Perfect Limousine for Every Occasion Tiffany Limousine has 12 limousines for your selection. We have the the perfect limousine, with 1-10 passenger availability. Prices start as low as $40.00 per hour. Tiffany Lim ousine 235-2341 Anchor Books, 1996; $12 paper.
