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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 2002)
January 18 . 2002 ' jM ft M L35 FILM ......... w......... he first question I mm- have for the incredi bly hunky S co tt G ur ney, who plays pom Actor Scott Gurney puts the Rebel star Johnny Rebel in the in Johnny Rebel new film The Fluffer is: W hat would your pom by G ary M . K ramer star name he? He laughs, from this film. pretty serious movie. We weren’t sure shakes his head and draws whether to take certain scenes from a comical “There is no role a blank. “I’ll give you that standpoint or a serious one, so we did it both that I wouldn’t do at the end of the inter ways, and it was interesting to see how they as long as people view,” he quips. cut it together.” remember it’s just Gurney should have an fe ;: The set’s joviality also extends to Gurney’s acting,” Gumey answer, though, for why he participation in making up mock video boxes replies. “1 mean, I * ■ chose to play an unsympa don’t know how for the movie’s fictional thetic, gay-for-pay pom Men of Janus line. C o much worse it can star drug addict in The director Wash West, an get [than this Fluffer. “That character is adult filmmaker, “had character]. 1 think so far from me,” he solidly some good ideas from I pretty much insists— making sure 1 am his experience. It’s all topped out the convinced. “He’s interest goofy fun. If you don’t first time around!” ing. The reason why the look at the humorous Although character worked is side to it, the dark side admittedly not because you love him and is overbearing.” personally chum hate him. W hen it gets Gumey conducted deep into the movie, you W ho needs Viagra when you’ve got a fluffer? my with his fel some research to get low actors, Gur feel for him.” into his part. “I did go ney maintains it was a fun film set. “W hile And Gurney isn’t afraid of being typecast. see a couple of pomos— both gay and we’re shooting...everyone is laughing their “The hardest thing to do is break out of a ‘good straight— being filmed,” he reflects, “and balls off. During the actual filmmaking, we boy’ role. It is easy when you play a bad guy to when you’re watching those, it’s serious, and had more laughs than any comedy I’ve [then] play a good guy because it’s cool to see a it would he embarrassing if you were laughed worked on; [yet] it wasn’t written like that. bad guy play a good guy.” at while you were doing it.” The Fluffer takes W hen we all sat down and discussed the film Still, a lot of straight actors (yes, he is, sorry a bit of a lighter stab at its representation of before we started, everyone thought it was a guys) would shy away from this part— even pom filming, “mimicking it” a bit, he notes. About the nude scenes, Gumey is up front about being full frontal, saying it "didn’t bother me. By the end [of the shoot], I was buddy- buddy with everyone on the set, and they were real cool...you just have to go with the flow. It’s work.” This same attitude is what the actor thinks drives performers who work in the pom industry professionally. “It takes a cer tain kind o f breed... I was talking with this girl on a pom set, and this man comes over with scissors and she drops her robe and he starts trimming her down. And it didn’t affect her one bit! S h e ’s buck naked and still holding a conversation with me.” With the success of The Fluffer at queer film festi vals, Gumey, who lives in Santa Monica, Calif., with his girlfriend, is going to look for work in the nonadult movie industry. “I have had a couple of offers for TV, but I think I’m going to try to stick with movies. It doesn’t matter as long as the character is interesting.” After the interview, I realize I never did get Gurney’s pom name. I guess he’ll always be Johnny Rebel to me. JH the adult entertain ment company that has Johnny Rebel under exclusive contract. Sean is manning the camera when an emergency arises and he’s asked to “fluff” Rebel. Unfor tunately for Sean, Johnny is tempera mental, straight and a drug addict. Meanwhile, Johnny’s pregnant girlfriend, Babylon (Roxanne Day), works at a strip club run by a tough old broad (Deborah Harry) and has to deal with the real John ny— a constantly stoned, pathetically egotis tical jerk who duplicitously has sex with other men for a living. Sean makes a stab at a realistic relationship with a nice young gay man like himself, but his Rebel fantasies keep getting in the way, along with a disturbing childhood sex-abuse trauma that’s told, a la Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom, in black-and-white flashback. The flashbacks are rather gratuitous, as is a party scene filled with real-life gay pom celebrities like director Chi Chi Larue and actor Cole Tucker, and the movie has its clum sy moments. But regardless of the mixed results, it’s nice to see the filmmakers making a wholehearted attempt to do dialectic justice to their complex subject matter. And it all sounds more hokey than it plays. By the time we get to the film’s Message— “Fantasy is no substitute for reality”— it feels not so much like hectoring as it does a gentle, wistful reminder. T Gay for pay iíS&Sft «ml "The r e a s o n w h y th e c h a r a c t e r w o r k e d is b e c a u se y o u lo v e h im a n d h a t e him " — Scott G u rn ey Key grip The Fluffer rem inds us that fantasy is just that by C h r ist o ph er M c Q u a in he concept sounds like pure sexploitation: A young man becomes obsessed with a male pom star, eventually becoming his “fluffer.” (For those unfamiliar with the term, this is the person who keeps the actor’s resolve steely between takes.) But this is a slippery, expectation-defying little film. Co-directors Richard Glatzer and Wash West take our wide-eyed protagonist on such a twisty-tumy trip through obsession, dis illusionment and dysfunction that The Fluffer is in greater danger of becoming a Lifetime therapyfest than a cheesy softcore skin flick. To their credit, they avoid both traps. Sean (Michael Cunio) is a Hollywood neo phyte and aspiring film huff, with a Wild Reeds Michael Cunio likes to watch poster on his wall to signify his sensitivity. He’s systematically renting the classics when a video store clerk accidentally gives him Citizen Cum starring Johnny Rebel (Scott Gumey). This is the beginning of his fixation, which leads him to a job as production assistant at Janus Films, 9 ^ 6 S&1/6 G ary M. K ramer is a Philadelphia free-lance writer. Cinema 2 1 , 6 1 6 N . W . 21st A we., screens T he FLUFFER Jan. 25 to 31. For more information call 503-223-4515. CHRLSTOPHER McQUAIN is a Portland writer and filmmaker. B are — is— B ack ! You KNOW it ! 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