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 !
IV e know it !
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