THE JASON PRIESTLEY INTERVIEW

[X]
Get the inside scoop on gay icon Jason Priestley as he talks about his starring role in Love and Death on Long Island, the debut feature film from British gay director Richard Kwietniowski.

Jason Priestley slouches in his chair and sucks from his Marlboro Light, looking more dashingly James Dean-ish than Brandon in "Beverly Hills, 90210" ever has. He fiddles with his silver lighter as he contemplates the question. "Does it bother me if people think I'm gay?" Priestley winces his deep blue eyes and takes another drag. "I don't know. If people think I am gay, yeah, hey that doesn't bother me. Not at all. What would people think? To me I am such a heterosexual guy. It doesn't even, I don't even think about it."

It comes with being a celebrity, especially a teen icon. He's too cute, he's too nice, he must be gay. Rumors follow Priestley a lot. There's the Luke Perry-and-Jason love triangle story when they lived as roommates a brief time, their bar-hopping and dancing together and the speculation of the size of Priestley's surprising appendage during the nude pool scene in Calendar Girl. Priestley puts on his best lispy whiny whisper, "There used to be rumors about me and Luke. Jason and Luke were at a rave last night. They were kissing in the corner. I don't hear so many anymore." He giggles.

"But I did see the funniest thing I have ever seen in my life," he laughs as he describes it. "My sister brought me this card and it was like a greeting card and on the front of the card there was a five-by-seven picture and someone had taken the Dylan doll (Perry's character) and the Brandon doll and put them so the two dolls are kissing. The two dolls are making out in the doorway!" Priestley's eyes are in full wrinkle as he laughs hysterically. "It's the funniest thing I ever saw in my life. I said, 'This is huge! This is classic!' And both of them had their sleeves rolled up -- and the outfits! It was perfect. It was the funniest thing I ever -- both their arms are wrapped around each other and there heads are, oh god, it's very funny."

He composes himself. He takes another drag of his cigarette. "I'm having fun with this interview," he smiles. "It's nice to be able to relate." In Cannes at the film festival reporters grilled him about whether his role in his latest film as a movie star stalked by a bisexual journalist would turn Priestley into an icon in the gay community. "Gosh, I thought I already was," Priestley smiles.

He's far away from his home base near Beverly Hills because he's giving a dozen private interviews in his penthouse hotel room at the Toronto International Film Festival promoting his dark, quirky, delightful film Love and Death on Long Island, opening soon nationwide. Despite pouring his third cup of coffee and filling half an ashtray with butts, the skinny devastatingly seductive actor is finally letting his high- coiffed hair down. He has known this interviewer for years -- sharing cigarettes in the bathroom of an AIDS fundraiser, hanging out at the racetrack when he's driving, visits to the "90210" and Calendar Girl sets, watching him play hockey at charity events, going to the premiere of his most underrated work Coldblooded and bumping into each other at many Hollywood parties. Suddenly, he's talking about fashion, he compares his just-tailored Hugo Boss jacket with this reporter's blue Boss jacket. He likes the shoes.

Priestley's a Virgo, turning 30 this year, and usually a bit self-conscious. Now, he is alone in the room without a publicist and is suddenly fearless about answering the tough questions. What does he do when guys come on to him? "Um, That doesn't really happen to me," he says. "I am not really in situations where that does happen." Aw come on, that's impossible. Guys must come on to him all the time. "OK," he admits, "Sometimes. If it does happen it's fine, but it's not my thing. But, it doesn't upset me at all." Would he handle it tenderly, much like his character does in the film when the older journalist professes his love? "Oh absolutely. Absolutely," Priestley says, proud of his breakthrough film role. "No. It's not like, 'Hey man fuck you, get away from me.' It's more like, 'Hey, thank you but I am not interested.' "

If he were closeted, would Priestley come out? "I think it's great now that we seem to be in an era where it's OK to be gay and I think that the society in North America has had more of a problem with it than any other society," Priestley pontificates. "I think the moral majority and religious right have been shrinking and having not quite as loud a voice in America, and all of a sudden people are coming to their own realizations going, `Joe down the street is gay and he's a great guy.' "

Priestley puts on his best Southern red-neck voice. "I think that when we don't have these people from the moral majority standing up and saying, `These homosexuals are going to burn in hell for what they're doing' then all of a sudden I think people will come to their own realizations that `Wow, I have a lot of friends who are gay and they are all really nice people and I really like spending time with them.' I think that people are coming to that realization all by themselves and I think that that's what is making it OK."

This reporter recalls chatting with "90210" producer Aaron Spelling about all the closeted actors he works with on his shows and how he's encouraging them to come out of the closet now. Spelling wouldn't reveal who. "Of course it's Jason and Luke, I know it," Priestley says.

But could a guy come out and still play a leading man? "That's a good question," Priestley ponders. "Can Ellen now go back and play a heterosexual woman in a movie and have people watch it? I don't know. I would hope so. (He pauses.) I would hope so." The actor has talked to closeted actor friends many times, recently at a dinner. "It's got to be horrible to lead that double life," he says. "I can't imagine what that is like. I can't, that's got to be just not much fun at all. But if a male ever came out and said, `Yes I am gay' would the world accept him then in heterosexual roles? The answer to that is: I don't know. I think it has yet to be seen."

In an interview with In Magazine from London, openly gay director and writer Richard Kwietniowski says he cast Priestley specifically because he was a heart-throb on television, and he wanted the actor to spoof his own persona. "He's handsome to everyone, and he got the self parody and took it further," Kwietniowski says. "I wanted to make this a love story, it doesn't matter if the two characters are men."

In fact, it becomes Harold and Maude if they were opposite sexes, Priestley points out. "I love how the John Hurt character is discovering love for the first time, even though he's been married," Kwietniowski says. "It's like buying a porn magazine for the first time, like being a teenager for the first time." Kwietniowski says it took almost four years to get the project made, and his co-producer finally admits that the director's sexuality perhaps delayed the project. "People are afraid there's propaganda or a hidden agenda somewhere," Kwietniowski says. "I have two other screenplays, and there's some gay content in them, and people say it's hard to tell real stories with gay content. Oh, of course you can make Oscar Wilde or plays like Bent into films because they're proven hits, but not a true, real story." The point of his film, Kwietniowski says, is to make the audience feel, "Oh fuck, I relate to this feeling of being a fish out of water, of being vulnerable, of saying `I love you' when there's no turning back."

Priestley says his character may have it in him to be bisexual, but rejects the older man's advances. "My character of Ronnie was very sensitive about it," Priestley says. "He didn't slap Giles, he didn't just go, `Hey fuck you man' and walk out. I think that Ronnie had a lot of caring and compassion about him."

Meanwhile, Priestley is looking for caring in his own life, after breaking up with a long-term girlfriend recently. Almost whining, he says, "My relationship ended about four months ago man which was devastating, it was tough and I don't think I'm still completely over it."

So he does a 45-minute workout routine every morning: skip rope, hit the heavy bag, speed bike. Then, driving a GT1 race car takes a lot out because it's up to 140 degrees in the car. Things are changing for him at "90210" now that everyone's moved into the Walsh House. It's kind of a Melrose Walsh House Place. Priestly knows, "Someday it's going to end and I'll miss the people. Hopefully we'll stay in touch and continue to be friends."

Meanwhile, the rumors fly. The latest was when visiting his father for a night at home in Vancouver where he grew up. "There was this story that I had been at this bar picking up chicks and I was having dinner with a woman and another woman came in to the restaurant and yelled `How many women can you sleep with in a week?' and slapped me. And the girl I was having dinner with stood up and said, `You dog' and walked out and the two girls left together leaving me alone in the restaurant. I found that very comical."

It didn't happen. His dad found the story on the Internet and faxed him with a note: "When did you find time to squeeze all this in?" Priestley smiles. "He thought it was very funny. He thought, 'Wow, my son, all right. He's with me all night, he had about four hours without me and he squeezed in eight women, that a boy!' "