May 8, 2003
GALE'S FORCE: Hot as ever on QUEER AS FOLK, Gale Harold diversifies his resume
Leave QUEER AS FOLK’s Gale Harold in the middle of a mall, at a gay pride event or walking down the streets of West Hollywood and a crowd is sure to surround him – autograph hounds en masse. With his cult celebrity, the 34 year old actor, who just wrapped his third season playing Pittsburgh’s sexy bad boy Brian Kinney in the popular series (the cliffhanger episode airs later this month), has come to expect a certain amount of public attention and lack of privacy. So, it was somewhat peculiar yet exciting for the Georgian born actor to arrive at the recent 2nd Annual Tribeca Film Festival held in downtown New York , in an anonymous fashion, unrecognizable to most of the independent film industry assembled. When RedZone sat down with Harold on the day of the premiere of his film PARTICLES OF TRUTH, a psychological drama about two vulnerable and tortured souls who find each other on the streets of New York and help change each other’s lives, his nerves were working overtime. Already a proven entity on cable television, Harold needed to impress a whole new audience of film critics and indie film players, many of whom were seeing his work for the first time.
RedZone: So, what was it about this project that compelled you to take a stab at the big screen vs. the smaller one you have inhabited for the past several years?
RZ: Have you ever read lines on the phone before?
RZ: What was the most challenging part?
RZ: And you are so used to an environment at QUEER AS FOLK where you have a team of people looking at every aspect of the production.
RZ: Would you say you felt freer in this?
RZ: I understand she saw like 400 actors before she met with you. You had a similar experience with QAF, where you were one of the last to be seen and then cast. What do you think this means?
RZ: This will be the first time people will be seeing you onscreen in a heterosexual relationship. Did that impact you or the director at all?
RZ: You have broken out a little bit by doing a little theater on your down time.
RZ: So I’m sure it is so liberating on the rare occasion when you do get to expose Brian’s heart. And the character in this film is actually a lost soul.
RZ: So, is there an indie career in your future?
Gale Harold: Well, the script was very challenging and there were a lot of very intense characters. I talked to the director (Jennifer Elster) and we basically did all of the scenes on the phone and we were sold on each other.
GH: I had never done that before but I think it is a really good thing to do. I’m sure it is not appropriate for every situation. But because we were in two different locations, it worked. You actually don’t typically have people hand you a script and say ‘lets read it together.’ It was great and it gave me a sense of what she wanted to do and how she wanted it to be. We got into it by talking through the scenes. I could tell she was very rigorous. She has a very clear objective that’s incredibly attractive.
GH: I knew it was going to be challenging because Jennifer was producing, directing and performing in the film. I needed to remove myself from her other duties while playing a scene with her – all of the production details which had nothing to do with what I was trying to do. It was a very good learning experience however, in terms of concentration and listening. Because it was not just listening to a director, but everything that is happening. Some days I found myself unable to do that.
GH: Yes. With a bigger team, all of those concerns go away. But it was great for me to step out of the real structured, very regimented production situation. There are certain variables that will never come into a QAF day, where in this production every variable was there.
GH: At times, but it went back and forth, because at times I felt constrained by the schedule, for a low budget film. In some ways I turned so much over to her. Even though we were rushed and had a lot of things to deal with, the flipside of that is when you are working on a television show, you don’t have the opportunity to be that specific, even though you have more equipment and crew. The line production is much more intense. It was basically a breaking down of comfort levels and it started so soon after the season, it kind of cleared the channels.
GH: I guess there are two ways to look at it. But with classically paranoid delusions after getting rejected over and over again, you start to wonder, “Am I just the last resort?”
GH: Well, I was fortunate I didn’t have to deal with that with the director, because Jennifer hadn’t seen the show and didn’t come into it with any preconceived notion about me. She wasn’t informed by that at all. It didn’t have any affect on how she related to me as a person or an actor. That was great and was one of the most freeing things about working on this project. As far as my feelings, I’m really nervous about this situation. I really want to know on some level if I can break out – if I can communicate in another voice, another character. With QAF, it has been very intense, a lot of exposure, but its been so centralized…one reality, one identity. It’s been great and a great gig to have and a wonderful thing to work on. But I haven’t seen the other side of it yet, and I’m scared and anxious to be here.
GH: I’m just really happy to have the opportunity to move in different directions. I always get, “Are you worried about being stereotyped…are you worried about being typecast?” I never had that fear and never saw it as an issue. But at the same time, because Brian, regardless of his orientation, is a very closed down, ornery, cantankerous, son of a bitch, he really makes it hard for people to like him and the opportunities for him to do things that resonate with people are limited. And for me, this being my first really big job, and at this point a four year life span, that’s so much time. Sometimes I feel that’s all I’m about. The very nature of his character is very closed off and that’s been one of the more difficult things to deal with.
GH: It’s kind of like a starvation diet. In a way I’ve had a lot of exposure in a very specific kind of medium. These two projects are so different that I feel like I’ve never done anything before. It’s like this is the first thing I’ve ever done, being here this week. The longer I’m sitting here talking about it, the more intense it is feeling because it is going to be a totally different dynamic. The dynamics of film and television are so different. The people who are going to be seeing what is happening with this film are going to be looking at it from a totally different vantage point. I’m hoping that I can hear some reactions to this film based on THIS character, THIS work.
GH: I’m interested in working. And I love independent films and I love the idea of having a chance in my life to be involved with them.
