Us – Review

Lupita Nyong’o, Evan Alex, Shahadi Wright Joseph, and Winston Duke in Us

Us opened last weekend to a mammoth $70.2 million, becoming the highest opening original horror movie and biggest ever opening for a film with a black female lead.  What’s more,  Us, Jordan Peele’s follow-up to his Oscar winning instant classic Get Out, is just plain awesome.  It’s a fun, immersive, thoughtful spectacular that just happens to center on an African American family.  It’s as if Jordan Peele is shrugging, saying, “I make outstanding horror films with black leads, NBD” while his doppelganger is brandishing a pair of golden scissors and shrieking “it’s a very big deal.”


Us opens with a bizarre opening title sequence—Get Out composer Michael Abels provides an even better score here—that won’t make any sense until much later in the narrative.  Then there’s an excellent 1986 set sequence on the Santa Cruz boardwalk, wherein a little girl wanders away from her squabbling parents and encounters her mirror image in a spooky funhouse.   Flash forward to the present: the Wilsons are a middle class family headed to their vacation house.  Gabe (Winston Duke) is an endearingly goofy dad.  Jason (Evan Alex) is an oddball kid with an affinity for Halloween masks and magic tricks.  Sister Zora (Shahadi Wright Joseph) is a high school running star alternately amused and annoyed by most of her family, aka every teenage girl ever.  Adelaide (Lupita Nyong’o, transcendent) is a fiercely protective mother who anchors the clan, but something’s bothering her.  That was her in the funhouse, and she’s intensely triggered by this return.  It doesn’t spoil anything to say that her doppelganger soon arrives with copies of the entire family in tow; mayhem ensues.  Anyone who gives away more than that deserves to dine on raw rabbit.

Nyong’o

The construction of Us is exquisite.  Portents of doom and symbolism abound, from the Biblical quote to the mirror imagery everywhere you look.  The Wilsons’ friends, the Tylers, are a parallel family.  Two parents, two kids: white/black, rich/not so rich, happy/deeply dysfunctional.  (As boozy mom Kitty, Elisabeth Moss gets to show off her acting chops—though no one can hold a candle to Lupita here.)  There are clues and winks saturating the movie, but Peele isn’t showing off.  He’s just inviting you to immerse yourself in his world.  He beckons the audience into his nightmare kingdom as surely as the characters are drawn into that funhouse.  At the risk of belaboring a point, Us truly is a funhouse; while Get Out was deadly serious, this movie is a thrill ride, leavened with humor and as enjoyable as it is creepy.

Alex and Alex

For the past week, I’ve been debating this movie with friends.  Does the mythology make sense?  Are there plot holes?  Is it overrated, poorly written, etc., etc.?  I’ve engaged with the conversations—it’s the kind of movie you should see with friends, and plan to talk about over coffee or cocktails immediately afterward.  But I remain unshaken in my conviction that this is an extremely well made, imaginative, and entertaining film that is destined to become a classic.  Peele displays such complete command of his craft, from script to camera to lighting to the inspired choice of songs: Janelle Monae and N.W.A. are among the standouts.  All of the performers turn in excellent work.  Everything you’ve heard about Nyong’o is true.  She is utterly remarkable as Adelaide and her scissors-loving “Tethered” counterpart, Red.  If there was any justice in the world, she would be nominated for an Oscar for this movie, but the Academy will probably snub her.  No matter.  She makes this movie, aptly supported by the entire cast.  Duke is endearing and truly outstanding in his own right.  He’s also one of the sexiest bears I’ve seen onscreen in a long while.  (Add unconventional body types to the Hollywood standards this movie casually upends.)  He and the kids are adept at vividly portraying their sinister “shadows,” too.


We already knew Jordan Peele was one to watch.  This terrific movie only serves to confirm it, and as a horror fan, I’m thrilled to have a new master to follow—especially one slicing through barriers.

The Geeks OUT Podcast: Netflix & Kill

The Geeks OUT Podcast

Opinions, reviews, incisive discussions of queer geek ideas in pop culture, and the particularly cutting brand of shade that you can only get from a couple of queer geeks all in highly digestible weekly doses.

In this week’s episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, recorded from C2E2, Kevin is joined by Eric Green and Seth Schindehette, as they discuss the new trailer for Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Part 2, discuss the problematic elements of Netflix’s Love, Death & Robots, and celebrate the casting of Chella Man as Jericho on Titans in This Week in Queer.

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BIG OPENING

KEVIN: Supernatural is ending next season
ERIC: Marvel announces the return of Jonathan Hickman with House of X & Powers of X series
SETH: Netflix accused of shuffling Love, Death & Robots based on sexuality

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DOWN AND NERDY

KEVIN: Black Lighting
ERIC: Age of Apocalypse
SETH: D&D Real Play Podcasts

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STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

New trailer for Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: Part 2

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THIS WEEK IN QUEER

Titans cast deaf trans actor as Jericho

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CLIP OF THE WEEK

New trailer for Stranger Things season 3

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THE WEEK IN GEEK

MOVIES

It’s official, Disney now owns Fox
• New trailer for Toy Story 4

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TV

• DC Universe will be free for a day on March 30
Castle Rock season 2 to give origin to Misery
• David Boreanaz teases something for Angel’s 20th anniversary
• Anson Mount not returning for season 3 of Star Trek: Discovery

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COMIC BOOKS

• Marvel announces Absolute Carnage and Secret Warps events
• New Kickstarter for queer focused graphic novel Masked Prejudice

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SHILF

• KEVIN: Quentin Quire
• ERIC: Nightcrawler
• SETH: Superman

Kickstarter We’re Into: Masked Prejudice

“You’d be a better superhero if only you smiled more.”


How many of us cringed when Captain Marvel was told by that biker to smile more in her titular film? (And how many of us cheered when she got back at that biker?)


Prejudice and hate take all kinds of forms, from the outright violent to the subtle. The new anthology Masked Prejudice looks at those who experience the hate and fear before the cape and tights. Set in a world where those with super powers are targets of government sanctioned fear and violence tactics, Masked Prejudice shows what has happened two years later: some heroes are (reluctantly) working for their government, others live in isolation.

The project is the brainchild of Oxford Comics founder and former comic book retailer Jason Conover. He and several of his friends and co-workers at New York City’s Midtown Comics spent some time brainstorming a shared superhero universe. When most of the characters developed turned out to be queer characters, Conover realized he had a work on his hands that could serve as a metaphor for what marginalized communities face on a daily basis – – in an accessible, understandable superhero format.


“A resurgence of bigotry and hatred seems to be spreading after the previous presidential election. Each day seemed to bring another news story that filled me with anxiety: tiki torch rallies, school shootings, and a rise in suicide among young people,” Conover says on his Kickstarter page. “We wanted to take all that raw emotion, all that pent up frustration, and express it into this anthology.”


The anthology will be in full color with 13 stories from such writers and artists as:


  • Felipe Cunha (Return to Whisper)
  • Sebastián Piriz (Headspace)
  • Rodrigo Urbano (Heavy Metal)
  • Ellie Wright (Elvira)
  • Mike Garley (Adventure Time)
  • Geeks OUT’s own Joe Glass (The Pride)
Interior art

Pledges start at $1, with $20 getting you a digital copy of the anthology. Among the awards you can receive:


  • Digital art by Rodrigo Urbano
  • Physical copy of our trade paperback
  • 9″x12″ art print by Sebastián Piriz
  • 1.5″ enamel pin designed by Christopher Waugh
  • 4″x6″ sketch card drawn on by our artists
  • A cosplay-level domino mask

Retailer-level tiers are also available, and some of the higher end tiers include a portfolio review (script or artwork), and the opportunity to be drawn into one of the panels.


Estimated delivery on the anthology will be October 2019. As of this writing, the campaign is 39% funded, with 12 days to go. View and back the campaign here, and remember: no one has to right to tell you to smile.

Monster-Mania Con 42 report

The author and Rachel True

“I’m just saying if you’re gonna have three out of the witches, you need four, don’tcha?” actress Rachel True asked, referring to the controversy that erupted when she went public about an unnamed convention inviting all three female leads in The Craft–except her.  “Sounds about white,” she tweeted dryly.  “I’m very happy to be here with my whole cast,” she declared.  “I’m delighted to be here with the whole cast.  I am.” 

An attendee showing off their The Craft inspired jacket.

True talked to me at Monster-Mania 42, “the semi-annual Philadelphia Horror Film & Memorabilia Convention,” which invited her to join Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk, and Neve Campbell for a Craft reunion at their March event shortly after the snub story broke.  The coven proved to be one of the weekend’s biggest draws.  There’s always a preponderance of Goths and geeks at the convention, of course, but the Craft ladies brought them out in force.  Much of the crowd seemed to exemplify Balk’s famous line “We are the weirdoes, mister.”  I told a woman in line with me that her outfit was appropriately witchy.  “Oh!” she replied.  “This is just what I wear all the time.”  Elsewhere, cosplayers embodied a mix of horror icons like The Haunting of Hill House’s “Bent Neck Lady” and a gender-swapped Ash (from Evil Dead) and comics universe characters like Batgirl and Gotham’s Oswald Cobblepot.

Cosplayers KJ Buxton and Alexa Bronco

The weekend marked the one year anniversary of a near disastrous event wherein the combination of big names like Tim Curry, Paul Reubens, Richard Dreyfuss, and the young stars of It (2017) drew crowds far past the capacity of the Cherry Hill, NJ Crown Plaza Hotel.  The fire department intervened, limiting Saturday admittance, shutting down a tent meant to host panels, and leaving droves of fans either left out in the cold (literally) or just plain ticked off.  To its credit, the organizers have since taken steps to strictly limit sales to reasonable capacity, meaning advance tickets are pretty much a must—but the precautions have paid off in avoiding a similar debacle.  I went on the comparably quieter Sunday this time, and although I heard the day before was packed, it didn’t sound anything like the previous year.

Justin with Halloween (2018)’s Jibrail Nantambu

The Con drew a wide assortment of guests, including two other notable African American actors: Jibrail Nantambu, who stole the show with his hilarious, heavily improvised performance in Halloween (2018), and Eugene Clark, the imposing actor who memorably played “Big Daddy,” the leader of the zombies in George Romero’s Land of the Dead.  There was also Dylan McDermott, hunky star of American Horror Story and the 1990 scifi thriller Hardware, original Michael Myers Nick Castle and 2018 version James Jude Courtney, 80s hearththrob Dolph Lundgren (He-Man in the camp classic Masters of the Universe), and Meatloaf!  (Christina Ricci was only there through Saturday, so I missed her. Le sigh.)

Also in attendance was Ashlee Blackwell, founder of the scholarly website Graveyard Shift Sisters (graveyardshiftsisters.com) and co-writer/producer of the excellent Horror Noire: A History of Black Horror, currently streaming on Shudder.  I watched the film to prepare for meeting True, who appears throughout the movie’s brisk 83 minute runtime.  The actress joins everyone from Candyman Tony Todd to Get Out director Jordan Peele to discuss the history of black representation and contributions to horror, with plenty of illuminating insights throughout.  “It’s so good, isn’t it?” True enthused.  “Tell your white friends to watch it, because I think people think it’s only for Black [people]—it’s not, if you like horror, this is a great documentary, right?”  I agreed that it was, and mentioned how passionately Geeks OUT believes in representation.  “I’m really big on representation!” True responded, adding pointedly, “I’m here.  I’m happy to be here.” 

Someone Tell JK Rowling to Stop

The weird ‘facts’ JK Rowling has shared has turned into a fairly hilarious meme describing all of the ‘new information’ JK Rowling has bestowed about Harry Potter characters as well as other fandoms. It’s inception has come from the Harry Potter author divulging various tidbits on Twitter and it interviews about characters and plot points that really don’t have anything to do with the story. The intention to expand the Harry Potter universe is interesting in of itself, but telling us that a character is actually part of a minority way after the fact is hollow and irritating.Unfortunately, the stuff that JK Rowling comes up somehow outshines the creativity of Twitter with it’s sheer ridiculousness.


The latest revelation that she decided to share was that Dumbledore and Grindelwald had an ‘intense sexual relationship’.


First of all, no one was asking about that, and no one wanted it. Seriously there was never any time during the books or movies where I sat there wondering about any of the characters’ sex life. It’s not important to the story and at this point doesn’t give us any value at all. This revelation is nowhere as strange as the ‘wizards used to shit themselves before muggles invented toilets’ factoid, but the weird faux-representation she is trying to bestow is hurtful, annoying, and frankly pointless.


Full disclosure, I started reading the Harry Potter books when I was 11, rereading them all multiple times. The book series has it flaws, but I still love it with all of my heart. But as the years have passed the more and more JKR has tried to shove weird ‘inclusive’ things into the series, it’s taking away any joy I used to feel about these books.


People were obviously disappointed that a gay character (which wasn’t revealed in the books at all) would be in a movie with his love interested and there would absolutely zero queer context. It feels like someone dangling representation in front of faces only chastised when we want concrete examples of queer characters in the Harry Potter universe. It seems like she’s trying to be inclusive in ways that are safe to her and the franchising bottom line. JK Rowling and Harry Potter wouldn’t suffer greatly if there was actual canonical representation in Fantastic Beasts, but it probably would have hurt if she explicitly stated Dumbledore’s sexual orientation in the books.


This does NOT mean, however, talking about how two male characters used to bone a lot. It still leaves the representation at zero and overly sexualizes characters that are in books made for children and young adults. I’m not saying there shouldn’t be any of that in kids books, but it’s not what we’re asking for and it feels extremely strange to be given that over a decade since the last book was released. Saying Dumbledore and Grindelwald have sex is supposed to make me feel better about there being no out queer characters canonically? What does this solve exactly? Am I supposed to be satiated by this?


It would have been brave of her to include an openly gay character in a popular book series that debuted in 1997. But now it all just feels like I’m reading really bad fanfiction. I’ve read better fanfiction that includes more tasteful and concrete representation. Now I’m left questioning why no one in her circle is telling her to stop tweeting these empty platitudes. I’m wondering why her or anyone else feels like this is a solution to the lack of diverse representation in the books and the movies.


I’m not going to lie, the JK Rowling memes have been more creative than and interesting than Rowling’s revelations. But I would trade them all for actually queer representation in the Harry Potter universe. Queer wizards want to be seen too.

The Geeks OUT Podcast: Avengers – A Hair in Time

The Geeks OUT Podcast

Opinions, reviews, incisive discussions of queer geek ideas in pop culture, and the particularly cutting brand of shade that you can only get from a couple of queer geeks all in highly digestible weekly doses.

In this week’s marvelously extended episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin is joined by Jason Conover, as they discuss Black Widow’s hair journey in the latest Avengers: Endgame trailer, marvel at Disney’s decision to bring James Gunn back, and question JK Rowling’s decision to continue to gay-bait Harry Potter fans in This Week in Queer.

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BIG OPENING

KEVIN: James Gunn returns to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
JASON: New international trailer for Shazam!

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DOWN AND NERDY

KEVIN: The Passage, Apocalypse Now, Uncanny X-Men: Winter’s End
JASON: Captain Marvel, Umbrella Academy, Thor, Mister Miracle

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STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

New trailer for Tuca & Bertie

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THIS WEEK IN QUEER

JK Rowling continues to gay-bait Harry Potter fans

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CLIP OF THE WEEK

New trailer for Avengers: Endgame

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THE WEEK IN GEEK

MOVIES

Ezra Miller & Grant Morrison working on Flash script
• Teaser for Alien 40th Anniversary shorts
• New trailer for Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
• Sony teases 7 or 8 years worth of Spider-Man properties
New trailer for Disney’s live action remake of Aladdin
Disney will officially “acquire” Fox this week
Namor teased by Doctor Strange 2 director
Shang-Chi gets Asian writer & director

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TV

• Netflix cancels One Day at a Time
• Starz renews American Gods for season 3
• Esai Morales joins season 2 of Titans
DC Universe offering free previews of shows
Supergirl teases a new romance between Alex & Jimmy’s sister
• Taika Waititi joins Time Bandits tv series
Marvel’s What If? coming to Disney+

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COMIC BOOKS

Marvel & DC introducing new Asian heroes
• New Kickstarter for queer focused graphic novel Masked Prejudice

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SHILF

• KEVIN: Luthor
• JASON: Klaus

The Geeks OUT Podcast: The Marvelous Ms. Larson

The Geeks OUT Podcast

Opinions, reviews, incisive discussions of queer geek ideas in pop culture, and the particularly cutting brand of shade that you can only get from a couple of queer geeks all in highly digestible weekly doses.

In this week’s marvelously extended episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin is joined by Jon Herzog, as they salute the success of Brie Larson and Captain Marvel, take a peak at the new trailer for Game of Thrones, and celebrate Mr. Rogers and 20BiTeen in This Week in Queer.

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BIG OPENING

KEVIN: Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opening up sooner at Disney
JON: New trailer for final season of Game of Thrones

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DOWN AND NERDY

KEVIN: Captain Marvel, Star Trek: Discovery, Prisoner X
JON: How To Train Your Dragon 3, Binge Mode: Game of Thrones Podcast

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STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

Captain Marvel has the 6th highest opening ever

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THIS WEEK IN QUEER

Mr. Rogers was bisexual

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CLIP OF THE WEEK

New trailer for Good Omens

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THE WEEK IN GEEK

MOVIES

New trailer for Shazam!
• First tease of Jared Leto as Morbius and character breakdowns
• New trailer for Midsommar
• New Line developing Hello Kitty movie
New poster for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
New trailer for Tolkien
New trailer for Brightburn

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TV

• New trailer for season 2 of Cobra Kai
• New trailer for season 3 of Queer Eye
• New teaser for Love, Death, & Robots
• Freeform orders Motherland: Fort Salem about witches in the military
• Riverdale dedicating every episode this season to Luke Perry
Arrow is coming to an end
• New photos of Jon Cryer as Lex Luthor on Supergirl
• New teaser for NOS4A2

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COMIC BOOKS

• A sequel to Kwanza Osajyefo’s Black is being Kickstarted
• The Kickstarter for The Closet of Secrets surpasses its goal

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SHILF

• KEVIN: Talos
• JON: Yon-Rogg (Jude Law)

The Geeks OUT Podcast: I Choose You! Ryan Reynolds!

Geeks OUT Podcast: I Choose You! Ryan Reynolds!

In this week’s super-sized episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin (@Gilligan_McJew) is joined by @JWCrump as they discuss the latest trailer for Detective Pikachu, fan cast an out gay actor for Marvel’s The Eternals, and celebrate Matt Bomer speaking out about the importance of queer superheroes in This Week

In this week’s super-sized episode of the Geeks OUT Podcast, Kevin is joined by J.W. Crump, as they discuss the latest trailer for Detective Pikachu, fan cast an out gay actor for Marvel’s The Eternals, and celebrate Matt Bomer speaking out about the importance of queer superheroes in This Week in Queer. 

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BIG OPENING

KEVIN: Marvel reportedly seeking openly gay actor for The Eternals
J.W.: New trailer for Critters: A New Binge

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DOWN AND NERDY

KEVIN: The Dragon Prince, Buffy, X-Tremists
J.W.: Betrayal Legacy

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STRONG FEMALE CHARACTER

Book of Enchantment series focusing on villains coming to Disney+

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THIS WEEK IN QUEER

Matt Bomer speaks about the importance of LGBTQ supereheros

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CLIP OF THE WEEK

New trailer for Detective Pikachu

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THE WEEK IN GEEK

MOVIES

New trailer for Hellboy reboot
• Captain Marvel brings back Magic Eye posters in new promo
• New trailer for Dark Phoenix
• A View-Master movie is being developed
Black Manta cast as Jordan Peele’s Candyman
Rotten Tomatoes makes some changes

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TV

• Syfy orders Resident Alien to series
• Netflix orders dramedy of The Baby-sitters Club
• New teaser for Love, Death & Robots
• New trailer for season 2 of The OA
• New trailer for season 2 of The Tick
Star Trek: Discovery renewed for season 3
• New trailer for season 2 of Cloak & Dagger
• New trailer for Hulu’s Into the Dark: Treehouse

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VIDEO GAMES

• First look at Pokemon Sword & Shield for Nintendo Switch
• IGN releases Alien: Isolation web series based on the game

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SHILF

• KEVIN: Iceman (X-Tremists)
• J.W.: Elasti-girl

Interview: Eliza Dushku and Nate Dushku

Eliza and Nate Dushku are like a lot of siblings-their words overlap, and they’re obviously close-except both happen to be very good-looking (seriously, what is with their family’s genes?) and have spent a lifetime acting and now producing in film and television. Their latest collaboration, Mapplethorpe, directed by Ondi Timoner and starring Dr. Who‘s Matt Smith as the eponymous enfant terrible,  is now open in limited release after a run at Tribeca Film Festival last spring.

The Dushkus endear themselves to me early on. Nate is wearing a high school jacket recently unearthed by their mom. Like Eliza’s famous Buffy the Vampire Slayer character Faith, the two grew up in the Boston area, where I was attending college when I first discovered her. Eliza apologizes unnecessarily for grabbing food before joining us at Tribeca’s posh Roxy Hotel. As I watch her start in on some chicken wings, I think, “Slayers… They’re just like us!” I’ve just seen Mapplethorpe and am eager to discuss the film. It turns out I was a freshman at Emerson when the Dushkus first started development.

“This one was just something that really spoke to me when Nate sent the script to me in 2002,” Eliza professes. “It’s been a long time. Just with Mapplethorpe being such a boundary pusher and such a fascinating artist, and … the art that he made and the person that he was sort of being in contradiction. You know the controversy about him but then there was such humanity in him, too, and I feel like it was just exciting for us to tell that story.”


“It’s not easy getting an independent film financed and shot in New York City anyway,” Nate states, “and an artist that’s this controversial, whose work was censored … trying to put this out into the mainstream, we knew there were going to be challenges. But Robert was an icon not just to artists but… he’s not Lady Gaga, he’s not Ru Paul, he’s his own [thing]-but he came before, in many ways, those people were influenced by him and-“


“He forged a path, you know?” Eliza chimes in.


“He forged a path,” Nate agrees, “and it’s really cool to be holding his legacy.”


It’s a responsibility the pair took seriously through every aspect of production, which recreates three decades convincingly through music, wardrobe, and a vast number of locations. The cast, led by Smith, was more than up to the job.


“[Matt] was so prepared, every day, even towards the end, he got really sick, he got some kind of bug-and he just plowed through it,” Eliza gushes. “He really just embodied the character, the way he improvised, the way he would interact with the other characters, it was extraordinary to watch, you know. Lucky to have him.”


Nate agrees, explaining that the screenplay’s time span presented some unique challenges: “In maybe one day, you’d be doing a scene from the 60s and also a scene from the 80s.”

“In one location,” Eliza adds.

“It’s like, ‘you’re dying! You’re 18 years old, you moved out to New York City. It’s the mid-70s…'” Nate recalls. These drastic shifts also extended to the actor’s hairstyle: “We had Wigmageddon,” Eliza jokes, “there were a lot of wigs on the actors.”


Photo by Andrew Toth


Smith’s costars also impressed the duo. “Marianne [Rendon], she read for the role and it was like, there’s real life young Patti [Smith], in the flesh,” Nate declares. He also has kind words for newcomer Brandon Sklenar (Edward Mapplethorpe) and veteran actor John Benjamin Hickey (Robert’s lover Sam Wagstaff). “[Brandon’s] playing opposite Matt, and we just needed somebody who could go pound for pound with him,” Nate explains. “John Benjamin Hickey is another story, he’s a pro, he’s been doing this for a long time, but that was great to see [him and Smith] come together. Every single actor just humanized the role and just gave it levels.”


This being the Robert Mapplethorpe story, there’s considerable nudity and sexual content in the film. This wasn’t a problem in the acting realm, at least. The actors “responded really well,” Eliza states. “We sent them the script, we sent them the material-it’s a choice, even for me as an actor, and everyone who came and knew what the movie was and knew what the artist was, and we were really impressed with the performances. And in terms of the extras in the sex dungeon [sequence], yeah there are a lot of rules in SAG, and protections and things. Some of them came in their own wardrobe.” Eliza says many of the background performers came from the leather and kink community, and credits Central Casting with finding them all. “Central Casting, they have been around forever and they put their own people on it,” Nate elaborates. “They were so excited about the project and whenever we needed something, we’d say ‘this is what we need’ and they’d send pictures for us to choose from. They interviewed them, because they have to stand by the people they’re sending over to be on set. It’s just like any other actor, really.”


While the cast was game for the racy scenes, some of the potential locations and soundtrack contributors were another matter. When I tell the pair that I loved the vintage soundtrack, Eliza reveals that a number of performers “had deep Christian values and didn’t want to have their songs in this kind of film, and we’d have to say, ‘OK.'”


“I mean, that happened during production, too,” Nate says. “We had a really hard time finding the church to shoot in, and then we had a really hard time, [this] church I guess, owned this [building]-“


“Don’t tell him the name!” Eliza scolds. I assure them the name will be redacted and suggest referring to it only as “Church X.”


“Church X,” Nate continues, “this other location that I guess was owned by them, they pulled out at the last minute.” Despite these challenges, the producers strove to reinforce the narrative with deliberate choices. One of the songs that was secured is “I’m a Man” by Jobriath, which Eliza handpicked for the end credits. “He was the first ever gay musician to have a major recording deal,” Nate tells me. “He was a gay glam rocker … he basically got torn down by the media, and then he moved into the top floor of the Chelsea [Hotel, where Robert and Patti lived] and then he died of AIDS at 38 years old. And that was another angle to it, that we wanted to try to have the narrative of the music, fit Robert’s narrative.”


So after all the trials and tribulations of Mapplethorpe, would Eliza consider producing again? In fact, she and Nate are developing projects, including the “big, epic TV series” The Black Company, though the actress/producer has other things happening. “I live back in Boston these days,” Eliza says. “Marrying a Boston boy this August, and going to school in Cambridge, working on my bachelor’s degree in holistic psychology.” I tell her that I always dreamed of going to school in Cambridge. “Me, too!” she exclaims. “So I just friggin’ went for it.”

Eliza adds that she might be starting a family soon, “but I think I’ll always have a tie in to the business. My brother and I have always been so close and share a lot of excitement around different stories and storytelling.”


Eliza also shares the excitement of her Buffy fans. I ask her for her take on being an icon to the LGBT community. “Awww!” she says. I mention the panel at Flame Con in 2017, in which panelist JE Reich responded to the question “Buffy and Angel or Buffy and Spike?” with “Buffy and Faith!” Eliza smiles knowingly and answers only, “Yeah.”


“I’m always honored and tickled when I hear that,” she continues. “I feel the love, you know, from guys telling me that I’m the only female on their ‘list,” and their boyfriend’s totally cool with it, to like, I’m the only one that would turn her!” Eliza laughs. “It’s cool that we’re living in a world today where we can just be out with like, what does it for us. [Buffy] was such a-I mean, we throw the word ‘groundbreaking’ around a lot, but it was a groundbreaking show!” Eliza adds with amazement that the series “really spoke to people and changed a lot of people’s lives! Because I meet them frequently, and they profess exactly just how it did, and it’s awesome. A lot of actors never have that opportunity to be part of something that just has such a beating heart. And such an effect on so many people, and I’ll always just be blown away and grateful for that.”


Eliza explains how this passion has benefited her personally, through “that feeling that I’ve helped people get through really hard shit. And then a few months ago, I had to go through some really hard shit (in January, she shared her experience with sexual abuse at the age of 12 at the hands of True Lies stunt coordinator Joel Kramer) but my fans kind of inspired me in the same way they told me that I inspired them so it was really kind of a beautiful circle thing.””