✔️ 2022-12-06 23:36:55 – Paris/France.
Óscar RusFOLLOWMadrid Updated: 12-06-2022 23:36h Save
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Guillem Clua (Barcelona, 1973), National Prize for Dramatic Literature 2020, started out on television as a dialogue writer for the Catalan series 'El cor de la ciutat'. That was almost twenty years ago. opens today in Netflix the eight-episode series “Smiley,” a television adaptation of his own play, a romantic Christmas comedy in which a boy meets another boy. And it's not on Tinder (that's science fiction), but in a bar.
The –gay– protagonists of 'Smiley' are Álex and Bruno. One (Carlos Cuevas, 26) is a server, a muscular man, a darling, a humble uncle, from the neighborhood. He likes the gym and “Frozen”. The other (Miki Esparbé, 39) is an architect, a film buff and a little unsympathetic. A bit of a snob.
He has a dog and a big foot with a view of Barcelona. They are joined by an error, a phone call. Another mistake could separate them: the emoticon of a smiley face.
There are more crossover stories in 'Smiley': that of a heterosexual couple with children (here, the 'gay best friend' is on the other side), that of two lesbian girls who have just bought a house, that of a transvestite (Pepón Nieto) who has given up on love… And yet another plot, the best one, that of Amparo Fernández and Carles Sanjaime as two old friends, whom it is better not to gut.
The moment there started to be LGTBI characters that were sons of bitches, or weren't nice, that's when we started to get to levels of normalcy Guillem Clua Creator and screenwriter of 'Smiley'
Two films were released this year, such as “Bros: More Than Friends” and “Fire Island” (Disney+), LGBT-themed romantic comedies that flip the genre a bit. What lot is 'Smiley' on? It reproduces the mechanisms of a romantic comedy and at the same time tries to introduce something new...
'Smiley' is inspired by the narrative mechanisms of romantic comedy, 'boy meets girl'. In this case, it's "boy meets boy." We are not ashamed – not me at least – to drink in these references which are constantly referred to throughout the series. Films such as 'My girl's beast', 'Love Actually' and, in the closest Christmas pitch, 'How beautiful to live' are directly mentioned. It is a safe ground for the spectator. The romantic comedy has very clear processes that people know and enter into it knowingly. It's like being at home. But there are new elements that slightly transgress this previous knowledge.
As LGTBI realities invade normally conservative grounds or tend to tell more “mainstream” or heterosexual stories, it is very positive because one thing permeates the other. An audience that might not be willing to see a product marketed as "LGBT stories" or more political, suddenly let their guard down and see they can still enjoy – get emotional, laugh, cry – a story that a priori would not have the chosen one. Like a little Trojan horse.
'Bros' was not a blockbuster. We thought it was. Do you think heterosexual audiences aren't interested in love stories featuring gay and LGBT characters?
Yes, they are interested.
Only gays watch gay stuff.
The problem is when you try to sell a “mainstream” [convencional] story saying it's a story that appeals to all audiences when in fact it's not. With 'Bros', it happened. I enjoyed it, but it still appeals to a very specific “Jewish New Yorker” audience. And I burst out laughing. With 'Smiley', we are very honest. We sell a diverse romantic comedy that tells different love stories most of which are born out of LGTBI reality. I always wanted this story to appeal to mainstream audiences without betraying myself. I talk about the realities of my love life as a gay man and I talk about what Grindr is, what sex is… And there are things that continue to exist that I cannot ignore in the series, but at no time do you try to nudge a pig.
Carlos Cuevas (left) and Miki Esparbé (right) are the gay protagonists of the romantic comedy 'Smiley', a television adaptation of the play of the same name – Netflix
It seems that LGTB fiction has the pressure that everything made is a masterpiece.
It has been so for a long time, mainly for lack of references. We urgently need representation in these stories. Not only with which one can feel identified, but in addition they are very good. But the normalization of LGTBI realities is not only that they become visible and are represented in all sorts of formats, but also that they can be bad. That there are good products and bad products, as there is with any other type of story. We shouldn't be disappointed or hurt that there are products out there aimed at the LGTBI audience or that represent those realities, and that they are rotten. There must be everything. Normalcy will be when we have that.
There was a time when we started having LGBTI representation in shows and in movies, there was this “perfect gay” thing. Suddenly he couldn't be a bad guy, he couldn't do bad things, he couldn't make the whole collective he represented look bad. The moment there started to be LGTBI characters that were sons of bitches, or weren't nice, that's when we started to get to levels of normality.
Another claim is that the true inclusion is that the conflict of LGBT characters is not their sexual orientation or gender expression. There are several subplots here. Should we continue to tell these kinds of stories? The good and the bad.
Yes, unfortunately, all these stories are inseparable from the LGTBI identity. Our existence is not normalized. It is even discriminated against and persecuted by certain sectors. We cannot ignore it. Yes, there was an intention in 'Smiley' not to make it the center of the plots. Suddenly there's a way out [forzada], which is the strongest thing you can do to someone in the band, and the drama doesn't go where you think it's going. The stories have always been about love and heartbreak, about telling different ways of understanding love in diversity. You can't deny that there are people who are still in the closet and others who are out. I attach great importance to telling the stories of older characters because they are very invisible and it seems that after fifty years you no longer have the right to love or to have your love story told.
Within the collective there are also problems.
It seems that love stories are made for young, beautiful, successful people. The character of Álex (Carlos Cuevas) is the quintessence. It's success in the norm, in the environment, as a “cis gay white male”. It's at the top of this pyramid. There is the questioning of this privilege when you meet and fall in love with someone who does not look like him… In addition, the range is open to people who are no longer in the pyramid, but who are much lower.
Jim Parsons (left) and Andrew Rannells (right) are some of the stars of 'The Boys in the Band' (2020) – NetflixOlly Alexander (centre) and Lydia West (right) star in the mini- British series 'It's a Sin', by screenwriter Russell T. Davies – Channel 4
Russell T. Davies, when he made 'It's a Sin', said: all gay actors are going to play gay characters. Some claim that gay characters are played by gay actors because straight actors were rewarded for playing gay. I understand that trans people make trans characters. With the other I have doubts. What do you think?
What happened with 'It's a Sin' or what is happening with other productions is hyper legitimate because it is a political position, especially when it comes to claiming rights and demanding visibility. It's perfect. This seems to me a decision that I greatly appreciate, especially since there is a great need for the collective to be represented by actors who play characters from the collective and who come from the collective. I'm very political in many areas and I'm very activist, but I don't think it's the same for everyone, that is, I don't think it should be a 'sine qua non'. qua non' for all the productions in which LGTBI characters appear because we throw stones at our roof.
For me, the political struggle is that an openly gay character, coming out of the closet, can star in a Marvel blockbuster or do a pure romantic comedy, and that's not a problem. That the answer is that absolutely always, a gay character is played by a gay actor who has to come out of the closet, who has to be visible, that there are many who are not and who do not have the obligation to come out of the closet to be entitled to these papers, it does us more harm than good. There are very specific productions that are much more valuable if performed by gay actors, such as “The Boys in the Band”; they all had to be played by homosexual actors because it gives an exceptional added value. We shouldn't just focus on the actors.
Charlie Hunnam, Aidan Gillen and Craig Kelly are the gay protagonists of the British series 'Queer as Folk' (1999-2000), created by Russell T Davies – Channel 4
Russell T. Davies didn't want to talk about AIDS in 'Queer as Folk'. What didn't you want to talk about in 'Smiley' for no reason?
I didn't want to drag the storylines into a dark place. In this series, there are no dark characters, there are no villains; everyone tries to do the best they can. Everyone makes mistakes and there are disastrous consequences. I wanted to get rid of the darkness in this series, mostly to offer light, optimism, something beautiful that would leave us smiling.
He knows there will be criticism of the handsome guys who run the men.
It is a great debate on the representativeness of regulatory bodies and those that are not. Álex's character has to be a good-looking guy because his identity is based on that and that's why he's so fragile and superficial; in fact, it's a criticism of that. In the show, we tried to have a different kind of diversity: older characters, the character of Pepón [Nieto]… If people want to criticize that specifically, listen, we've already tried to be sufficiently diverse . Hopefully there will be more diversity in the future.
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SOURCE: Reviews News
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