Cheyenne with his legendary co-star at a recent Academy screening of “Six Dance Lessons…”

BY NATHANIEL ROGERS 

Cheyenne Jackson‘s gone Hollywood. Though the 39 year old actor and self proclaimed “Broadway Baby” came to fame via musicals like “All Shook Up” (Theater World Award, 2005) and “Xanadu” (Drama Desk nomination 2008) and promises to return, TV and film came calling soon thereafter and appear to have stuck. His most notable early filmed roles were as a heroic passenger in the Oscar-nominated true story United 93 (2006) and a recurring gig on Emmy favorite 30 Rock as Danny Baker, a singing actor with a voice so beautiful he gave Jenna Maroney “rage strokes.”

That first flush of mainstream success seemed to have been briefly eclipsed in the media by upheavals in his personal life, a divorce from his first husband and sobering up. But Cheyenne is eager to move on from that topic which he feels was overblown by the media. “Definitely with the gay press, it was rough there for a bit. Things were never not together; I think that’s the misconception,” he explains. Was it a rough patch? “I guess other people can think of it that way but to me it was just the next chapter. Time to clean up.” 

And the next chapter is moving along well. After his brief note-perfect cameo in the Liberace movie Behind the Candelabra (2013) he’s filmed several more roles including a small part as half of a gay cop couple affectionately referred to as ‘The Policewomen’ in one of this year’s very best films LOVE IS STRANGE (2014, reviewed here). Ira Sachs moving drama recently won a handful of Spirit Award nominations.

As a longtime fan of Cheyenne Jackson, I confess to an atypical case of the nerves during our phone interview from separate coasts. Cheyenne helpfully tells me to imagine him in his underwear, and we both laugh immediately realizing that is not going to help. ‘No wait. Maybe not. Maybe not’.

NR: Things seems to be on a real uptick in terms of your movie career!

CHEYENNE JACKSON: I’ve really kind of thrown myself into film and it’s been great. Some make their way to theaters, some go video on demand, some get nominated for things. I live out here now so it’s easier.

NR: Your new film SIX DANCES IN SIX WEEKS just opened this weekend. We don’t see Gena Rowlands in lead roles much these days but she’s one of the most influential actors of all time. How did your casting happen and how nerve wracking was is to work with her?

MORE AFTER THE JUMP…

CHEYENNE JACKSON: I was in New York and literally got a call from my manager ‘Would you like to star opposite Gena Rowlands in a film shooting in Hungary for two months? AND IT STARTS IN TWO DAYS.’ [Laughs] ‘Give me a second. Let me sit down.’

There were several actors that really had an impact on me —  I started acting late. I was 27 so when I did throw myself into it I was really gravitating towards certain parts, certain characters, certain personalities and really Gena for some reason I just always always always loved. It started with Gloria, then A Woman Under the Influence. And Opening Night of course because all things Broadway. 

And then I read the script and I saw that I had to be horrible to her and call her a “stupid old cow” within five minutes.

I hated you in that moment and I’m a fan. Were you worried the audience wouldn’t forgive you?

More than that I thought ‘How am I going to physically do this when I worship her so much? I got there and she was so gracious. I said ‘Listen, I just gotta get all this stuff out of the way Miss Rowlands…’ And she said

Oh, please. Call me Gena. Worship me for a bit and then let’s get on with it.”

And then we did!

[Laughter]. That’s great. But no time to prepare and thrown in. Does that happen a lot? 

Yes. I’ve shot three more since this film and I know how they come together – it’s a big puzzle. I’m thankful that Sean Hayes [who had originally been cast] was busy. 

Dance Lessons isn’t a musical but did you feel that given your musical background the dances would be the one area where you could lead and Gena would follow? 

Yes, definitely. I mean, I haven’t taken dance lessons except for tap when I was in “Millie”. But I have been in a bunch of Broadway shows and I can fake it really well. I  knew in some aspects I had an advantage there in terms of confidence. Kay Cole is our choreographer [the original Maggie in “A Chorus Line”] — she’s an amazing, powerful woman. I had to learn the steps but also so much of the exposition, the history of the dances, all while teaching them to Gena.

The dances, where they’re placed in the movie… it isn’t arbitrary. The cha-cha is first, not too personal, and then the tango and then the waltz as it gets more personal. 

Rita Moreno, a bonafide musical legend, is also in it. But you didn’t have scenes with her!

She was in Budapest so she was there — I had met her before around New York. She can still kick! I was hoping we’d have some stuff together.

But you got to work with another Oscar favorite, Jacki Weaver. How many times did she want to rehearse the scene where she grabs your butt?

[Laughter] We had a lot of fun. Jacki is hysterical. Totally game, silly and fun. And a big musical theater star in Australia. 

Your rapport with Gena is so crucial to the movie working — was that hard to map out? — because you start out antagonistic but then you become each other’s surrogate everything in a way. 

That’s perfectly put. We became mother/son, brother/sister, best friend/life partners really towards the end. We discussed where we were emotionally before every scene in terms of how comfortable [the characters were] because in life we’re really comfortable with each other. She’s become a great friend but it was important that the very first scenes be very uncomfortable in order to have the pay off at the end where you see the gentleness and the care.

Your other film this year, LOVE IS STRANGE. arrived at a perfect time given the wave of marriage equality victories and I assume it was an affecting time for you, since you recently got married?

I did!

Groom & Groom. via Cheyenne’s Instagram account

Every gay story I relate to in some way for obvious reasons. But this movie was very special for the type of people it dealt with,  two older men – a long term couple. I thought it was so wonderfully handled. Very low budget indie but such a great script and director that these amazing Oscar peeps signed on. Watching John Lithgow and Alfred Molina on set — they had never worked together though they’d been friendly and, really, they had one day to create a 30 year relationship. The very first scene we shot was the scene right after their wedding when we’re all sitting around and singing.  

It was incredible. It was definitely a great movie to be part of socially. But also just as an actor it was like ‘WHAT?!?’ watching these two great guys. ‘And now here’s Marisa Tomei doing a monologue!’

That cast is just…I totally cried watching it at Sundance. Easily one of the best movies of the year.

I concur. 

Since you’re making a lot of movies now but also playing a lot of gay roles, how competitive do you feel it is? There are so many more openly gay actors than there were just a few years ago. It’s amazing.

I love that there are more out actors. It’s fantastic. It makes it less of an issue. It’s not, like “openly gay blah blah blah.” People are just now people. They don’t have to have the words “openly gay” before their name.

I mean, I’m booked. Knock on wood. I’m booked for the next couple of years. A lot of exciting things – some big stuff that I can’t talk about yet. I guess I’m up for the same roles as some of my peers  but, you know, Neil Patrick Harris and I are not going to be up for the same roles. I think there’s room for everybody.

Nathaniel Rogers would live in the movie theater but for the poor internet reception. He blogs daily at the Film Experience. Follow him on Twitter @nathanielr.

Having released just three major films before he was tragically killed in a car accident in 1955, James Dean was able to leave an indelible mark on history. He was nominated for two Academy Awards following his death (the first Oscar nominations to be awarded for Best Actor posthumously), and he defined a generation of youth with his portrayals of angst and anguish.

Adding to the fascination with Dean’s legend are stories of his same-sex love affairs. The various accounts claim Dean was either gay or bisexual. Dean’s close friend, William Bast, revealed he and Dean “experimented,” while Dean’s relationship with influential radio producer Rogers Brackett has been used as an example of how the young actor may have slept with gay men to further his career. In his Marlon Brando biography, writer Darwin Porter asserted that Dean and Brando had a tumultuous romantic relationship that spanned years. Hollywood players of the time, like screenwriter Gavin Lambert and Rebel Without A Cause Director Nicholas Ray, have described James Dean as gay. Biographer Val Holley put it thusly: “There’s been quite an evolution in the thinking since Dean’s death in 1955, moving from ‘James Dean was straight’ to ‘Dean had sex with men but only to advance his career’ to ‘Dean had sex with women but only to advance his career.’”

We may never know for certain if Dean identified as gay, straight, bisexual, but, regardless, what he’s come to represent still resonates with many LGBT audiences. His most well-known roles are that of outsiders, non-comformists and misunderstood youth. His powerful performances redefined masculinity, showcasing how a tough guy could be so open with his emotions. His sense of style and good looks also didn’t hurt his standing with the gay community (and helped establish him as a butch lesbian icon as well).

See some of our favorite James Dean clips, AFTER THE JUMP …

Before he was a Hollywood leading man, Dean had his first professional acting job in a Pepsi commercial.

His first starring role was in East of Eden, playing Cal Trask. Much of the film was improvised, including the sobbing embrace in the clip above.

Rebel Without A Cause is certainly Dean’s most iconic performance, but it’s also an important film for the LGBT community. The relationship between Plato (played by gay actor Sal Mineo) and Jim Stark (Dean) has been called one of the “first in a mainstream film to depict homosexual desire,” and it’s just as central to the film as Jim’s relationship with Judy (Natalie Wood). The romantic undercurrent between Sal and Jim was purposeful, with Dean having instructed Mineo to “Look at me the way I look at Natalie.”

Dean’s final film was a sprawling Western, Giant. Allegedly, his co-stars Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson had a wager who could sleep with him first. According to another actress on Giant, Noreen Nash, Hudson won the bet just days into filming.

Most films about James Dean (including the made-for-TV one starring James Franco) gloss over Dean’s same-sex relationships or ignore them completely. One notable exception is Matthew Mishory’s Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean. Not a traditional biopic, the steamy film portrays a young, pre-fame Dean, and fully explores his sexuality. Mishory described it to Out Magazine: “What I like about it is — unlike many films — there’s no hand-wringing about sex or sexuality in this movie. There’s no gay angst — in fact, there’s no sexual angst whatsoever. It’s a movie where the sex is actually sexy.”

What is your favorite James Dean performance?

As a child Anderson Silva was bullied because other children believed him to be gay. In an interview with Trip magazine, the 39-year old UFC fighter describes growing up as a black man whose race and sexuality were sources of cultural friction. Growing up Silva’s aunt got him into ballet, an experience that the fighter both loved and hated.

“My friends would all go like, ‘ah, little girl, little lady.’ And add that to my high-pitched voice—I was bullied a lot, but I started to like ballet.” he said of his childhood.

“Evander Holyfield practiced ballet. It’s got nothing to do with that, you know. If you want do ballet, you do ballet. You want to fence, you fence. You want to be gay, be gay, it’s all right. You respect people’s spaces, they respect yours, it’s all right.”

Silva’s perspective on gays reflects a recent shift the the UFC’s general position on members of the LGBT community. Earlier this year before his final fight Kyle Kingsbury showed his support for the legalization of gay marriage during a weigh-in. The UFC also recently launched its Protect Yourself at All Times campaign aimed at increasing HIV awareness amongst UFC fans under the age of thirty. The UFC, Silva insisted, owes it to the LGBT community to show its support because so many fighters, though closeted, are themselves queer-identified.

“There’s a lot of homosexuals in mixed martial arts,” he asserted. “There are a lot of them who haven’t yet come out–nowadays it’s so silly to not express your feelings. As long as you respect people’s spaces, and respect their limits. You have to live your life in peace and no one has anything to do with that.”

Silva himself doesn’t mind addressing his own sexuality either, saying he’s not gay but is also keeping the possiblity open that he might discover a new side of himself someday.

“I’m still young, it could be that in the future I’ll find out that I’m gay. I take good care of my things, I put everything in a bag, I use soap, I put on a cream after training. People think it’s capricious. To each his own. Doesn’t mean you’re more man or less man, more gay or less gay.”