Authors: Boze Hadleigh
Tags: #Gay, #Hollywood, #Cesar Romero, #Anthony Perkins, #Liberace, #Cary Grant, #Paul Lynde
A: It sure does. People always say I have a real American face. What does that mean?
Q: Yet you played Querelle. For Fassbinder. I saw you on TV in that short movie,
The Greatest Man in the World
. You were playing an aviator based on Lindbergh, weren’t you?
A: Yeah, but it wasn’t really a movie. He was a creep. Lindbergh and my character. It showed the public side, where he was a hero for what he accomplished, and the private side, where he was a creep around most people.
Q: Lindbergh was quite a bigot (especially anti-Jewish).
A: People didn’t know that, then.
Q: Far more of them shared his prejudices, then.
A: Yeah. That’s interesting to me, about fame. How it covers up so many things, not just bad ones. Say, what do you call it when it’s a lady flier?
Q: An aviator. The old term is aviatrix, like Amelia Earhart.
A: That’s who I meant! Amelia Earhart. She was a lesbian, but this guy promoted the hell out of her, like a circus act or a novelty. He called her the lady Lindbergh.
Q: And got her to marry him. For her image and his publicity.
A: And maybe so he could control her more.
Q: That almost goes without saying.
A: Wasn’t it Gore Vidal said something like, “Wife, therefore a slave”?
Q: Could be. He’s said so much.
A: Do you know him?
Q: We correspond. Don’t say “To what?” (Both laugh.)
A: Yeah. ‘Cause I was reading something he said about Amelia Earhart—that’s a funny name. Like he knew her or something. Could be he did. Maybe he’s older than he looks.
Q: Or younger than he writes.
A: You know; I always wanted to play someone aristocratic. A Gatsby character, like.
Q: What’s your background? Born in Tallahassee?
A: (Laughs.) That’s a funny name too. Once, this casting director asked if I had a girlfriend—it’s like asking if you’re gay. I just said, “Yeah, I got a lassie in Tallahassee.” He liked that.
Q: I’m sure. Did you want to be an actor when you grew up?
A: (Shrugs.) Well, in high school I got into plays, and then I got into Atlanta, then New York. Then getting into, or onto, the New York stage, that part wasn’t so easy.
Q: Did your looks or sex appeal help?
A: Thanks! (Smiles.) Like the casting couch?
Q: You tell me. If you wish.
A: Yeah. I had guys after my...me. And not only guys. But I got some sexy roles. Showy roles, ‘cause in the theatre you get to show more of yourself.
Q: Physically, too.
A: That’s what I meant. But I’d rather talk about today.
Q: Who do you admire today?
A: I admired Rainer (closes eyes).
Q: Who do you not admire?
A: Reagan. He’s bigoted and ignorant and no leader at all. Maybe in foreign policy, they all gotta do that. But in domestic issues, like for instance AIDS, he’s so arrogant he wouldn’t say the word in public.
Q: Even after his supposed friend Rock Hudson died.
A: Maybe he said it by then, finally. But only because the guy was a Hollywood star.
Q: And a Reaganite.
A: You’re kidding.
Q: Never underestimate self-hatred. I once asked Rock, who often used to visit San Francisco, what he thought of hippies during the 1960s—
A: He looked down on them?
Q: Yes. Disapproved strongly. He said, “They deviate from the norm.”
A: What a dumb reason!
Q: Blue eyes deviate from the norm. So do left-handed people, gay people....
A: You know, I’m not into leather. I don’t know if you’ve heard that. Some people spread it around that I am, I dunno why. You can’t even wear a leather jacket once in a while....
Q: A town of spies?
A: Like a nest of spies. The second you leave your house, it’s potential publicity.
Q: What do you think of the Hollywood closet?
A: Well, it exists.
Q: So does the pope.
A: Someone else I don’t admire. Maybe I shouldn’t... (frowns).
Q: Don’t worry. The so-called Legion of Decency is dead.
A: What’s that? A censorship thing?
Q: It was a Catholic censorship body that helped keep gay and lesbian characters off the screen from 1934 to 1969, and its influence lingered after that.
A: You know how they call him the “holy father,” and he’s neither.
Q: Tell me about the Hollywood closet, which is real.
A: What can I say about it? (Glares.)
Q: Not much.
A: I’d rather talk about censorship.
Q: It
is
censorship....
A: No, I mean the movie ratings board of Jack Valenti. It’s this small bunch of parents from the [San Fernando] Valley. And they can keep a guy’s...male nudity off the screen by saying it gets an X-rating, and no one, the moviemakers or the studios—
Q: The distributors....
A: Yeah, them, no one wants an X anymore. But the actresses get to show everything, or have to.
Q: That board also gives a gay or lesbian love scene an R or an X —which usually means it gets cut—where they’d give an equivalent heterosexual scene a PG.
A: They’re out of touch and out of date.
Q: Censors usually are. Especially about anything gay or lesbian. They preach about “protecting” their children but always leave out their gay and lesbian ones.
A: Well, that’s
it
. Somebody said once, maybe in some play, that contrary to what most people think, gays don’t come from pods.
Q: Parents also underrate the strength of the heterosexual impulse in those who are hetero or primarily hetero. Nobody can be forced to be homosexual.
Or
heterosexual.
A: Yeah, most parents don’t want to think about it. But gays are America’s kids too.
Q: Precisely. But they should at least let their parents and families know. Acceptance begins at home.
A: Yeah. It’s not like telling your boss, who can fire you. Your parents can never fire you.
Q: No, but some parents actually throw their gay kids out. And then the kids become runaways....
A: Parents like that should be sued, at least. Or shot. It’s real sad, but most older gays don’t even want to get involved.
Q: One reason they don’t is that it’s so easily misconstrued. If they show interest in the young runaway’s plight, society and the law think the interest is just sexual.
A: That’s what bums me out about how they talk on the news. They talk about “gay lifestyles” or gays wanting more acceptance for their “lifestyle.”
Q: A “life” is serious, a “lifestyle” is not.
A: But it’s not a choice.
Q: No more than heterosexuality.
A: They never talk about a heterosexual lifestyle. Like I have, for instance.
Q: Like you’ve chosen. The media give the impression, deliberately or ignorantly, that everybody’s heterosexual but some insist on adopting a gay lifestyle.
A: Which gay lifestyle? There’s a lot of ‘em.
Q: And even with AIDS, there’s no encouragement of committed gay relationships. Even Dr. Ruth Westheimer, who avoids gay topics in her quest for popularity, has said there should be encouragement.
A: She’s good. She knows where it’s at.
Q: And then there’s bisexuality....
A: She’s from Europe, she knows about that.
Q: Have you ever had sex with a man?
A: Well, who hasn’t?
Q: I can think of a few women, for starters.
A: Everyone’s experimented.
Q: But Brad, much of Hollywood says you’re actively bisexual.
A: (Gestures helplessly with hands.) Most men in the whole world....If you’ve been to Turkey, which is just one Middle Eastern country, you know how all the men have...they do homosexuality, it’s real common. But they all have wives and kids.
Q: And consider themselves entirely heterosexual. I know the mindset you’re describing. It’s widespread throughout what one calls the Third World.
A: Yeah, and the big distinction they make is who does what to whom. Right? They don’t go by gay or straight. They say masculine or feminine. If you screw, you’re masculine, if you get screwed, you’re feminine.
Q: Where does oral sex fit in?
A: I don’t know. Or “69,” huh? (Winks.)
Q: Yes, where both perform the same role, simultaneously.
A: Yeah, and oral sex is a lot safer than anal sex.
Q: Such societies are very either/or; it’s all black-and-white, even the languages give a gender to every noun, every item. Differences are always stressed and exaggerated.
A: They’re not very compassionate cultures. They treat women almost as bad as they treat animals.
Q: They’re extreme patriarchies. Subtle but strong dictatorships.
A: But the women put up with it. (Shrugs.) The good thing is, when you travel, like Turkey or Latin America, a guy can have sex with almost any local guy, if conditions are right.
Q: That’s stretching it, but...it also depends what he’s willing to do. Money also often enters into it in such countries.
A: ‘Cause they’re poor.
Q: Also because the guy playing the more butch role often doesn’t want the foreigner to think he did it for pleasure. He wants money or a “gift.”
A: It’s interesting about Turkey, that whole culture, their Moslem culture. A friend lent me this book about Christianity and Moslems and how they treat gay people. I didn’t get to read it, but it looked like the guy did his homework.
Q: John Boswell? (Author of the 1980 book
Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality
.)
A: I think so. It told about the rotten things our society’s done to homosexuals for centuries and how Moslems are supposed to be better.
Q: It’s very relative. I wouldn’t say better....
A: Wait, here’s what happened. I gave the book to a friend who had the time to read it, and after he did, I said I ought to maybe read part of it, and then he showed me this article that was all about, like, rejecting the things the writer said about Moslems.
Q: Islam.
A: This article showed how a lot of things in the book were wrong or...out of context.
Q: Or mistranslations?
A: I think so, and how Islam hasn’t done a whole lot better than Christianity. And far worse towards women, for sure. Still, what’s cool is that if a guy’s interested, the Middle East lets him get his rocks off.
Q: Again, depending on what one’s willing to do. And certainly tenderness is not involved, let alone relationships. Those are all heterosexual or familial.
A: I wouldn’t ever want to live there, but I’d like to travel more, on my own.
Q: What’s your current or next project, Brad?
A: A movie where I play a cop. (Grins sheepishly.) Oh, well. It has Sharon Stone and Adam Ant, the English singer. (Whispers behind his hand.) Somebody said he’s heterosexual. I was surprised—if it’s true.
Q: There are what are stereotypically called “gay-acting straights.”
A: And straight-acting gays.
Q: Correct. Mostly you act for the camera now. Do you miss doing steady theatre?
A: Not really. And when you live in L.A....I think theatre’s more for younger actors.
Q: Or English actors?
A: Yeah. They never get enough theater (laughs).
Q: What can’t you get enough of?
A: (Covers mouth, then laughs.) Acclaim. I love being in demand.
Q: Do you think most actors are too fond of attention and other people’s opinions?
A: Probably. Someone said that with actors, none of us got enough love in our childhood.
Q: Why do you think a bigger percentage of gay or bisexual men become actors than, say, become accountants?
A: Not that there’s no gay accountants! I know one or two (laughs). Because when you’re different, you have to start acting right away. You pretend, to get by.