![]() Those are the movies I grew up on, the Hayes Code movies. GS: One of the things that Big Eden does beautifully is capture the energy of sexual longing and desire, through meaningful glances and hesitant physical contact. TB: It was a way to say we come in all kinds of packages. TB: Yes! I went to her and I asked her if she would feel comfortable signing with a deaf child and she said, “Of course!” We found a deaf girl to be in the classroom. This is so weird, but I remember while we were shooting, that Louise Fletcher (who plays Grace, a teacher), in her Academy Award acceptance speech for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest… I’m you, you’re me, we’re all part of a community and everybody comes in every shape and size. I felt like that was keeping with the spirit of the movie itself – we’re everybody. I think that’s part of what people responded to at the time, especially when we were going to the film festivals. The part of Pike was vaguely Native American, but then I felt it was important to cast a Native American actor. We definitely wanted kind of an average-y person. Arye (Gross) was exactly what I had in mind as I was writing. I think Jen (Chaiken) my producer, for whom I am so grateful for her support while we were casting. TB: it weirdly became more important as we were casting. How important was it to you present a less visible segment of gay culture? GS: Big Eden is not your average representation of gay men. TB: Right! So I guess I was honoring my grandfather. The next morning at breakfast, he got a giant Tupperware container, poured all of the cereal out of the box, got a pair of scissors, cut the photo off the back of the box and gave it to me and said, “Here’s that guy you like so much.” My grandfather bought me the box of Honeycomb. I wanted a box of Honeycomb because it had a picture of David Cassidy on it. When we’d go to visit my grandparents, we went to the grocery and we could buy any kind of cereal that we wanted. But I remember when I was maybe eight years old. In spirit my father’s father was never as articulate as Sampa was, or as aggressive about finding something out. TB: This is so funny – what a great question. GS: Did you have a relative like Henry’s grandfather Sampa in your life? Throw that all in the mix and there you go. And, like a lot of gay guys, I was in love with a straight guy when I was in high school. And I love the idea of somebody cooking for me. When I was living in New York, that was my escape fantasy. The whole thing was an exercise in some fantasy that I had of moving to Montana to teach art at a high school. Thomas Bezucha: It’s certainly not my story, but I definitely had the fantasy, when I was living in New York, of moving to Montana. Gregg Shapiro: How much of Tom is in Henry, the main character in Big Eden? Bezucha, who also wrote and directed 2005’s The Family Stone, starring Diane Keaton, Sarah Jessica Parker, Claire Danes, Rachel McAdams, Dermot Mulroney and Luke Wilson, spoke with me about Big Eden and more in October 2015. ![]() In addition to the mouth-watering food sequences, the dazzling performances by the lead actors, supporting performances by Louise Fletcher and Nan Martin, make one feel as if they spent a couple of hours in paradise. Still, it's a pleasure to watch characters you might assume to be close-minded and out of touch open their hearts and minds to love in whatever shape it takes. Meanwhile, very shy general store owner Pike (Eric Schweig) has also taken an interest in Henry, complicating things considerably.įor his film debut, gay writer/director Thomas Bezucha populated the fictional town with wacky characters, most of whom appear to be descended from the same bloodline of folks that populated Cicely, Alaska, in the popular `90s television series Northern Exposure. When he gets to Big Eden, all sorts of old emotions are dredged up, especially when he learns that Dean (Tim DeKay), the love of his life, has also returned to Big Eden as a recently divorced father of two young sons. Much to the dismay of his friend and gallery-owner Mary Margaret (Veanne Cox), Henry leaves New York just days before his big gallery opening. In it, painter Henry (Arye Gross) is summoned to his hometown of Big Eden, Montana, when his grandfather Sam (George Coe), aka Sampa, his only surviving relative, has a stroke. Even the most jaded viewer can't help but be charmed by the sweet, gentle, big-hearted 2000 film Big Eden (Wolfe), available now for the first time on Blu-ray. ![]()
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