Jonathon Groff: ‘Looking is a time capsule’
The long awaited Looking movie premiers today (July 23) at 10pm on HBO in the States.
And to promote the movie, the cast and crew of Looking were interviewed by Out where they discussed the show’s legacy, sex on screen and how they hope Looking has influenced the LGBT community in film and television.
Frankie Alvarez, who played Augustin Lanuez, said that he hopes the show is “paving the way for intimacy”.
“Not just sexual intimacy, but intimacy between friends, so that we can see more relationships like these on screen: two men opening up to each other and supporting each other, not just drinking a beer together and silently grunting.”
Jonathon Groff, who plays Patrick Murray, states that Looking “is a slice of the gay experience from 2014 to 2016”.
“Years from now you’ll be able to look back and see how we changed since then and look even further back and see where we came from up to that point. It’s a time capsule.”
When asked about Looking’s on-screen sex, Michael Lannan (The creator of the show), said:
“One of the goals on the show was always to show intimacy between men in a way that we often don’t see. Andrew and I both wanted the sex to be storytelling.”
He adds, “You can tell a lot about people in the way they have sex. After the first season, a straight couple came up to me and was like, ‘We love your show because it’s one of the few times on television we don’t see men together solving crimes or complaining about their wives.’ I thought that was really interesting because intimacy between men is not as common as I thought it was.”
Groff also reveals that he was ready to sign “that nudity waiver” for Looking’s sex scenes.
He said, “When Andrew was on as the director I was all, ‘Yes, I’ll sign that nudity waiver, that dick waiver, whatever.’ He’s a genius at capturing those moments.”
“The sex is informative because it shows reality and not just people with greased bodies f**king away with music playing in the background. It’s also connected to what’s happening in the story. There’s a level of reality that made the sex feel political and essential to the storytelling”
You can read the full interview over at Out.
Looking: The Movie premiers today (July 23) at 10pm on HBO.
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