HERE’S LOOKING AT YOU
Murray Bartlett.
HBO’s highly-anticipated gay dramedy premieres this month. The pilot features old-fashioned cruising that leads to a demoralising first date, a tattoo of Dolly Parton’s signature that leads to a three-way, and a sexy Australian actor, Murray Bartlett, whose trip to Egypt led him to Looking. Inter view by Jesse Archer.
DNA: Congrats on Looking! Comparisons are going to be made to Sex And The City. Is it just the girls in San Francisco having less brunch? Murray Bartlett: [Laughs] That’s a very cutely worded question. The tone feels very unique. If I tried to describe it with comparisons to other shows, perhaps it would be some kind of hybrid of Girls and SATC with a heavy serve of Andrew Haigh’s Weekend. But I really feel like it will carve its own style. You had a role on Sex And The City back in 2002. How did your experience compare on these two HBO shows? Sex And The City had a very high profile and you could feel that on set. It felt quite grand and glossy. Looking is more gritty and the set had a much more intimate vibe. The similarity is that they are both productions with exceptionally smart producers and creatives, with a great concept and really strong scripts, characters and stories. I’m proud to be associated with both. Have you finished shooting the first season? We finished last week. It felt weird to end because we’ve become like a family. You’re an Aussie actor living in the US. What do you miss most about home? My family and friends. I try to come back once a year to see them. I also miss Australian beaches. There’s nothing quite like them anywhere. What’s the toughest part about putting on an American accent? The American accent makes you chew your words in a way that Australians usually don’t, so it gives my mouth a bit of a workout. You considered giving up acting and went to Egypt. What brought you back? I spent
a good chunk of time in Egypt last year and had some questions about how I was feeling as an actor. Egypt blew my mind and shifted my perspective, and I came back feeling incredibly inspired and fortunate. How did you come to be involved in Looking? I’d met [show creator] Michael Lannan socially a few years ago. We both lived in Brooklyn and met up a few times for beers and to chat about creative stuff we were doing. The last time we met, he mentioned a project he was pitching to HBO. Fast forward 18 months, I’m in Egypt and my agent sends me an audition for The Untitled Michael Lannan Project. So I sent my first audition tape from Egypt and began the long casting process. How many callbacks did you have? A couple in New York and final callbacks in LA, which was an intense couple of days. Director Andrew Haigh is known for the film Weekend, and Looking has the same type of organic dialogue and feel, but Michael Lannan was its creator. How did those two come to collaborate? Both Michael and the other producers loved Andrew’s filmmaking style and I think the idea was to infuse Looking with a similar honesty and reality that we all loved in Weekend. Michael created the show and spent a couple years developing the concept with HBO. But both he and Andrew are head writers so it was very collaborative once Andrew came on board. Andrew wrote half of the episodes, and collaborated with Michael and a small team of wonderful writers on the story arcs. Tell us about your character, Dom. How does he fit in the circle of friends? Dom is about to turn 40 and is having a bit of a mid-life crisis. He’s used to using his good looks as currency and that’s starting to wear thin. Dom had a fling with Patrick (Jonathan Groff ) years ago, which turned into a strong friendship. He met Augustín (Frankie J Alvarez) through Patrick and the three became best friends. He’s like the older brother of the three. Is he a career waiter? Yes, by default. It’s not his passion and he’s frustrated by it. It was initially just a convenient way to maintain his lifestyle but as time went by he never took the leap into something he was more interested in. There are a lot of openly gay actors in the cast. Was that something the producers were looking for? Casting was based on who was the best actor for each role so we’ve ended up with a really great cast. Some of us are gay and some of us aren’t. Just like life! Is it an issue for you to play gay? It’s a nonissue. I’d be insane to pass up the opportunity to work with this amazing team of creative people on a new HBO series. Secondly, I love the scripts and the character, and my interest in a role isn’t based on the character’s sexuality. This is an amazing opportunity to show the lives of these gay characters in a very honest and hopefully groundbreaking way. Dom’s psycho ex-boyfriend threatened to kill him – yet he still misses him. What’s his deal? Dom’s ex was his first real love and even though it ended disastrously, Dom hasn’t had a substantial relationship since. Time has passed and Dom is lonely, especially as his 40th birthday looms closer. He’s started to romanticise the time they had together, and can’t help wondering if his ex has changed. He knows he shouldn’t reach out to him but he can’t help himself. Dom has a great relationship with his nononsense gal pal – which was previously sexual. Is he bisexual? Dom lives with his high school girlfriend and they have a really cool relationship. But they’re more like brother and sister. Dom is clearly into guys, but who knows? Maybe in the right situation he could explore bisexual tendencies. Season four, anyone? In the pilot, Dom experienced the first time he couldn’t fuck someone he wanted to. As a gay man and former model, what are your thoughts on getting older? I was never really a model but I’ll take that as a compliment, thanks! I’ve really enjoyed getting older. As time goes on, I feel much clearer about what’s important to me. If you’re talking about how we physically change, it’s best to embrace that because it’s inevitable and worrying about it will most likely make you miserable. I just try to stay fit and healthy and enjoy my life. San Francisco is the epicentre of counterculture fringe. With the mainstreaming of the gay movement, do you think it’s lost its edge? I don’t think the gay movement has lost its edge, but it’s definitely evolving. As acceptance gains momentum it may feel like there is not the same intensity of pushing against something as in earlier days, but the push for change continues in different ways. Whether on the fringe or integrated into the mainstream, the gay community will always give us exciting innovators and pioneers of culture. What was the reaction from locals to your presence in the Castro? In general, they were really excited about the show and were very welcoming. Locals were curious as to how their city and community would be portrayed and I think excited by a show that is in many ways a love letter to San Francisco in a similar way that Tales Of The City was. Some choice advice from the pilot is to stop giving a shit what anyone thinks – and also that Instagram filters have ruined everything. What are your words to live by? Those words are pretty golden, actually. It’s important to be a good listener and take constructive criticism, but ultimately it’s essential to follow your own instincts and be the person that you truly are and/or strive to be. I have to disagree with the second part, though, because I kinda love Instagram filters! A lot of people feel a gay HBO series is way past due. Why now? Why Looking? I’m not really sure why now but working on the show, we all felt it was timely. Perhaps people are more ready now to watch a show with gay protagonists that attempts to show raw reality without sanitising or sugar coating anything in their lives for fear it might not be palatable. Were there any fun shenanigans on set? There were lots of shenanigans! I’ve never had so much fun on a set. We were lucky to have a very harmonious group. It was a bit of a lovefest and emotional to end our time together in San Francisco. Fingers crossed we’ll be back.
more: Looking premieres January 19 on HBO.