harold|KINNEY
NO excuses. NO apologies. NO regrets.






[108]

lINKS

IMDB Profile
Gale-Online.net
Brian-Kinney.net
Gale Harold Fan Site
QaF Addiction
Gale-Harold.it
Gale Daily LJ

cASTING

The story of Harold’s casting in Queer as Folk has that Hollywood-miracle aura that publicists love. Executive producers Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, the Emmy-award winning writers of the groundbreaking AIDS drama An Early Frost and the long-running drama series Sisters, had acquired the American rights to the British drama series Queer as Folk. They had already cast actors Scott Lowell, Peter Paige, Hal Sparks, and Randy Harrison as a group of gay friends whose intertwined lives would form the basis for the American version of the story. The casting had been nightmarish for Lipman and Cowen because agents wouldn’t send their clients in to read for the parts in the show. The part of Brian Kinney was particularly difficult.

“Here’s a gay man, very sexual, very masculine, not the kind of gay character people are used to seeing,” says Lipman. “If he were a straight male character fcking every woman in sight, he’d be a hero. So this was not like the other roles, and that was part of the difficulty.”

“It was an extremely distressing experience trying to cast Brian, because of what we discovered to be the massive amount of homophobia [in Hollywood],” says Cowen. “We were so shocked and so upset, because we went into this thinking that in the years since An Early Frost things had changed. What we had discovered was that things hadn’t changed one iota.”

Late on a Friday afternoon, with an 8:30 a.m. Monday meeting scheduled to introduce their cast to the Showtime executives, Lipman and Cowen still didn’t have their Brian Kinney.

“It was a test of faith, and by Friday at 5 p.m. faith was running out,” Lipman says ruefully. At 5:45 p.m., their casting director called. “She said, ‘Come on over right now, he’s here!’” Lipman recalls. “In walks Gale Harold, and we’re looking at him and he’s reading the scene, and Ron and I are looking at each other, and it’s like, Is he fcking fabulous?”

“He fell out of the sky,” Cowen breathes. “There’s truly no other explanation.”

Lipman asked Harold to be at the Showtime offices in Los Angeles at 8 a.m. on Monday. “He lit up a cigarette, and, very Brianesque, he said, ‘I’m with this repertory company, and we have to strike a set on Sunday night, and I don’t think I can make it.’ And we’re thinking, Is he for real? Who says that? We’ve been in Hollywood too long. What do you say to that?” Lipman laughs, shaking his head in disbelief. He pressed a copy of the script into Harold’s arms and asked him to read it and call them at home the next day.

“I was standing in the kitchen,” Cowen remembers, “and the phone rang and a voice said, ‘Hi, this is Brian Kinney.’”

mOMENTS

fANS

galela
Buffy&Angel4eva
SassySarah
~*katinthehat*~
Vintage
kyleschick
AuburnGrad
nikinney
Ice Queen follower
~ Liz ~
Brian Kinney's Muffin O'Love
Yoda-Mira
groovyk1
Orton
Brianlvr_1
wolkenfuehlen
rebelle
Andalusia
dorksrock
teena1013
Whiskey Girl
mylu
shnicky
silvercrystal
dance on tables
~DresdenDoll~
Ice B
Aikaterini
Emilydc
BrunetteBella
jessica20121984
galesgirl645
Calgaryfan2006
iLuVsPiKeNmiLo224
Katherine Behr
Very86
jopace1970
Riley*
Tsukina
_virgo_
sxy_readr3
Jershey
Hermione Weasley
DevotedEmilyFan
lesaP
_Jmarit_
MissMi
cuemypulse
trippleb
D'oh
reni^
RyanTaylorFan
Imzadi
AngiePJBeliever
Fashionably Late
Monticello
saintgale
MeiTow
» MaRy
hunee
ale the strange
Manu9
DreamWalker
kiaretta_85
ms_dohring
write2me
no limits
~*Chrissie*~
CleverDevil
brucasalways
jessica3311
scott5ivegirlfr
Snooglyshnork
*JenKneeSuu*
Pey_23
I_Love_JennaJameson
upthemorning
JankaJBLK
little_earthquake
WildRose

qUOTES

"You have to like your character, because if you don't, no one else will either." - Gale Harold

"Gale: Brilliant, enigmatic, screwy." - Scott Lowell

"When we met him, Brian and Gale just fused. Gale has such sexuality as a person that it's kind of daunting. How many people could be as open or fluid and bring that to a character? It doesn't have anything to do with being gay or straight. He's breaking new ground for bringing sexuality to a performance, and not just gay sexuality. I don't think any other actor has ever done what he's doing. I think it's kind of historic." - Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman

"If someone doesn't want to work with me because I'm playing a gay character, I don't want to work with them. They can fck off." - Gale Harold

"He's intense, and he likes that people think that about him... he seems more intense than he really is, though. Gale's sillier and laughs more than Brian does. He's kinder. And I don't think he's quite as manipulative." - Randy Harrison

"We kept pushing back the shooting date, and people were getting tense. But when Mr. Gale Harold walked in, Ron and I looked at each other and absolutely knew. He had a certain kind of cockiness. But he's very, very charming underneath all that. He has his own direction and agenda. There's no bullsht with him." - Daniel Lipman

"I think it's good that men are being objectified because since forever women have been objectified. We're flipping the coin because things have been lopsided on TV and film for so long. Another good point to the show is that it portrays men's sensuality. They're not just all about sex and only sex." - Gale Harold

"Gale does things because he wants to, not because he feels obligated. If he doesn't feel like showing up someplace, he just won't show up. But on the last day of shooting, he brought flowers for everyone. He's a gentle, enigmatic and aloof spirit." - Michelle Clunie

"He's a dork in the body of a God." - Peter Paige

"I want to keep developing. I want to become relaxed in my own work and go deeper. Just growing and studying and trying new things and hopefully having professional access to work that's good and interesting. I don't want to be on the treadmill of artificiality." - Gale Harold

"Gale is totally cool and secure enough not to be threatened by anything. He knows who he is. That makes him more than an actor; it makes him a very fine human being." - Ron Cowen

"Gale is, he's just gorgeous, you know! What can I say? He's a gorgeous man, inside and out. I always look forward to working with him on my scenes, because there is a receptivity to him that is so complete, and wholesome. He has a real wholesome nature about life. He's very down to earth, and that's what I think makes him so attractive, because he just really stands on his own two feet, and lets the world come to him, and he will give back to the world. He has a real sort of give and take philosophy about life, and I think that makes him a terrific and deep actor." - Thea Gill

"My desire, above all else, is for Brian to be as realistic and human as possible. So, I try, within the constraints I am given, to find a way... I try to let something get through. And I hope that if enough gets through, there will be significant growth for Brian at least to become more self-aware. And hopefully some self-awareness will lead to deeper accessibility to his feelings towards his friends and lovers." - Gale Harold

pICS

THREADS

051 052 053 054 055

056 057 058 059 060

061 062 063 064 065

066 067 068 069 070

071 072 073 074 075

076 077 078 079 080

081 082 083 084 085

086 087 088 089 090

091 092 093 094 095

096 097 098 099 100

101 102 103 104 105

106 107