August 8, 2023 • 24 mins
This August, Amazon Prime releases the highly anticipated Red, White & Royal Blue, the tale of Alex and Henry, the son of the US President falling in love with the son of the King of the UK – shenanigans and politics ensue. The film, both sultry and sweet at the same time, is based on the New York Times bestselling book by Casey McQuiston. The book was an instant hit, and with the charm, stellar cast (including Uma Thurman), and truly heartful direction, this film should be no less. At the film’s helm is the king (or queen) of the stage, mastermind Matthew López, making his feature film co-writing and directing debut. Let’s hope if the film sweeps the award shows, he has enough room on his shelf next to his Tony Award, Olivier Award, Outer Critics Circle Awards, Drama Desk Awards, Drama League Award, GLAAD Media Award, and a handful of others. Despite his youth, he’s already achieved more on the stage as a playwright than most writers accomplish in a lifetime.
In this episode, we chat with Matthew about going from loner kid to award-winning playwright, his creative process, representation in media, expressing sexuality through film, behind the scenes of the making of Red, White and Royal Blue, and so much more! Hosted by Alexander Rodriguez
You can follow Matthew on Instagram at @MatthewMichaelLopez and check out our in-depth chat with him in the current issue of Metrosource on newsstands or at Metrosource.com
Red, White and Royal Blue streams Aug 11th on Amazon Prime!
In this episode, we chat with Matthew about going from loner kid to award-winning playwright, his creative process, representation in media, expressing sexuality through film, behind the scenes of the making of Red, White and Royal Blue, and so much more! Hosted by Alexander Rodriguez
You can follow Matthew on Instagram at @MatthewMichaelLopez and check out our in-depth chat with him in the current issue of Metrosource on newsstands or at Metrosource.com
Red, White and Royal Blue streams Aug 11th on Amazon Prime!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:05):
This is Metrosource Mini, the officialpodcast to Metrosource magazine and home of short
form interviews with your favorite personalities fromthe LGBTQ world and beyond. Quick,
fun and informative. It's Metrosource onthe go, out in proud since nineteen
ninety. Welcome to Metrosource Minnis.I'm your host, Alexander Rodriguez, writer
(00:27):
for Metrosource and queen of the podcast. This August, Amazon Prime releases the
highly anticipated Red, White and RoyalBlue, The Tale of alex and Henry,
the son of the US President fallenin love with the son of the
King of the UK, Shenanigans andpolitics ensue. The film both Sutrian suite
at the same time, is basedon the New York Times best selling book
by Casey mcquinston. The book wasan instant hit, and with the charm
(00:49):
stellar cast including Numa Thurman and trulyheartful direction, this film should be no
less. At the film's home isthe King or Queen of the stage mastermind
Matthew Lopez, making his feature filmwriting and directing debut. Let's hope if
the film sweeps the award shows hehas enough room on a shelf next to
his Tony Award, Olivier Award,Outer Critics Circle Awards, Drama Desk Awards,
Drama League Award, Glad Media Award, and a handful of others.
(01:11):
Despite Matthew's youth, He's already achievedmore on the stage as a playwright than
most writers accomplish in a lifetime.Listening as I chat with Matthew about being
the loner kid to award winning playwright, his creative process, representation in media,
expressing sexuality through film, some behindthe scenes of the making of Red,
White and Royal Blue, and somuch more. Take a listen,
(01:34):
all right, sir, So Iwant to know what kind of kids you
were growing up in Panama City andwhat about your childhood years has been the
biggest contributor to who you are now? Oh my god, this is like
already starting off to be a therapysession. I love it. Well.
I feel like she'd be laying downwho was as a kid. I was
(01:56):
very much a kid who was intomusical theater. I was a kid who
I mean, as you can tell, I wasn't very popular. I was
a kid who was very popular withadults, but not other kids. Same
and I read a lot of booksas a kid, and I listened to
(02:20):
a lot of musical theater cast albums. I was largely out of step.
And you know, I think thatI kept to myself by and large as
a kid, I was. Iwas pretty sort of I coucooned a lot.
And whether that was because I wasin little queer Puerto Rican kid in
Panama City in Florida, I don'tknow, but may have been a coping
(02:43):
mechanism. But I think the resultis that I learned how to use my
imagination. And I was I wasan incredibly imaginative kid. I dreamed up
scenarios in my head, I puton plays. So I think I was
always telling stories from the get go, and and you know, I very
fortunate that I actually turned that intoa career. No. I know,
(03:06):
entertainment is in your family. Youknow, we know about your aunt,
your dad was an extra in themovie West Side Story. But from your
own personal spark of entertainment, whatwas that first either musical or show or
actor or something that that affected youpersonally that just wasn't in your family realm,
but that was for you personally,well, it was sort of it
was tied to the family in someWay. When I was like four or
(03:29):
five, my parents took me toNew York, where my parents are from.
My dad's born in Puerto Rico,raised in New York City. My
mom is born and raised New YorkCity. And they took me to h
to New York for the holidays oneyear and I saw my first Not only
did I see my first Broadway show, I saw my first piece of theater
ever, which was Peter Pan.I saw the the musical Peter Pan and
(03:53):
Sandy Duncan in it, and itmy views and it it absolutely and it
absolutely set the course of the restof my life on that that one,
that one evening or maybe that oneMattinee that they took me to see it
when I was five years old,and I, Uh, there was something
(04:14):
there. Obviously, there's something incrediblymagical and fantastical about Peter Pan. There's
something I'm sure about being a foreverkid that is very appealing. There's a
lot of I think there's a lotof Peter Pan to me, and there's
a lot of Peter Pan. There'sthe reason my character and the inheritance,
Toby is named Toby Darling. He'snamed after after the kids in that in
(04:34):
that play, in that in thatstory, Your your plays, your projects
couldn't be more different if they tried. We go from deal with slavery to
theater family in the sixties, victimsof violence, Elvis impersonation, aids epidemic.
This sounds cliche, but like whenI look at at your roster of
(04:55):
projects, I'm like, where thehell do these ideas come from? And
how do they manifest themselves? Likewhere are you getting all this from?
I mean, you know, Ikind of I don't, I guess.
I mean it's not a strategy.I guess I don't like to repeat myself.
I mean, I think I havea tendency when I do anything to
I do it with an obsessive quality, and so it really becomes the only
(05:20):
thing that I can think about,and when I'm done, I don't want
to think about it again. Andand so I think that sort of lends
itself to want to try different thingsand try different stories, different storytelling,
different kinds of storytelling, different stories. I mean, at the end of
the day, I just I thinkI'm very fascinated by people who are not
(05:42):
me. And and because I'm I'mstuck with me. I've been you know,
I've been me for all my life, and I think that I'm I'm
not one of those people who whoreally needs you all to to to watch
my therapy session. I think Idid a fair amount of that and the
inheritance, and I think i'm Ifeel like I'm done U and I'd rather
(06:06):
I'd rather really explore the people.And I people fascinate me, but I
think it's also there's a part ofit. It was like that kid who
spent a lot of his childhood inhis room alone, reading books and listening
to music. People fascinate me,but I think there's a there's I need
to keep a cautious distance from them. And so when I I as a
(06:30):
writer, as a creator, Iget to I get to sort of take
bits of people who actually exist inthe world, whom I know or I've
observed, and then I turn theminto my characters. And and I think
I find a way to sort ofencounter the world that way. And it
might be, you know, itmight feel maybe it's because it's safe.
(06:53):
Look, I'm not a shot,and I'm very much in the world,
and I definitely have very healthy relationshipswith other people. But I think that
many write are before there are anythingelse. They're observers, and I feel
like I'm the same way now alongthose lines with the Inheritance, you know,
a huge hit called the most importantAmerican play of the century. Do
you feel that pressure, that constantpressure to repeat success, repeat success or
(07:18):
is that kind of just no,I'm going to fail at things. It's
inevitable. I'm a human being.I'm flawed. I'm just a person telling
stories. And I'm very fortunate thatI get to tell the stories that I
want to and that I've been supportedalong the way and and and being given
(07:39):
the chance to tell them. AndI don't ever take that for granted.
And failure is inevitable, So there'sthere's a real If you can accept that
failure is inevitable, then it justsort of relieves you have the pressure to
succeed and you can just simply tellthe story you want to tell and the
(08:00):
best way you know how, andand hope that you know your instincts are
right and that people will respond toit. So far, so good.
Yeah, it's been working. Matthew. You you have you have been witnessed
to this evolution of LGBTQ content onstage on screen. What is your take
on this current boom of representation andentertainment along the terms of what is the
(08:22):
industry getting right? What do westill need to work on? I mean
it, you know, look,I grew up in the eighties and the
nineties, and the only queer mediathat I was able to consume was all
about how to to be me wasto die of aids, and that was
(08:46):
you know, and and and andor hate myself and and there you know,
and and there are great works thatcame out of that time. I
mean, there's just there's there's there'sthere's tremendously beautiful pieces of dramatical literature,
of movies and even of television atthe time bought. I'm very grateful that
I that I am able to participatein the creation of things now. I'm
(09:13):
very grateful that I was sort ofthat I came of age watching those early
those early works and consuming those earlyworks. But I'm also really grateful that
I get to create now. AndI think one of the things that is
really exciting to me is is isthe scope of representation and the number of
(09:35):
people who I, as a creatorget to both work with and get to
watch their their things, And Ithink that there's I think, if there's
anything, I mean, I wouldn'tsort of lump it into like what does
what does the entertainment industry get rightor get wrong? I think what is?
I think with this explosion of queerstorytelling, what I'm eager for is
(10:03):
the beginning of a conversation between thesepieces, between creatives, queer creators,
you know, to what are wecreating a constellation of individual pieces that don't
cohere in any kind of a culturalnarrative, or are we actually building some
(10:26):
sort of a tapestry that generations fromnow can look back at the work that
we've that we are making right nowand be able to tell a story about
who we were as a society basedon what they observe from from what we've
created right now. And I thinkwhat's missing, because there isn't hasn't been
(10:46):
time yet for it to happen,is a kind of of a communal conversation
that is that is that happens.I think it's inevitable, and I think
it's just the reason I don't feelwhat's happening yet is because everybody is just
sort of it feels as though everybodyis just so excited to tell their stories
that they're busy telling their stories.And I can't wait for people to start
(11:07):
looking at the stories that we aretelling and begin to tell us what it
is that we've made as a community. Does that make sense? Does that
make sense? Hundred percent? Thatwas so beautifully put quote unquote, like
that's a whole sex of the story. Okay, So the screaming Latin kid
(11:28):
in me wants to know, doyou remember where you were when you first
found out that you've got your firstTony nomination? Well? Yeah, actually
I can, because I was itwas still, you know, the thick
of the pandemic, and I wasUpstate New York at at my house up
there, and I had, Iguess, the nominations came out in October
(11:54):
of twenty twenty, and I hadjust gotten a puppy. In my entire
life, I don't remember the exactday, but it was sometime in November,
in October twenty twenty, and Igot this puppy. I brought him
home October one, and my entirelife was just puppy pads and training and
(12:15):
cleaning up messes and not getting anysleep. And I was out and I
was just I my brain wasn't workingbecause I was sleep deprived and just focus
only on this puppy and I wasoutside with him playing, and I didn't
know. I think I knew thatthe Tony nominations were coming out that day,
but I didn't know exactly when theywere, and I was just focused
(12:37):
on this little guy. And Icome back into the house and my husband
was like, you just got nominatedfor your first company and your show got
eleven Tony nominations, And I'm gratefulthat I actually wasn't like stuck in front
of my computer like nervously watching Idon't. I don't believe it. Ever,
(12:58):
when anybody when they get nominated forsomething always says, oh, I
didn't realize it was today. OhI was asleep, I would say,
bullshit, you knew it was today, Give me a break. Everybody knows
it's today. But I genuinely wasjust very happily distracted by this little creature
who needed my attention, and soit just really did genuinely slip under the
radar for me, and I cameinto the house completely unawares, and so
(13:22):
I'm then I jumped for joy andI went crazy, and that is fun
well and and the first Latin Xperson to win for you know, best
play making history. I mean frommy culture. You know, hats off,
sombrero off. Okay, let's talkRed White and Royal Blue. What
made you say yes to doing thisproject? It wasn't necessarily me saying yes
(13:43):
to doing this project. It wasAmazon, Amazon and Brolante Scheckter saying yes
to be doing the project because Iread the book and I basically stopped Greg
Brolante and Sarah Scheckter until they relentedand let me make the film. I
read the book in early twenty twenty, just before the pandemic, and I
(14:05):
felt so crazy in love with it. I fell crazy in love with Alex
and Henry and I read it ina day and a half and I was
obsessed with it. Like I saidearlier in this interview, I get a
little obsessive, and I got veryobsessive about that, and I just got
tenacious with them, and I Iwouldn't take no for an answer, and
I said, I'm I have tomake this movie. I must, I
(14:28):
must, I must, I mustwhat you know? And then they so
it was really I needed no condencing, and I'm grateful that my sort of
my passion didn't read as insanity,and that they all said yes. And
it has been my obsession, formy very happy obsession, for the last
(14:50):
to two years. Now this isyour directorial debut. What were those first
few days of filming like as thedirector? What was the most daunting for
you? Well? Nausea every morning, And you know, I think the
best bit of encouragement I got wasfrom my seventy eight year old director of
(15:11):
photography, Steven Goldblatt, who usedwho was for a time he was Mike
Nichols DOP and he was also FrancisCoppela's GOP. And he said to me,
after the first hour of the firstday, you will no longer be
an inexperienced filmmaker. You will simplybe an unpracticed filmmaker and that will take
(15:33):
care of itself over time. AndI remember those words almost verbatim because they
really calmed me. And it reallywas. I was surrounded by incredibly experienced
people who taught me how to makea film through, especially through the pre
(15:54):
production process. And the most dauntingthing, because I had never we had
a COVID shutdown about three weeks intoproduction, and we were shut down for
about a week and a half andI went into the edit because I had
nothing else to do, and Ifigured I'd go ahead and get started cutting
(16:14):
the movie. And that was themost helpful thing for me because I came
back to the set once we wentback into production, and I had a
week's worth of knowing how to edita film, and it changed the way
I made the movie. And ifif I wish I had known anything,
I wish I had sat in onan edit, on someone else's edit,
(16:38):
because the most daunting thing was simplytrusting that I had what I needed and
trying not to overshoot and avoiding,you know, undershooting. So I think
that that for me was simply someoneelse knew where to put the lights,
someone else knew where to put thecamera I needed. I knew how to
talk to actors from my experience intheater. I think for me it was
(17:03):
how do you have the movie inyour head before you've even made the movie?
And that was that was the practiceI needed to gain. The film
is so fun, it's sexy,it's poignant, it's not too heavy.
Obviously, it has some deeper momentsto it, but it's just a fun,
romantic story. Was that a consciouseffort to not make it too heavy?
So to speak? Yeah, Imean it ain't Oppenheimer, you know
(17:30):
which I'm excited to see. Uh, it's look the the the end of
the day. On a story likethis, and especially this this story,
you need to care. And sometimesin order to make an audience care,
you need to put your heroes indanger. But you want the audience to
(17:53):
fall in love. And there isnothing more deliriously fun than falling in love.
And just as Alex and Henry fallin love with each other, the
audience has to fall in love withthem. And that is such a fun
thing to be able to create.That's a fun story to tell. So
it was. It was never myintention. I never thought that we were
(18:15):
making something completely lightweight and disposable.I definitely didn't want the movie to feel
disposable. I didn't want people tosort of see it and then forget about
it the next day. Because thecharacters stayed with me after I read the
book. I wanted the movie tofeel exactly the same way the book felt.
I wanted those characters to linger inthe audience's mind once the movie was
(18:37):
over. In the days in theweeks after they've seen the film, and
that was the most important thing tome. Matthew, there's a number of
steamy moments in the film, whichI'm very glad for. In fact,
the two star crust lovers, theirfirst few moments are kind of centered around
their physical relationship. With all theattacks on our community because of our alleged
(18:59):
hyper sexual nature, why is itso important to keep this level of sexuality
in the film. Because I speak, I speak as I speak as a
gay man, and only as agay man, only in that I don't
I don't claim to speak for anybodyelse. Our sex is beautiful, are
(19:21):
the way we have sex is beautiful, Our intimacy is beautiful. Sex between
two humans, consensual sex between twohumans is a beautiful thing, and it's
one of the great things about beingalive. And I knew that especially the
book is very steamy, and thebook is very very sexual, and and
(19:42):
I really love that about the book. And I knew that I'd be committing
heresy if I didn't, if Ididn't bring that into the film. And
what was always important to me is, you know, a sex scene in
a movie is like a song anda music goal. It really does need
to either really sort of charm youor or it really needs to teach you
(20:07):
something about the characters and move theplot along, you know. And we
were always very conscious when we weremaking the film that, you know,
because the other thing, too,is that you're asking two performers to do
something that is really vulnerable making,and you don't ever want to ask too
much of them, and you don'tever want to make anybody feel uncomfortable or
(20:27):
worse, sort of forced into doingsomething. And so we were really really
conscientious about how we approached each andevery one of these scenes. I spent
a lot of time with my intimacycoordinator mapping them out, and what we
really paid particular attention to is whatstory are we telling with each and every
one of these intimacy scenes, Sothat we could turn around and speak to
(20:51):
Taylor and Nick and explain to themexactly why we were asking them to do
what we were asking them to do. You have to be able to answer
that question for your actors when you'reasking them to do a scene of intimacy,
why is this important? And Ialso told them, I said,
if we discover that it isn't important, it isn't necessary. We won't do
it, we won't ask you todo it. And so I think that
(21:15):
that for me. But beyond justsort of the mechanics of the filmmaking,
to tell the story of Alex andHenry and not include the fact that they
are very passionately physically attracted to oneanother is to not tell the full story
abouts and Henry. I have liketwo more pages of questions. I could
(21:38):
talk to you for hours and hours. We so speak the same language.
I just have one more question.What is a career moment that sticks out
for you, not because of thesuccess of the project, but because of
your own personal growth. Two thingsstick out. One the very first preview
of The Inheritance ever in London,when this piece of theater that I had
(22:02):
been working on for years and yearsand years, that was the most personal
thing I'd ever I'd ever written,was seen for the first time by an
audience and was instantly received with warmthand joy and compassion and excitement that told
me that I had not wasted theprevious five years of my life. And
(22:23):
the very first time I ever sawJay Harrison Gee Jay Harrison g in their
costume as Daphne in Something Like Ithot fully becoming Daphne before my eyes,
after after years of workshopping this showwith them and knowing how important the character
(22:48):
of Daphne was to both of us, and there suddenly I just burst into
tears. Both in both stories,I burst into tears, but with Jay,
just the joy of seeing that characterbrilliantly and vibrantly come to life on
stage and Greg Barnes Tony winning costumesin Jay's Tony winning performance was just one
(23:10):
of the great moments of my career. Matthew Upr is gonna kill me for
keeping you a minute over, butthank you, thank you, thank you
so much. That has been anotherepisode of Metrosource Minis. You can follow
Matthew on Instagram at Matthew Michael Lopezand check out my ind uth chat with
him and the current issue of Metrosourceon newstands or at metrosource dot com.
Red White and Royal Blue streams Augusteleventh on Amazon Prime. I've been your
(23:33):
host, Alexander Rodriguez. You canfollow me on Instagram at Alexander is on
air Until next time, stay trueand do you boot? That has been
another Metrosource Mini Like Shared Subscribe onyour favorite podcast player, and check out
the latest issue of Metrosource magazine onnewstands or online at metrosource dot com.
(23:56):
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram atmetrosource, and on Twitter at metrosource.
Men. Until next time, apast h
This is Metrosource Mini, the officialpodcast to Metrosource magazine and home of short
form interviews with your favorite personalities fromthe LGBTQ world and beyond. Quick,
fun and informative. It's Metrosource onthe go, out in proud since nineteen
ninety. Welcome to Metrosource Minnis.I'm your host, Alexander Rodriguez, writer
(00:27):
for Metrosource and queen of the podcast. This August, Amazon Prime releases the
highly anticipated Red, White and RoyalBlue, The Tale of alex and Henry,
the son of the US President fallenin love with the son of the
King of the UK, Shenanigans andpolitics ensue. The film both Sutrian suite
at the same time, is basedon the New York Times best selling book
by Casey mcquinston. The book wasan instant hit, and with the charm
(00:49):
stellar cast including Numa Thurman and trulyheartful direction, this film should be no
less. At the film's home isthe King or Queen of the stage mastermind
Matthew Lopez, making his feature filmwriting and directing debut. Let's hope if
the film sweeps the award shows hehas enough room on a shelf next to
his Tony Award, Olivier Award,Outer Critics Circle Awards, Drama Desk Awards,
Drama League Award, Glad Media Award, and a handful of others.
(01:11):
Despite Matthew's youth, He's already achievedmore on the stage as a playwright than
most writers accomplish in a lifetime.Listening as I chat with Matthew about being
the loner kid to award winning playwright, his creative process, representation in media,
expressing sexuality through film, some behindthe scenes of the making of Red,
White and Royal Blue, and somuch more. Take a listen,
(01:34):
all right, sir, So Iwant to know what kind of kids you
were growing up in Panama City andwhat about your childhood years has been the
biggest contributor to who you are now? Oh my god, this is like
already starting off to be a therapysession. I love it. Well.
I feel like she'd be laying downwho was as a kid. I was
(01:56):
very much a kid who was intomusical theater. I was a kid who
I mean, as you can tell, I wasn't very popular. I was
a kid who was very popular withadults, but not other kids. Same
and I read a lot of booksas a kid, and I listened to
(02:20):
a lot of musical theater cast albums. I was largely out of step.
And you know, I think thatI kept to myself by and large as
a kid, I was. Iwas pretty sort of I coucooned a lot.
And whether that was because I wasin little queer Puerto Rican kid in
Panama City in Florida, I don'tknow, but may have been a coping
(02:43):
mechanism. But I think the resultis that I learned how to use my
imagination. And I was I wasan incredibly imaginative kid. I dreamed up
scenarios in my head, I puton plays. So I think I was
always telling stories from the get go, and and you know, I very
fortunate that I actually turned that intoa career. No. I know,
(03:06):
entertainment is in your family. Youknow, we know about your aunt,
your dad was an extra in themovie West Side Story. But from your
own personal spark of entertainment, whatwas that first either musical or show or
actor or something that that affected youpersonally that just wasn't in your family realm,
but that was for you personally,well, it was sort of it
was tied to the family in someWay. When I was like four or
(03:29):
five, my parents took me toNew York, where my parents are from.
My dad's born in Puerto Rico,raised in New York City. My
mom is born and raised New YorkCity. And they took me to h
to New York for the holidays oneyear and I saw my first Not only
did I see my first Broadway show, I saw my first piece of theater
ever, which was Peter Pan.I saw the the musical Peter Pan and
(03:53):
Sandy Duncan in it, and itmy views and it it absolutely and it
absolutely set the course of the restof my life on that that one,
that one evening or maybe that oneMattinee that they took me to see it
when I was five years old,and I, Uh, there was something
(04:14):
there. Obviously, there's something incrediblymagical and fantastical about Peter Pan. There's
something I'm sure about being a foreverkid that is very appealing. There's a
lot of I think there's a lotof Peter Pan to me, and there's
a lot of Peter Pan. There'sthe reason my character and the inheritance,
Toby is named Toby Darling. He'snamed after after the kids in that in
(04:34):
that play, in that in thatstory, Your your plays, your projects
couldn't be more different if they tried. We go from deal with slavery to
theater family in the sixties, victimsof violence, Elvis impersonation, aids epidemic.
This sounds cliche, but like whenI look at at your roster of
(04:55):
projects, I'm like, where thehell do these ideas come from? And
how do they manifest themselves? Likewhere are you getting all this from?
I mean, you know, Ikind of I don't, I guess.
I mean it's not a strategy.I guess I don't like to repeat myself.
I mean, I think I havea tendency when I do anything to
I do it with an obsessive quality, and so it really becomes the only
(05:20):
thing that I can think about,and when I'm done, I don't want
to think about it again. Andand so I think that sort of lends
itself to want to try different thingsand try different stories, different storytelling,
different kinds of storytelling, different stories. I mean, at the end of
the day, I just I thinkI'm very fascinated by people who are not
(05:42):
me. And and because I'm I'mstuck with me. I've been you know,
I've been me for all my life, and I think that I'm I'm
not one of those people who whoreally needs you all to to to watch
my therapy session. I think Idid a fair amount of that and the
inheritance, and I think i'm Ifeel like I'm done U and I'd rather
(06:06):
I'd rather really explore the people.And I people fascinate me, but I
think it's also there's a part ofit. It was like that kid who
spent a lot of his childhood inhis room alone, reading books and listening
to music. People fascinate me,but I think there's a there's I need
to keep a cautious distance from them. And so when I I as a
(06:30):
writer, as a creator, Iget to I get to sort of take
bits of people who actually exist inthe world, whom I know or I've
observed, and then I turn theminto my characters. And and I think
I find a way to sort ofencounter the world that way. And it
might be, you know, itmight feel maybe it's because it's safe.
(06:53):
Look, I'm not a shot,and I'm very much in the world,
and I definitely have very healthy relationshipswith other people. But I think that
many write are before there are anythingelse. They're observers, and I feel
like I'm the same way now alongthose lines with the Inheritance, you know,
a huge hit called the most importantAmerican play of the century. Do
you feel that pressure, that constantpressure to repeat success, repeat success or
(07:18):
is that kind of just no,I'm going to fail at things. It's
inevitable. I'm a human being.I'm flawed. I'm just a person telling
stories. And I'm very fortunate thatI get to tell the stories that I
want to and that I've been supportedalong the way and and and being given
(07:39):
the chance to tell them. AndI don't ever take that for granted.
And failure is inevitable, So there'sthere's a real If you can accept that
failure is inevitable, then it justsort of relieves you have the pressure to
succeed and you can just simply tellthe story you want to tell and the
(08:00):
best way you know how, andand hope that you know your instincts are
right and that people will respond toit. So far, so good.
Yeah, it's been working. Matthew. You you have you have been witnessed
to this evolution of LGBTQ content onstage on screen. What is your take
on this current boom of representation andentertainment along the terms of what is the
(08:22):
industry getting right? What do westill need to work on? I mean
it, you know, look,I grew up in the eighties and the
nineties, and the only queer mediathat I was able to consume was all
about how to to be me wasto die of aids, and that was
(08:46):
you know, and and and andor hate myself and and there you know,
and and there are great works thatcame out of that time. I
mean, there's just there's there's there'sthere's tremendously beautiful pieces of dramatical literature,
of movies and even of television atthe time bought. I'm very grateful that
I that I am able to participatein the creation of things now. I'm
(09:13):
very grateful that I was sort ofthat I came of age watching those early
those early works and consuming those earlyworks. But I'm also really grateful that
I get to create now. AndI think one of the things that is
really exciting to me is is isthe scope of representation and the number of
(09:35):
people who I, as a creatorget to both work with and get to
watch their their things, And Ithink that there's I think, if there's
anything, I mean, I wouldn'tsort of lump it into like what does
what does the entertainment industry get rightor get wrong? I think what is?
I think with this explosion of queerstorytelling, what I'm eager for is
(10:03):
the beginning of a conversation between thesepieces, between creatives, queer creators,
you know, to what are wecreating a constellation of individual pieces that don't
cohere in any kind of a culturalnarrative, or are we actually building some
(10:26):
sort of a tapestry that generations fromnow can look back at the work that
we've that we are making right nowand be able to tell a story about
who we were as a society basedon what they observe from from what we've
created right now. And I thinkwhat's missing, because there isn't hasn't been
(10:46):
time yet for it to happen,is a kind of of a communal conversation
that is that is that happens.I think it's inevitable, and I think
it's just the reason I don't feelwhat's happening yet is because everybody is just
sort of it feels as though everybodyis just so excited to tell their stories
that they're busy telling their stories.And I can't wait for people to start
(11:07):
looking at the stories that we aretelling and begin to tell us what it
is that we've made as a community. Does that make sense? Does that
make sense? Hundred percent? Thatwas so beautifully put quote unquote, like
that's a whole sex of the story. Okay, So the screaming Latin kid
(11:28):
in me wants to know, doyou remember where you were when you first
found out that you've got your firstTony nomination? Well? Yeah, actually
I can, because I was itwas still, you know, the thick
of the pandemic, and I wasUpstate New York at at my house up
there, and I had, Iguess, the nominations came out in October
(11:54):
of twenty twenty, and I hadjust gotten a puppy. In my entire
life, I don't remember the exactday, but it was sometime in November,
in October twenty twenty, and Igot this puppy. I brought him
home October one, and my entirelife was just puppy pads and training and
(12:15):
cleaning up messes and not getting anysleep. And I was out and I
was just I my brain wasn't workingbecause I was sleep deprived and just focus
only on this puppy and I wasoutside with him playing, and I didn't
know. I think I knew thatthe Tony nominations were coming out that day,
but I didn't know exactly when theywere, and I was just focused
(12:37):
on this little guy. And Icome back into the house and my husband
was like, you just got nominatedfor your first company and your show got
eleven Tony nominations, And I'm gratefulthat I actually wasn't like stuck in front
of my computer like nervously watching Idon't. I don't believe it. Ever,
(12:58):
when anybody when they get nominated forsomething always says, oh, I
didn't realize it was today. OhI was asleep, I would say,
bullshit, you knew it was today, Give me a break. Everybody knows
it's today. But I genuinely wasjust very happily distracted by this little creature
who needed my attention, and soit just really did genuinely slip under the
radar for me, and I cameinto the house completely unawares, and so
(13:22):
I'm then I jumped for joy andI went crazy, and that is fun
well and and the first Latin Xperson to win for you know, best
play making history. I mean frommy culture. You know, hats off,
sombrero off. Okay, let's talkRed White and Royal Blue. What
made you say yes to doing thisproject? It wasn't necessarily me saying yes
(13:43):
to doing this project. It wasAmazon, Amazon and Brolante Scheckter saying yes
to be doing the project because Iread the book and I basically stopped Greg
Brolante and Sarah Scheckter until they relentedand let me make the film. I
read the book in early twenty twenty, just before the pandemic, and I
(14:05):
felt so crazy in love with it. I fell crazy in love with Alex
and Henry and I read it ina day and a half and I was
obsessed with it. Like I saidearlier in this interview, I get a
little obsessive, and I got veryobsessive about that, and I just got
tenacious with them, and I Iwouldn't take no for an answer, and
I said, I'm I have tomake this movie. I must, I
(14:28):
must, I must, I mustwhat you know? And then they so
it was really I needed no condencing, and I'm grateful that my sort of
my passion didn't read as insanity,and that they all said yes. And
it has been my obsession, formy very happy obsession, for the last
(14:50):
to two years. Now this isyour directorial debut. What were those first
few days of filming like as thedirector? What was the most daunting for
you? Well? Nausea every morning, And you know, I think the
best bit of encouragement I got wasfrom my seventy eight year old director of
(15:11):
photography, Steven Goldblatt, who usedwho was for a time he was Mike
Nichols DOP and he was also FrancisCoppela's GOP. And he said to me,
after the first hour of the firstday, you will no longer be
an inexperienced filmmaker. You will simplybe an unpracticed filmmaker and that will take
(15:33):
care of itself over time. AndI remember those words almost verbatim because they
really calmed me. And it reallywas. I was surrounded by incredibly experienced
people who taught me how to makea film through, especially through the pre
(15:54):
production process. And the most dauntingthing, because I had never we had
a COVID shutdown about three weeks intoproduction, and we were shut down for
about a week and a half andI went into the edit because I had
nothing else to do, and Ifigured I'd go ahead and get started cutting
(16:14):
the movie. And that was themost helpful thing for me because I came
back to the set once we wentback into production, and I had a
week's worth of knowing how to edita film, and it changed the way
I made the movie. And ifif I wish I had known anything,
I wish I had sat in onan edit, on someone else's edit,
(16:38):
because the most daunting thing was simplytrusting that I had what I needed and
trying not to overshoot and avoiding,you know, undershooting. So I think
that that for me was simply someoneelse knew where to put the lights,
someone else knew where to put thecamera I needed. I knew how to
talk to actors from my experience intheater. I think for me it was
(17:03):
how do you have the movie inyour head before you've even made the movie?
And that was that was the practiceI needed to gain. The film
is so fun, it's sexy,it's poignant, it's not too heavy.
Obviously, it has some deeper momentsto it, but it's just a fun,
romantic story. Was that a consciouseffort to not make it too heavy?
So to speak? Yeah, Imean it ain't Oppenheimer, you know
(17:30):
which I'm excited to see. Uh, it's look the the the end of
the day. On a story likethis, and especially this this story,
you need to care. And sometimesin order to make an audience care,
you need to put your heroes indanger. But you want the audience to
(17:53):
fall in love. And there isnothing more deliriously fun than falling in love.
And just as Alex and Henry fallin love with each other, the
audience has to fall in love withthem. And that is such a fun
thing to be able to create.That's a fun story to tell. So
it was. It was never myintention. I never thought that we were
(18:15):
making something completely lightweight and disposable.I definitely didn't want the movie to feel
disposable. I didn't want people tosort of see it and then forget about
it the next day. Because thecharacters stayed with me after I read the
book. I wanted the movie tofeel exactly the same way the book felt.
I wanted those characters to linger inthe audience's mind once the movie was
(18:37):
over. In the days in theweeks after they've seen the film, and
that was the most important thing tome. Matthew, there's a number of
steamy moments in the film, whichI'm very glad for. In fact,
the two star crust lovers, theirfirst few moments are kind of centered around
their physical relationship. With all theattacks on our community because of our alleged
(18:59):
hyper sexual nature, why is itso important to keep this level of sexuality
in the film. Because I speak, I speak as I speak as a
gay man, and only as agay man, only in that I don't
I don't claim to speak for anybodyelse. Our sex is beautiful, are
(19:21):
the way we have sex is beautiful, Our intimacy is beautiful. Sex between
two humans, consensual sex between twohumans is a beautiful thing, and it's
one of the great things about beingalive. And I knew that especially the
book is very steamy, and thebook is very very sexual, and and
(19:42):
I really love that about the book. And I knew that I'd be committing
heresy if I didn't, if Ididn't bring that into the film. And
what was always important to me is, you know, a sex scene in
a movie is like a song anda music goal. It really does need
to either really sort of charm youor or it really needs to teach you
(20:07):
something about the characters and move theplot along, you know. And we
were always very conscious when we weremaking the film that, you know,
because the other thing, too,is that you're asking two performers to do
something that is really vulnerable making,and you don't ever want to ask too
much of them, and you don'tever want to make anybody feel uncomfortable or
(20:27):
worse, sort of forced into doingsomething. And so we were really really
conscientious about how we approached each andevery one of these scenes. I spent
a lot of time with my intimacycoordinator mapping them out, and what we
really paid particular attention to is whatstory are we telling with each and every
one of these intimacy scenes, Sothat we could turn around and speak to
(20:51):
Taylor and Nick and explain to themexactly why we were asking them to do
what we were asking them to do. You have to be able to answer
that question for your actors when you'reasking them to do a scene of intimacy,
why is this important? And Ialso told them, I said,
if we discover that it isn't important, it isn't necessary. We won't do
it, we won't ask you todo it. And so I think that
(21:15):
that for me. But beyond justsort of the mechanics of the filmmaking,
to tell the story of Alex andHenry and not include the fact that they
are very passionately physically attracted to oneanother is to not tell the full story
abouts and Henry. I have liketwo more pages of questions. I could
(21:38):
talk to you for hours and hours. We so speak the same language.
I just have one more question.What is a career moment that sticks out
for you, not because of thesuccess of the project, but because of
your own personal growth. Two thingsstick out. One the very first preview
of The Inheritance ever in London,when this piece of theater that I had
(22:02):
been working on for years and yearsand years, that was the most personal
thing I'd ever I'd ever written,was seen for the first time by an
audience and was instantly received with warmthand joy and compassion and excitement that told
me that I had not wasted theprevious five years of my life. And
(22:23):
the very first time I ever sawJay Harrison Gee Jay Harrison g in their
costume as Daphne in Something Like Ithot fully becoming Daphne before my eyes,
after after years of workshopping this showwith them and knowing how important the character
(22:48):
of Daphne was to both of us, and there suddenly I just burst into
tears. Both in both stories,I burst into tears, but with Jay,
just the joy of seeing that characterbrilliantly and vibrantly come to life on
stage and Greg Barnes Tony winning costumesin Jay's Tony winning performance was just one
(23:10):
of the great moments of my career. Matthew Upr is gonna kill me for
keeping you a minute over, butthank you, thank you, thank you
so much. That has been anotherepisode of Metrosource Minis. You can follow
Matthew on Instagram at Matthew Michael Lopezand check out my ind uth chat with
him and the current issue of Metrosourceon newstands or at metrosource dot com.
Red White and Royal Blue streams Augusteleventh on Amazon Prime. I've been your
(23:33):
host, Alexander Rodriguez. You canfollow me on Instagram at Alexander is on
air Until next time, stay trueand do you boot? That has been
another Metrosource Mini Like Shared Subscribe onyour favorite podcast player, and check out
the latest issue of Metrosource magazine onnewstands or online at metrosource dot com.
(23:56):
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram atmetrosource, and on Twitter at metrosource.
Men. Until next time, apast h
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