AE: Right, because it gets the viewer’s heart racing watching the love scene, and also does the same with the shots of the abduction.

CA: It was really important to me for the love in the movie to be beautiful. I waited this long to play a gay character. We’ve waited this long, as a gay audience, to have a television station of our own, mysteries of our own and so on. Along with everything else that we pass along, it’s important that the love that we get to make is beautiful, too. I didn’t want to avoid that in any way. And I think we achieved what we wanted to do and I hope that as the series continues there is more opportunity to express that.

AE: How many of the Donald Strachey mysteries are there plans for you to portray in other film adaptations?

CA: All of them. We have a contract to do six movies and Third Man is the first. There is conversation about shooting another one this fall and beyond that I don’t know, we’ll see how things go. They’ve contracted me, over the course of the next two and a half years, to do all six movies.

AE: I haven’t read the books, but the movie has a degree of humor in it. How essential a component do you think that is in this type of film?

CA: It’s totally essential. I think it is something that is more prevalent in the movie than in the book. I think it’s because Ron, the director, has such a brilliant sense of humor, and he likes all the films in exactly the same way (I do). We were both like, “Nick and Nora! We’re going to make the gay Nick and Nora.” We cranked up the drama in the films, as well as the humor. The first pass on the script was nowhere near as dramatic. It’s a much scarier film when it’s scary, and much funnier when it’s funny.

I was very impressed with the work that Ron did on the script. When I first received it, I knew the relationship was its strength and the mystery its weakness, and we had some work to do. His next pass after that really achieved most of what I wanted.

AE: Considering that the novel was written in the eighties, the movie touches on some topical subject matter, including AIDS funding and pharmaceutical companies getting rich from the virus, “religious fanatics who want to run the country” as Rutka says, and especially sexual abuse of children at the hands of priests.

CA: Exactly. The book was written at a different time. It was written at the height of the AIDS epidemic. When outing itself was a very different thing. It was still practiced and had a much more profound impact. The book also handles their relationship and sexuality very differently. It was important for us to create a solid, monogamous relationship. There are some distinct differences and things that we had to leave behind.

We had so much story and mystery to tell in a two hour film, and still not quite enough time to delve into the relationship. I would have liked at least another half hour devoted to just that because there were things that I wanted to talk about that we didn’t get around to. You can’t do everything in one movie, but we’ve got five more to do and hopefully we can do a little more relationship stuff in the next one, as well as the mystery, just because that’s what I love the most.

AE: The movie also has some interesting casting. What was it like working opposite Sean Young, who plays John’s sister Ann?

CA: She’s a blast. She’s hilarious. She came to Outfest with us. She’s an absolute hoot (laughs). She came on the set on the last day and was a little bit aloof at first. She clearly had been flown in very quickly and didn’t quite know what we were all doing there. When we got into it, we had a great time together. I would do anything with Sean. She really likes the movie.

AE: You also have a scene with porn star Matthew Rush. What was it like working with him?

CA: He was not at all what I expected. I hate to admit that I came to it with preconceived notions about what he was supposed to be like, but I did. He was so shy. I guess I expected someone more gregarious with a bit of a “look at me” attitude. He was not at all like that. He was really excited to be there and really sweet. Really shy! So humble and he kept say how excited he was to be there and working with me. I think his scene is fantastic.

Ron and I both want to bring him back in subsequent films to be that Huggy Bear kind of character who we always go to to get some piece of information and he’s always in some other insane situation; that he’s building his empire or whatever (laughs). We’ll see if we work that out. But, what a great guy.

AE: Finally, aside from Donald Strachey films, are there any other upcoming film projects to which you are looking forward?

CA: I’ve got a much bigger-budget picture coming out in theaters in January called End of The Spear. I play a very different character, two characters, actually--an evangelical Christian missionary in 1956 and his son who comes back a generation later to live with the tribe that they make contact with. It’s a really fascinating, beautiful true story.

Watch the trailer for Third Man Out heretv.com

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