If what is real to me is translating, then that is a huge success, and I am so proud.” Contemporary Currencies “It's for people who aren't surrounded by this type of community the way I'm so fortunate to be, in the way I found in my life and my chosen family with Bowen and Joel-and now the rest of the cast in this movie-it's for them. “I saw it in Joel's screenplay so much of what was missing in my life.”Īhn describes directing IRL best friends as a “thrill” because “there's a sense of history, generosity that real friends have with each other when they act together in a movie.” Rogers (who co-hosts the Las Culturistas podcast with Yang) is visibly emotional while discussing the meaning imbued in this endeavor in terms of queer visibility and representation.
I hadn't gone out to a bar or club to go dancing, drinking, and be stupid with them,” he says.
“I hadn't seen my friends in a long time. While the central romance is still a vital part of the Fire Island story, this reframing appealed to director Ahn when he first read Booster’s screenplay a year into the pandemic. I felt it was important to tell a story that celebrates queer friendship and chosen family,” Ahn says.
“I feel very gratified that our movie is a friendship story between Lizzie and Jane. The director of Driveways and Spa Night describes Joe Wright's 2005 Pride and Prejudice as “a comfort watch,” but he relishes this opportunity. Yang was sitting next to Booster by the pool “the moment he put it out into the universe.” It was long before Yang’s Saturday Night Live arrival (not to mention the Emmy nomination), and Yang notes, “It felt like a pie in the sky thing that we would ever co-lead a movie together.” Yang recalls their first trip to Fire Island “when we could barely afford to go, and we were 14 people to a three-bedroom,” and Booster first conceived this modern retelling. People like Bowen in my life have played such a huge part.” “Coming from a very conservative home-and I love my family-but they can't be everything for me. It wasn’t a case of simply swapping the genders or writing a gay Mr. “You find the family that can fill in the gaps” is a line in the movie spoken by Howie and part of Booster’s real-life ethos that inspired the updated Bennets and those affable and prickly figures they encounter on this trip. Comedy legend Margaret Cho plays Erin, who owns the Tuna Walk House and is the de facto mother of the group-and not as meddling as Mrs. Jane, Lizzie, Mary, Lydia, and Kitty are now Howie (Yang), Noah (Booster), Max (Torian Miller), Luke (Rogers), and Keegan (Tomás Matos). “It was a fun puzzle, untangling and remixing what Jane Austen had written about and remaining true to the themes,” says Booster about the writing process. Here, Booster, director Andrew Ahn, and stars Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers discuss transporting the Bennet sisters from Regency England to the 21st century, contemporary parallels in the queer community, and the Clueless adaptation bar.
Set during an annual trip to the Pines, Fire Island captures Austen's novel's wit and social satire while celebrating chosen family, the unique destination, and a spectrum of romantic ideals. “The more I allowed myself to daydream and think about it, the more I was like, ‘Oh, the parallels are quite easy to find.’” I was like, ‘Wouldn't it be funny if I wrote a gay Pride and Prejudice set on Fire Island?’” he adds. “That first trip to Fire Island was the genesis of everything,” says Booster about the spark that eventually became the rom-com now available to stream on Hulu. The writer and star who plays protagonist Noah conceived of Fire Island on his first trip to the LGBTQ+ summer haven nearly a decade ago when he took a tattered paperback copy of Pride and Prejudice as his beach read. “As much as this movie is an homage to Jane Austen, it's an homage to Amy Heckerling,” Booster tells Town & Country over Zoom when Clueless is mentioned.