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Gun Hill Road

Coverage by Nobuhiro Hosoki

Story : After a three-year stint in prison, an ex-con returns home and tries to put his family back together, but his son's sexual transformation puts their fragile bonds to the test.

Opens , August 5, 2011

 

Interview with Actor Esai Morales, and Director Rashaad Ernesto Green

 

(Q) : So this is your first feature film?
 
(Rashaad Ernesto Green): It's my first feature, yes.
 
(Q) : How was the experience of making that and is it something you're looking forward to doing again?
 
(Rashaad Ernesto Green): I definitely hope to do it again. I learned a lot of great lessons. It was also my thesis project for NYU Graduate Film School. And yeah, it was something I had hoped for for a couple of years. I had made a number of short films while I was in school, and for the last project I wanted to go ahead and make a big one. The journey has just been really rewarding at every stage of the process. We learned a lot of lessons and it has been wonderful.
 
(Q) : Could you talk about the process of casting Harmony? Because she was very phenomenal in this film.
 
(Rashaad Ernesto Green) : Absolutely. I spent the better part of two months scouring the streets of New York for the genuine article. I was in 18 and over nightclubs until three o'clock in the morning, I was in LGBT organizations during the day, I was in the bars and down at the piers and on Christopher Street, in dance workshops, etcetera. And then I found Harmony at a Queens pride parade. We were passing out flyers at this parade and going up to every young person that we saw asking them if they knew someone that fit the description of the character. We told them who was in the film.

I saw Harmony sitting at an AIDS prevention booth; she was working through an organization that had a booth there at the parade. At the time Harmony wasn't even named Harmony. I went up to what I thought was a young Latino boy, told her about the project and who was in it, and she stood up, she took off her sunglasses, and said that she'd like to audition for the film. I looked at her face and it was the most angelic, beautiful, androgynous face that I had ever seen, and I was astounded.

She was beautiful. She told me that she was at the beginning of her transition, which was perfect, that she was Puerto Rican and Dominican, which made up Esai Morales and Judy Reyes, who were already attached, and that she had always dreamed of acting. She also spent many years in the Bronx growing up. She came in to audition, she was on time, and I saw enough there. She was able to be natural to the extent that I knew that it was a good foundation for me to build upon emotionally.

I told her to come back for the call back and to be dressed as a female this time because she had to portray both Michael and Vanessa in this story, and she did, she was beautiful, and she had enough there. And I told her she had the part but that I was going to put her through an extensive month, month and a half of training in order to get ready for production. And before production started she approached me and she said "Rashaad, I'm changing my name to Harmony, my mother helped me pick out my name, and I'd like to cast and crew to refer to me as she and her and so forth."

And at first it was a little tough, Esai can tell you that it was a little tough to get used to it. It's not so tough now because when you look at Harmony she's just a beautiful girl, but when she was showing up to set at first she was still dressing as a boy and wanted to be referred to. So it was a little tough at first, but by the time that production period ended – it was only 22 days – she was showing up to set dressed as a girl every day. So the transition that you see happening on the screen was actually happening in her life at the same time.
 
(Esai Morales) : Who gets that? Puerto Rican, Dominican, Bronx, transgender in that process. This is an accidental miracle; it almost feels like, but not as accidental because he wrote it. And if you write it they will come. Hopefully they'll come to the movie theaters and see what the fuss is all about.

(Q) : You executive produced on this film. How did you discover Rashaad in the first place?
 
(Esai Morales) : The Foundation discovered Rashaad, Rashaad discovered this story, presented it to me, I discovered a great script and a wonderful working relationship with a man who I keep telling him is growing. I can't wait to see his future work because if this is how he's starting it bodes well, it bodes really well. So I try to be his big brother sometimes. "Don't let it get to you! Always strive. No matter how much people tell you you're great, always strive to keep learning and growing, and never be satisfied.
 
(Q) : How do you think the Latin audience will respond to this film?
 
(Rashaad Ernesto Green) : I feel like the Latin audience will embrace it. They have so far. I know you might be referring to the generation of the old guard, and we definitely have our traditional values and our religious background, but this about a family. This is about a family who's struggling with an issue that they don't have all the answers to. And I feel like many people can identify with it, and they might not be going through the same exact thing, but many people are. But anybody who sees the film, if they've ever had differences with their child, or if their child has ever had differences with their parents they'll be able to identify in some way with the family in this film.
 
(Esai Morales) : And it's not just one issue. We've got infidelity, we've got joblessness. We have a lot of issues that the characters are dealing with, but the central core is sexual identity or gender identity, which is different than sexual orientation, which some people feel as more of a choice, as something you can help or not help. Gender identity is like a three year old child looking in the mirror, a little boy going "I see a girl," at three or four. And that's happened.

So I think what Rashaad's film does is it really brings to our community and therefore the rest of the community, but specifically the Latino community, the room to respect people for who they are regardless of whether you fall into the neat male or female box. This is who you are, I will embrace you. That's why Judy Reyes' character is so important in this, because she is similar to the real life person, or even Harmony's mom, who said "I'll help you choose your name." How beautiful is that?
 
(Q) : It's kind of rare that a parent would be so accepting like that.
 
(Esai Morales) : But you'd be surprised. I was just talking to somebody and they were telling me how when their friend came out the mother, who had always been so supportive couldn't deal but the father could, and meanwhile they thought it would be the opposite. It's so weird. Because Latinos, traditionally male dominated, not so fast. Women are very machista tambien in certain Latino cultures. They can be more so. A single mom's got to have big balls to do what they do to successfully raise their kids. There's a lot of machismo even in the female community.

Because I know women, Latina women, "I birthed males. I birthed stallions." I don't know if that's the same in the Asian community or whatever, but in certain countries they kill the little girls as babies. So there's a premium on "I give birth to stallions." And in this case Judy's wonderful work lets you know that you can love your child.

The brilliance of Rashaad's script is my character doesn't come around going "Hey, let's go to the clubs now, girl!" No, he has to do something right before he goes away and he's got to make his family whole again, even if he's not there. But he knows that if he's there and Harmony's not the family's not going to be right and he's going to get his ass kicked by his wife.
 
(Q) : We just interviewed Harmony and she told us that she did have a problem dealing with the relationship with the father. Why do you think the father in the Spanish community has a hard time dealing with the gay issue?
 
(Rashaad Ernesto Green): In this story specifically, and lots of fathers, their child, especially if it's an only child, they see as representing themselves in some way. It's not just the child's choice; their choices affect how the father views himself. A lot of times in the film Esai's character says "What does this say about me?"

He's looking at himself represented through his child. So his child out in the world living an alternative lifestyle, he's afraid of what people might actually think about not only his child but himself. And that is at the core, that's a fear that vibrates at the core of his belief system. He is very, very fearful of how people might view him.
 
(Esai Morales) : I say also, taking it deeper, the level of education of Enrique is not really sophisticated. He's a smart cat in his environment but when it comes to being a parent I go what if it looks like I abused my child maybe? Because people think people get turned, and when you come from prison it's black and white. You're either the man or the woman in that relationship, even if everyone's a man. And if you notice something about the movie there's implication that he may have been victimized himself or attacked. Literally, my character, his manhood is under attack in almost every corner of this movie.

First scene I have to stand up for my manhood, second scene I've got to be a man, get a job, the parole officer says "If you want to go back into the world you can't do this." So as a man he can't do this, he can't do that. Everybody's attacking his manhood, his independence. Then he comes home, his wife is a little iffy, we find out why later, and his son is just not who he remembers. And it's just like are you kidding me? He's the Latin Job. It's like what else could go wrong? And then his boy's got to find out about his woman. What I loved is his reaction wasn't the typical "I'm going to beat you on the street and show you who's the man." He was taking some responsibility. "I understand.

I was up north; it ain't natural. But I’m back now." So he's trying desperately to save himself, his own manhood. But another thing about Latinos; the word macho comes from Spanish. Male. The men are men; the women are passive, submissive, traditionally. When you have a gay child that throws all the rules. Not even gay, transgender throws everything out the window and the implication is we've done something wrong. What is that going to say about me? I can't raise a man? That came from me? Maybe that's in my genes, is what it's implying, and we can't have that.

I practically killed a man over stuff like that. Nah, let's not. This stops now. That's why he cuts his hair. To me it was like Samson and Delilah. His power, his femininity; I was castrating my child. And then later on I feel like I raped my child through a certain supposedly normal. I don't know how much we want to give away in the media, but the point is in trying to help your own family you could hurt them.
 
(Rashaad Ernesto Green): The thing that's really interesting about Enrique's character is that he always feels like he is actually doing the right thing by his child, that this is how he has been taught to love. Because he inherently feels like the child is doing something against her own nature he is trying to right that child and right his family by the actions he takes towards that child.
 
(Esai Morales) : By the way, I just don't imagine teaching people being at the top of the totem pole in prison. So he's trying to prevent his child from becoming a victim of society.
 
(Q) : I'm a big fan of "Jericho." If there was ever anything in the works as far as some kind of follow up?
 
(Esai Morales) : I've heard about a movie. I would love to because that character I really liked him because it wasn't about being Latino or anything. He's named Major Beck, like Benjamin Bratt has that name; you know a guy like me could be named Beck. And more importantly the character, he was a real American and he wanted to do the right thing. Again, I love complex characters and he was a good guy that was in a position of possibly being a bad guy and actually was quite the bad guy to the lead character for a while, but again, all in the name of progress. I love that, I love that show.
 
(Q) : But there wouldn't be anything?
 
(Esai Morales) : You know what I think? I think that show hit too close to home talking about a shadowy vice president or person in the government, about nuclear weapons being blamed on Korea and Iran. It's false flags and we live in a false flags society. A lot of what we take for granted, in my personal opinion, are operations, psychological operations, whether it's this program or that program, this disease or that thing, I think that America would be surprised to find out what is and what is not real.
 

End.