00:00I was at like a Pride event and heard a Dolly Parton song playing in the distance.
00:07I was told and I got there and I because I grew up around actual cowboys I could tell that these
00:15were authentic cowboys and cowgirls and they were they welcomed me immediately.
00:21It's really a movie about family and it started with my family. My father was in the Professional
00:34Rodeo Cowboys Association so I'm from Colorado originally and all my earliest memories are at
00:40the rodeo so you know it's just there's so much magnetism at the rodeo and it brings this kind
00:48of mythological side to America out in the open air and I just I fell in love with it but as I grew
00:53older I discovered just kind of how patriarchal and homophobic it is so I stayed away but then I
01:01discovered there's a whole subculture for people like me who love you know nature and animals and
01:07community but are queer and so it's really the film is about someone kind of discovering this world
01:14and that's really my story as well as finding this kind of beacon of hope and chosen family we wanted
01:22to make a love story but also a western for the new world so it really the juxtaposition of this
01:30community with this very kind of classic landscape was really beautiful.
01:35I think the first time we went together to a rodeo I got on a bull I did not ride the bull but I did get
01:42on the bull and that was kind of the first thing that clicked for me and I think we started taking
01:47some steps as to understanding that as much as you know it has this backdrop it's very much connected
01:53to the internal life of my character in the story and how he's connecting with this world that he's
02:01opening himself to.
02:02I spent quite a few years living in San Antonio so I remember going to rodeos when I was younger
02:08but they certainly were not like the ones in our film which is yeah which is kind of the the fun of
02:16I guess rediscovering this world through Luke's whole vision.
02:21We became family on camera and off camera as well you know and I really appreciated that you know
02:30um hanging out with Eve off camera getting to know each other and uh and and falling in love uh uh
02:37uh with uh with her uh off camera and on camera just bringing that love to camp to uh to set
02:43was actually really beautiful.
02:44We would go on dates.
02:47Yeah we went on dates.
02:47We would like go on dates as our characters.
02:50We went to Applebee's.
02:52I think it was a cheesecake.
02:56We really wanted to reinvent this archetype of the classic American cowboy
03:02and show a side to that that's more complex and nuanced you know I think we've grown up with this
03:09idea of you know the the classic cowboy as virile and dominant through violence and um in this story
03:18it's so much more about a cowboy who's brave enough to love and to be vulnerable and to be soft
03:25and tender to try makeup and drag for the first time but to also ride a bull and I think that that's
03:32you know I think it's time for us to see characters that are complex and nuanced and
03:38have layers and I think none of us can really fit into one box and one label and so I hope that people
03:45walk away inspired to to embrace that fluidity within themselves and also hope to you know find
03:52their people and find these safe spaces and it's a scary time so I hope that people walk away with hope.
Comments