There is at least one scene in “In & Out” that is sure to be remembered:
Joan Cusack, whose groom (Kevin Kline) confesses at the altar that he’s gay and then is rejected at a bar by a famous TV interviewer (Tom Selleck) for the same reason, comes barrelling out of the tavern and shrieks, as only she can:
“Is everybody gay? Is this the Twilight Zone?”
“I think I’ve developed a strange sympathy for heterosexual audience members,” says Paul Rudnick, the film’s scenarist. “With all the attention dealt to `Ellen’ and her coming out, there’s such an air of gay chic out there. I think I’d almost feel, if I were straight, `Am I the very last one?’ “
There’s another, related agenda: Even though his own movie relies on it, “I’m also acknowledging a gay trendiness right now and the way the world can be obsessed with any particular group for a while and then toss them aside.”
Not that he minds the obsessed part: “I think it’s both healthy and optimistic that gay issues are at the level of gossip. Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche are a couple right now like Bruce Willis and Demi Moore, and that’s positive.”
Perhaps the time has arrived for Rudnick’s specialty: laughter. Author of the plays “Jeffrey” and “I Hate Hamlet” and movies including “Addams Family Values,” the New Jersey-born writer (whose scathing film reviews appear in Premiere magazine under the byline Libby Gelman-Waxner), is not likely to pen gay Sturm und Drang.
“The last thing we wanted was to make an award-winning documentary about poor, sad gay folk. I wanted to write a screwball comedy and see if you could use outing the way the 1930s screwballs used marriage and divorce.”
Anyone who has seen previews of the picture, which opens Friday, knows Rudnick’s approach: A mild-mannered, well-behaved schoolteacher in Indiana is blissfully watching the Oscars to see if a former student (Matt Dillon), now a matinee idol, will win. He does, and in his thank-you speech, he gracefully acknowledges the teacher and reveals that the teacher is gay. That’s news to the teacher, his parents, the town — and his fiancee. He spends the rest of the movie struggling with denial.
The idea, of course, came from Tom Hanks’ moving thank-you speech upon winning the Oscar for “Philadelphia.” Producer Scott Rudin, who worked with Rudnick on “Addams Family Values” (and “The First Wives Club,” on which Rudnick worked as an uncredited script doctor) saw the germ of a comedy.
“In and Out,” however, is entirely fictional. “We knew from the beginning we didn’t want to tell the real story of Hanks’ teacher,” Rudnick notes. “He is openly gay and retired to boot. We knew we needed a complete fantasy character, but it wasn’t until I hit on having the character outed during his wedding week that I signed on. There, I knew, there was fun to be had.”
On the other hand, Hanks’ well-publicized thank-you may lend the comedy a credibility it would otherwise lack. “Imagine if we made this thing up without any precedent,” Rudnick says. “We’d be laughed at in the bad way. This is a movie that could only happen because he really said what he said, and it gives our premise, which is pretty nuts, believability.”
Rudnick, who explored AIDS and dating with comedy in “Jeffrey,” sought to expand beyond gay themes in “In & Out.” Cusack’s “Twilight Zone” query is a theme throughout the movie: Even before a sensitive, beloved teacher is outed on the Oscar telecast, things are strange in his little town. Thanks to the popular teacher’s inevitable passion for Barbra Streisand, his beer-swilling pals have learned to love the diva’s albums and movies too. His bachelor-party presents aren’t porno but “Funny Lady,” for instance.
There’s also a sense that our tell-all, confession-oriented society has reached a limit. “Since the ’60s, if not from the beginning of time, people have been hopelessly confused by sexuality and challenged by the notions of femininity and masculinity. We chose to create a small town where acceptance is possible and people who cheer the Vikings can be perfectly happy to support their friend. Things are lot more open and stranger in the heartland than those of us on either coast realize.”
The movie’s targets aren’t restricted to sexuality, either. The national ritual that has become the Oscars gets a marvelous sendup, with Glenn Close on hand (in a bit actually filmed outside Lincoln Center and in Purchase, N.Y.) nominating the likes of Paul Newman in “Codger,” Clint Eastwood in “Coot” and Michael Douglas in “Primary Urges.”
“Watching the Oscars has replaced the clambake and hayride as an American institution,” says Rudnick. “People don’t even watch political conventions anymore, partly because you can’t criticize the gowns. Well, maybe you could during the Republican convention.”
With the character of Cameron, the hunky star played by a blond-streaked Dillon, Rudnick says he wanted to tweak the whole generation of grunge stars, Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp included.
“You know,” he said, “the guys who make $12 million a movie and can’t seem to afford a second black T-shirt. I read an article once about a hairdresser who specializes in today’s unwashed hairstyle. I love the idea of spending $175 to look as if you had not washed your hair. There’s nothing like seeing someone getting out of a limo wearing torn jeans.”
“In & Out” is sure to take some knocks for its silliness and what some may view as naivete. One twist involves Kline’s losing his job over the whole outing affair, a development that seems unlikely in today’s era of protected rights and instant lawsuits.
Rudnick says uh-uh. “I did do some research and found that teachers have come out all across the country with reactions varying wildly. For some it’s no big deal. Others lose their jobs or find their lives made miserable. There are still places where there aren’t protections, where access to legal representation can be more rare then people imagine. Our movie has a happy ending, but you could justify something more troubling too.”
