screening
Cross Your Heart
Alternative Press - Rob Ortenzi on 1/17/07 @ 5:22 PM - altpress.com
Story: JR Griffin
Photos: Anthony Saint James
In Running With Scissors, you're the centerpiece of the story and even narrate it. Is it tougher to carry a movie like that?
I narrated a film once before when I was nine: M. Night Shyamalan's first film, the one he did before The Sixth Sense that nobody saw called Wide Awake. I like [narration]. It gives you a sense of ownership or responsibility of the film. You're able to wrap it all up. Once you're done, you get to go back and put these touches on it and bring it all together.
Does it feel like you have to, in a sense, get it right since you're telling the story of someone who is still alive?
That was definitely daunting at first. I wasn't sure how Augusten was going to react to me. But from the first time I met him, he was completely supportive and there wasn't anything like, "You better do me justice," or anything like that. He really trusted [director] Ryan [Murphy], and he was confident of what Ryan chose.
So if somebody played you in a movie, what would you want them to get right?
I would say, try to make me cooler than I am. And more muscular.
How is that relationship between Augusten and Neil Bookman handled in the movie?
It's definitely in there. The sex stuff isn't as graphic as it is in the book. It's very tastefully done. But there is definitely that relationship. It's when Augusten first feels a sense of worth and love from someone. He's almost validated for the first time by Neil [Bookman]. Then Augusten abuses that power. It was more graphic at one point, but it got toned down. During test screenings they cut some of that out, because it was difficulty to watch. My character is 15 at the time and Neil is 34. So I think some people were having trouble with it.
Well, you don't want this movie to become The Pedophile Movie.
Right. And we're not vilifying Neil Bookman at all. Some people will be like, "Why isn't he the evil one? What he's doing it wrong." I think that's what's amazing about the story-nobody gets vilified. Everybody is just a character, existing, and you feel sympathy for everyone and you feel anger toward everyone. All of the characters are just human.
You've been working since a young age. Are you over it yet?
I really enjoy working. I've always been comfortable on movie sets. When I'm working, I'm happy. So, 15- to 16-hour days don't faze me because I'm usually working on something that I'm really into. It's the waiting around part that's worse, looking for the next movie.
When you're not working, you're attending Trinity College. What are you studying?
I haven't had to declare a major yet, so I'm just taking everything from "Intro to Economics" to "Japan into the Modern World" to "Directing for Theater." I definitely want to take an intro to sociology and psychology course before I select a major and broaden my horizons. I'm just kind of seeing what's out there.
Your next movie, Flags Of Our Fathers, is already gearing up to be a big holiday release. Billboards were already up during the summer.
It's pretty intense. It's about the Joe Rosenthal photo of the Marines putting the flag up on Iwo Jima. It's the story of how that came to be put up, what the government did with that photo, and how it was exploitive to a certain extent. It's all really relevant for what's going on now in Iraq. I play one of the flag raisers, Franklin Sousley. He's a guy from Kentucky, who's not all that bright and pretty gullible. It was a really great transition for me from playing this really bright, gay icon author to playing this kind of stupid solider from Kentucky. I was really lucky to do those back to back.
So in the picture, which flag raiser are you?
I'm the one in the middle, closest to the camera.
Did you practice that pose in the mirror?
There's footage of them doing it. I watched it hundreds of times. And the day we did it, we practiced a few times and then we put it right up. It's weird, the way they put it up was the most logical way to put up a flag. So when we were doing it, we were talking and talking and talking, and then when we did it. It wasn't that difficult at all.
That's two non-fiction characters in a row. For the next one you definitely need to do something totally made up.
Yeah, give me some science fiction or something. ALT
[SIDEBAR]
JOSEPH CROSS
AGE: 20
HEADQUARTERS: New York, NY
RÉSUMÉ: Jack Frost, as Charlie Frost, a lil' tyke trying to come to terms with his dad being a snowman-or something; Strangers With Candy, as Derrick Blank, Jerri's jock step-bro; this month's Running With Scissors, as Augusten Burroughs, the story's author and protagonist, who moves in with his shrink's dysfunctional family and somehow lives to tell about it; the upcoming Flags Of Our Fathers, as Franklin Sousley, one of the Marines who planted the legendary flag on Iwo Jima during WWII.
COCK ROCK: "When I was younger, in high school, I was in a band called Roostir. It was a great, fun thing to do. I played rhythm guitar. We even had to change the 'e' to an 'i' because somebody else had the name Rooster for a band."
GETTING SCHOOLED: "When I went to college, I really got into the Talking Heads. Now I'm getting into some hip hop like Atmosphere and Kanye West, actually. I've always loved the Beatles. Other punk bands I've gotten into are Bouncing Souls, Alkaline Trio. I'm open to a lot of things." ALT
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