Netflix's take on the groundbreaking LGBTQ+ Tony-Award winning play The Boys in the Band premiered last week, and PRIDE spoke with the cast about lessons viewers can take from the film.
The film centers around a birthday dinner that delves into madness when the men, led by Jim Parsons' character Michael, begin taking out their insecurities on each other during a particularly wicked party game. The film achingly captures the strength and self-loathing it took to live a gay life in the 1960s.
Zachary Quinto believes "there's something universal about what these men are striving for." All of the characters struggle with self-loathing to some degree and Quinto points out that "finding love and realizing that meaningful love can never come from outside yourself." Instead, "it has to come from within."
Robin De Jesus, who plays the loveably flamboyant Emory, hopes viewers "recognize this as our history. I hope they recognize the importance of that history, and I hope they recognize that we can't go back to that history, and that is currently what we're being threatened with" by the current administration.
Director Joe Mantello hopes it can help viewers "understand and remember the cost of oppression and of not having a sense of self-worth, caving to oppression, and what it can do to us as human beings, what we're capable of doing when we surrender to that," because ultimately if we don't stand tall, "the cost is enormous."
The Boys in the Band is streaming on Netflix now!
