Weekend Romance

Director Andrew Haigh talks about putting a subtle gay love story on film

By Neil Cohen

Chris New (left) and Tom Cullen star in Weekend.

A movie that explores the low-key romance of two guys who hook up and then turn it into something more is generating buzz for British director Andrew Haigh.

"I've been completely surprised," said Haigh about the reaction to his film Weekend, which opens locally on Oct. 21.

"You make something and you have no idea if anyone is going to see it, apart from my mum," Haigh said during a telephone interview. "The fact that it's got a good reception and people are talking about it and the press seems interested is amazing. It's incredible."

Weekend tells the subtle love story of Russell (Tom Cullen), a fairly closeted man, and Glen (Chris New), an out-and-proud provocateur. They meet in a bar, spend the night together and then decide to spend the better part of the weekend together before Glen takes off for school in Portland, Ore.

Cullen is sweet yet masculine, while New has more of a gym-toned appeal. Neither of their characters is who they seem to the other at first, and the beauty of Weekend is the often wordless ways Haigh shows the guys dropping their guards and falling in love.

Haigh said he strived to be honest in his portrayal of the men, flaws and all. At first, Glen, who goads Russell into telling about himself into a recorder, is rather condescending about the seemingly closeted man he assumes Russell is.

Framed by the sadness that Glen is leaving soon, it takes a while for the men to realize how much they mean to each other.

Director Andrew Haigh on the set during the filming of Weekend.

Haigh said it was important to make the story feel authentic. "The characters that interest me are the ones who are flawed and have those sorts of struggles," he said.

"When I was writing the story, I didn't want to ever shy away from the fact that they were gay," Haigh said. But he feels that straight audiences are embracing the film because of the honest way he depicts the characters.

"There's more to these boys' lives than just their sexuality," Haigh said. "I'm more than just a gay person. There are lots of things in my life that define who I am, and that's what I tried to get across."

Haigh said he decided to shoot the film in sequence to capture the relationship realistically. The actors "were so committed to that way we were going to make the film, and I always tried to keep it like it was a relationship between the three of us," he said. "They sort of fell in love with their own characters, which I think is so important."

Like a lot of people, Haigh said the characters are both just trying to find their place. "I don't think Russell fits in to the gay world or the straight world, and I think that Glen's kind of the same.

"Russell's problem isn't that he's facing discrimination every day. It's that he's fearful of a world that he thinks still doesn't accept him," Haigh said. "That's what's interesting to me — that you carry around homophobia with you, even if it's perceived rather than real. I think that's quite a pressure on a gay person's shoulders."

Haigh said the film's frank sex scenes were some of the easiest footage that was shot. "I knew that I wanted it to feel real, as if you're there watching these two guys — almost like you're spying on them. But I knew that I didn't want it to be really explicit," he said. "We need to feel that these two people are into each other. It's bizarre, it was actually some of the easiest stuff we shot."

Haigh worked from 2000 to 2008 as an assistant editor on films like Gladiator, Black Hawk Down and Mona Lisa Smile for directors like Ridley Scott and Mike Newell.

Haigh's first film was the documentary-style Greek Pete, about the year in the life of a handsome London escort. He said the subject fascinated him because it was a world he didn't know existed.

"What was interesting was that working in that documentary format sort of inspired a lot of things that are in Weekend," Haugh said. "It taught me that you've got to have faith in the ability just to watch and listen to people." -E

VITAL STATISTICS
Weekend
Opening Oct. 21
Scottsdale UltraLuxe Cinema
9090 E. Indian Bend Road, Scottsdale