I came to know openly gay actor David Pevsner when he starred in Scrooge & Marley, the movie I co-wrote and co-directed last year.
Before that, I had seen him in several gay themed indie films and in various television shows and TV movies. As I soon learned in working with him so closely on Scrooge & Marley, Pevsner is a fearless actor who gives his director his all while bringing a level of professionalism to the set that has no doubt been a godsend to many producers and directors, used to dealing with time and budget constraints in the indie world and the excessive demands of finicky actors on the other end of the scale.
Part of Pevsner's natural equanimity has to do, no doubt, with his long and varied show-business career that has encompassed film, television and stage work. He has worked with everyone from Greg Kinnear to Lindsay Lohan; been directed by Rob Marshall and Sam Raimi; and has played doctors ( on Modern Family and in Liz & Dick ), dads, waiters, hustlers, an over-the-top gay choreographer ( in the forthcoming Waiting in the Wings: The Musical ), James Dean's acting teacher ( in the lyrical Joshua Tree 1951: A Portrait of James Dean ), a Roman senator ( in next Spring's 300: Rise of an Empire ) and, of course, Ebenezer Scrooge. Pevsner's versatility extends to the realm of musical theatre and cabaret and his one man autobiographical show, Musical Comedy Whore, successfully premiered last summer in Palm Springs, Calif.
With Old Dogs & New Tricks, Pevsner has also made his first foray into the world of webisodes. The series, a delightful variation on Sex & The City, follows the dating and relationship habits of four middle-aged gay men trying to find and maintain true love ( and perhaps a hot one-night stand or two en route ) in the youth-obsessed world of West Hollywood, Calif. The first two seasons of the show have just been released on DVD by Wolfe Releasing. David, who hails from Chicago's North Shore but has resided in California for many years, took a moment out of his ever-busy schedule to chat about Old Dogs and the return of Scrooge & Marley to the Music Box Theatre ( scheduled for Sunday, Dec. 8, at 2:15 p.m. ).
Windy City Times: I think that the thing that I love so much about Old Dogs is the show's premise—that it focuses on gay men of a, shall we say, "certain age?" [Laughs]
David Pevsner: [Laughs] "Parenthesis, clears throat."
WCT: Because you don't see a lot of that. Was that something that appealed to you? Or was it daunting because it hits too close to home? [Note: Pevsner is 55.] I know you don't have any problems being identified as openly gay but with ageism so prevalent in casting, was there a hesitation?
David Pevsner: [Oh God, no—not at all. For me, I love the fact that it sort of looks at the issues that we have and what's funny is that for all the difficulty we have being older in this community, I'm also finding that as dismissive as younger people can be about older gay men, there's a whole slew of 'em that love us! And there's definitely more on this topic to explore and we're going to be shooting a third season.
WCT: That's great. There are so many of these webisode shows—they're like kudzu—that it's great that Old Dogs has been successful enough to come back for a third round.
David Pevsner: [So many of them are funded by the skin of people's teeth so it's amazing that they get up at all and to see that we'll be back a third time is incredibly admirable.
WCT: Are you okay with the show being shorthand described as a Sex & the City focused on middle-aged gay men?
David Pevsner: [Yes. It's like Sex & the City in that we explore every aspect of the relationships and sexual lives of the characters, our jobs and our friendships. If you're talking shorthand, that works pretty well.
WCT: Old Dogs has attracted some marquee names.
David Pevsner: [Yes—Greg Louganis, Ian Buchanan, Teri Garber, Doug Spearman, Michael Kearns.
WCT: A name that will be familiar to older gay men.
David Pevsner: [Michael was a trailblazer—I love him. He started in gay porn and did stage work, was open about HIV/AIDS. He's a true original and I have so much respect for him.
WCT: Does the sense of camaraderie that is evident in the shows between the characters, continue off camera?
David Pevsner: [Oh, absolutely. We're all very good friends and another thing I like is that the creative team is very respectful of the fact that I've been around for a long time—I'm older than Methuselah [laughs]—but they'll take suggestions and try things. There's a collaborative spirit at work that is really nice.
WCT: I can certainly speak to that, having directed you in Scrooge & Marley [which, again, is returning to the Music Box on Sunday, Dec. 8]. Obviously, that was a life-changing experience for me—being my first time helming a feature—and personally very satisfying for both of us. But I think as we've discussed many times, it's also really cool to have a holiday movie for Our People, something we can return to every year.
David Pevsner: [That's one of the things I love about the movie also. I remember that right after the Q&A during the premiere something came into my head that I'd been trying to formulate in terms of the importance of a movie like Scrooge & Marley. And it also answers the question that my family keeps asking, "Why do you keep doing gay projects?"
It's simply that we have stories to tell. We have just as many stories to tell as straight people do, as any minority does, etc. And it's important that we get them out there; not only to show our stories but to tell the world universally that we are all sort of the same. In telling our stories, we're hopefully telling your story and you'll understand us better. It's a gay family movie but it's not just for gay families—whatever our definition of family is. It's all so universal and the fact that Scrooge & Marley tells the story from a gay point of view, I thought, was so wise, so necessary and so timely.
WCT: I would agree! [Laughs hard] So, let's see now, if folks join us on [Dec. 8] or buy a DVD this holiday season or watch it on demand at the website get that message. I certainly hope so.
David Pevsner: [That is my hope as well. I hope that people will discover Scrooge & Marley over the years each holiday season and embrace it, because I think the movie really deserves it. I'm glad that as the years go by there will be more and more fans that will treasure it. If I have a regret it's that I wanted more people to see it when it first came out; I wanted the whole world to see it; I wanted everybody to hear that beautiful song Jason Gould sings; I wanted everyone to hear all the beautiful songs that are in the movie. There are so many reasons for us to enjoy this movie and I hate that there are people who don't know it. I'm thrilled that it's going to have a life but today I'm feeling a little frustrated that it doesn't have that global audience that I think it deserves.
Visit www.davidpevsner.com and www.scroogeandmarleymovie.com . Also, Old Dogs & New Tricks: Complete Seasons 1 & 2 is out on DVD, courtesy of Wolfe Video.
