This week we focus on an actress I have liked since she was very young- Heather Matarazzo. In 1996, when she was 11, she was in the movie Welcome to the Dollhouse. If you have not seen this movie, I highly recommend it. It's about a young girl who is absolutely tormented by her classmates. Matarazzo is incredible in it. In fact, she won an Independent Spirit Award for Best Debut Performance. Other movies Matarazzo has been in include- The Princess Diaries (she is extremely good friends with Anne Hathaway), Saved, Hostel II, Scream III, and 54. She has also been on TV in the lesbian shows The L Word and Exes and Oh's.
Heather Matarazzo came very casually out as a lesbian in 2004 (she was 22) in an interview with the New York Daily News. She said, "I met the person I'm so madly crazy in love with. She's not famous yet. She will be. She wants to do musical theater and stage, which is not as demoralizing as the movie business is." The girlfriend she was referring to is actress Caroline Murphy, who Matarazzo is still with. In 2005, Matarazzo was the keynote speaker for GLSEN of Boston's annual conference.
Heather Matarazzo had this to say about coming out-
"It was one of the most freeing experiences of my life, in that it gave me a sense of, wow, now I can fully be a part of the gay and lesbian community, and I don't have to be on the outskirts."
She also said this-
"Oh my God, I can breathe! Honestly, there was a time after I came out that I really did not think I would be working again."
Heather and Caroline at the Becoming Jane premiere last year.
Here they are again, in a pic that came out this week. Posted just because I think they are so cute!
"We were sitting in my pink room with pink carpeting. It was summer and we were sitting Indian-style across from each other and I was so incredibly nervous. And I thought, `Yeah, I am definitely gay.'" - On her first kiss with a girl.
The Movie Club thread has been closed, but please feel free to keep the discussion about The Wedding Banquet going. It's been great! And I do think we can mark my question about the last scene as "solved."
ReplyDeleteThey really are a cute couple. I love the way she brings her girlfriend to premieres; they really are completely open about their relationship.
ReplyDeleteUnlike Jodie Foster, who seems to have made a mad dash back into the closet with that stupid Parade interview that talks about her not having time for "love" and one again makes her look like a single mom. In one of his recent columns Michael Musto talked about how he asked a friend who interviewed Jodie after that why he didn't ask her about her mentioning Cindy, the about face, etc., and the friend, not surprisingly, went on about his fear of never being invited by the studios to movies, never getting another interview, blah blah blah. It really galls me how these so-called journalists do this.
Welcome to the Dollhouse is a very good, but disturbing movie. It really does capture how awful it is to be tormented by other kids.
stupid question but which one is heather, the onw with dark hair?
ReplyDeleteYes, she's the one with dark hair.
ReplyDeleteDestiny that is not good news about Jodie. I was thrilled when she thanked her partner in the speech she made a while back. At this point in her career I wonder why the sudden change in heart?
ReplyDeleteHeather and Caroline are a very cute couple.
Sorry I didnt get to watch the movie yesterday. It was an NFL draft, Sixers, Phillies kind of day.
What a beautiful follow-up to yesterday's discussion.
ReplyDeleteI've seen Heather Matarazzo for the first time in Fabulous! The Story of Queer Cinema, which has excerpts from Welcome to the Dollhouse if I remember correctly and also great passages in which Heather talks about her life and coming out. I hadn't notice she was in The Princess Diaries too, one of my niece's favorite movies when she was a bit younger. Now if you don't mind I'll skip Princess and will look for Welcome instead. ;) And how sweet to learn that she's a great pal of Anne Hathaway!
I so agree with Destiny. It's so refreshing and uplifting to see her and her girlfriend attending premieres together as lovers, not "long-time friends" or "great pals" religiously keeping a ten-foot distance between them.
Wonderful also to see somebody coming out at such a young age and - oh my God! what a surprise! - still finding work! :O
Finally, with this post I decided that the guy had to make room for a lady in my new avatar. Hope Heather's pic shows up nicely.
Great music today. It's giving me a very summer feeling even though its rainy here in ATL.
ReplyDeleteI love the fact that Heather is at peace with herself and her lifestyle. It must be such a relief to come to terms with that part of her life at a young age. Some people suffer with that decision for many years.
I saw her on the L Word and I thought she was very good. I'm looking forward to more from her in the future.
I'm not sure about how Jodie feels personally on this but I truly hope she's happy at the end of the day.
Sorry I didnt get to watch the movie yesterday. It was an NFL draft, Sixers, Phillies kind of day.
ReplyDeleteTom, perfectly understandable. ;)
Wow, Heather and Caroline are a very cute, and happy looking, couple. It's disappointing about Jodie if she is doing a bit of a retreat, after her wonderful speech thanking her partner.
It was a great discussion about the Wedding Banqet. It did have its warm, funny and silly moments, but very serious ones. I really felt a sense of the burden of having to hide your true self, how exhausting that must be. Remember the scenes when they were preparing for the arrival of Wai-Tung's parents, and they had to hide and remove everything about themselves from the apartment photos of them together, anything that showed them as a gay couple and replace it with more traditional, even sexless, things -Simon even took out his earring. :( That really made feel feel something. I know it's a naive hope, but I hope that given half a chance, people would be understanding and accepting, more than you might expect. But I suppose you can't bank on that. :(
Ang is a great director. Have a great day, all! :)
Book to out gay rappers?
ReplyDeleteRemember the scenes when they were preparing for the arrival of Wai-Tung's parents, and they had to hide and remove everything about themselves from the apartment photos of them together, anything that showed them as a gay couple and replace it with more traditional, even sexless, things
ReplyDeleteThat's called straightening up the house. The duo Romanovsky and Phillips did a song called "Straightening Up the House" about getting ready for a parental visit. At the end of the song, when they realized how much work it would take and how much of themselves they were erasing, they decide to just clean up the house.
Gay rappers...hmmmm.
Some people seem to think nobody will be outed but strong hints & easy-to-guess BIs provided instead. One of those I read about: Jay-Z & his sham affair/marriage to Beyoncé. But apparently there are many more than the public eye can see. Now, I'm really shocked! ;D
ReplyDeleteThat's called straightening up the house.
First time I read my brain saw "burning down the house". Well, I guess I see similarities in a way. ;)
There are rumors about so many rappers, including the recently married Jay Z.
ReplyDeleteI like your new avatar Frenchy.
I like your new avatar Frenchy.
ReplyDeleteThank you. :)
I'm toying with the idea of alternating between an out guy/out girl with a change each month, but I think even I would end up being confused by that crowd of avatars... still, I can't promise Ian McKellen, Cheyenne Jackson, Ellen, John Barrowman et al won't find their way next to my name in the future. ;)
That's called straightening up the house.
ReplyDeleteI guess I knew that, on a certain level, Wicked. :)
That's some kind of double-edged humor, tho, ain't it? ;(
What a cute couple! Nice to see how happy, open and comfortable they look with one another.
ReplyDeleteI found the full text (not a scan) to the Bret Easton Ellis inteview about The Infomers. Here it is:
AMERICAN INFORMER
BRET EASTON ELLIS MAY BE THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL, UPSETTING, DANGEROUS, AND CRITICALLY DISREGARDED WRITER IN AMERICAN LITERATURE. HE MAY ALSO PROVE TO BE ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT. AS HE WRAPS UP WORK ON THE FILM ADAPTATION OF THE INFORMERS, HE TALKS ABOUT THE MANY LIVES OF HIS BOOKS
At the time of its publication in 1994, Bret Easton ElIis’s The Informers was a polarizing topic in the literary world. As has been the case with all of the 44-year-old writer`s books, the story collection seemed to engender glowing, it somewhat reluctant, admiration or vehement disdain. Most of the time, it was the disdain that won out. The thirteen loosely interwoven stories of desperation, decadence, and general despair in early ‘80s Los Angeles proved too nihilistic - and perhaps too prescient - for many critics. Despite having been deemed "empty writing about empty lives" by Kirkus or, even less kindly, “as cynical, shallow, and stupid as the people it depicts" by The New York Times` Michiko Kakutani, The Informers has, over the years, continued to attract its own cultish fan base. While the book is certainly not as celebrated (or reviled) as Ellis‘s other best-sellers - 1985's Less Than Zero, 1991's American Psycho, and 1998's Glamorama - The Informers is arguably one of his masterpieces. Buried under the spare, almost mercilessly sharp prose lays a very genuine sadness and, even more overlooked, a wicked sense of humor. Ellis is much more than a master stylist. His best work makes a very clear statement about what it means to be human, even if that statement is a generally unsettling one: we are *beep*
It's not surprising then that The Informers is the next book in Ellis's back catalog to be given the Hollywood film treatment. Directed by Gregor Jordan, the film‘s ensemble cast includes Kim Basinger, Winona Ryder, Mickey Rourke, Mary-Kate Olsen and Billy Bob Thornton. While the author has remained largely disconnected from previous film adaptations, he's served as a screenwriter here to help bring one of his most seemingly un-filmable books to the big screen. Maybe it has taken a decade for the ironies of Ellis‘s work to become clear to us. (T. Cole Rachel)
T. COLE RACHEL: One of the first questions that people must always ask you is what you think about the movies that have been made from your books.
BRET EASTON ELLIS: Yes. It’s weird. When I'm writing, I'm not thinking of the books as movies, I‘m thinking of them as purely literary experiences. When I‘m writing a screenplay it's obviously very different. So, I find the idea of adapting my own work for the screen - or seeing it adapted—very disorienting. There are always problems.
TCR: Such as?
BEE: Well, I remember that the people who wanted to do Less Than Zero were caught in a regime change at the studio where the movie was being done. There were a lot of conflicting ideas by everyone involved about exactly how that book should be made into a film. The end result was a very compromised film that was much different than it had originally been envisioned. That movie was also very affected by the times in which it was made. There was no independent cinema then, which is where a movie like that should have gone rather than become a huge, glossy 20th Century Fox production. Also, there are no scenes from the book that are actually in the movie. It’s totally different. Saying that, however, I see that movie late at night sometimes on cable and I actually have a lot of fondness for it. The cinematography is beautiful. It’s really one of the only movies of its kind that captures however tacky the youth culture of L.A. at that time. It’s the only movie l can think of that shows what L.A. was like at that moment, for better or worse.
TCR: Which of the film adaptations do you think most accurately captures your own sensibility?
BEE: The only one that really does it is The Rules of Attraction. It`s also the most divisive movie - not only among fans of my work but probably among fans of movies in general [laughs]. I watched it again recently and I think it`s kind of a marvelous adaptation.
Regardless of what Roger Avary kept from the book and what he threw out - and he kept a lot - it got the essence of the novel. As well-made as American Psycho is, I don't think it really did that. I just think that American Psycho is an un-adaptable book that was turned into a perfectly serviceable movie.
TCR: I know you‘ve done lots of screenwriting, but was The Informers the first time you took a shot at adapting your own work for the screen?
BEE: Not exactly. I did a version of The Rules of Attraction years ago. I did a draft of American Psycho for David Cronenberg when he was attached to direct it. Neither of those versions was ever used. The Informers is the first time that l did an adaptation of one of my books that was actually shot.
TCR: It seems like the least adaptable of all your work. There is a certain loose connectedness to the book, but ifs still essentially a collection of short stories.
BEE: Yeah. there is a kind of cohesiveness to it...you know, the stories get darker as you move through it, certain characters pop up again in later stories, or certain details about characters are revealed. But still, it doesn't easily lend itself to this kind of treatment. It was written when I was going through a very brief phase of writing short stories - which lasted about five years - and I was just interested in the form. I don`t think I've ever been interested in it since. I haven’t actually written a short story since 1986. What happened was that I had gotten stuck on Glamorama and I owed a book to Knopf. It became apparent that Glamorama was going to take a long time to finish, so my editor suggested that we do a book of stories. I looked at all the stories I'd written and I liked the L.A. stories the most. I arranged them in a way that they seemed to make the most sense - like the way a musician might arrange tracks on an album - and then it just felt like it worked.
TCR: So much of your most memorable work is set in L.A. and now you’re living there again alter nearly two decades in New York. Does the city still hold the same kind of creative sway over you?
BEE: It's funny. I'm not really sure that it ever did. My work tends to be about wherever I am at the moment, it kind of goes where I go. L.A. just happened to be where I was most of the time. I was writing Less Than Zero when I was in college and it was about college students. I spent half of my time in L.A., half in Vermont. A lot of Less Than Zero comes from the two novels I wrote when I was in high school. I wrote about L.A. because that's where I lived and that's what I knew. The same goes for Rules of Attraction. American Psycho was written when I moved to New York. Glamorama was the result of traveling around Europe so much.
Lunar Park was written mostly in Los Angeles, but that book isn’t so much about the suburbs or a particular place as it is about getting older. The book I‘m writing now is set in Los Angeles, out it`s not so much about the city itself.
TCR: You‘ve been very involved with the production of The Informers - from working with the director, Gregor Jordan, to visiting the set and talking to the actors about their roles. Has this experience changed your perspective on what it means to make movies?
BEE: Completely and totally. You know, it was always boring for me to begin with. When I as a kid I knew people whose parents made television shows and movies. I went to a school where most of my friend’s parents worked in the entertainment industry. So it wasn't unusual alter school to go visit a set because someone's dad was Michael Landon and they were shooting Little House on the Prairie. It's kind of horrible to say, but at an early age you become very jaded about stuff like that because you understand how completely boring and tedious it is most of the time. I was on the set of American Psycho a couple of times – boring, did not want to be there – and once it was actually by accident. I walked down the street and literally stumbled across the film crew who was shooting near my apartment. With Informers there were a couple of times when the actors requested dialogue revisions, so I came down to the set to do that. But, you know, for whatever reason, perhaps my age, it doesn`t really excite me. However, there was a moment on Informers when I watched these four young actors shoot a very complicated scene and totally nail it every time. I realized how much better they actually made the scene and it was exciting to see the thing just come to life. That's when you realize that making movies is truly a collaborative experience, while screenwriting isn't. As a screenwriter you're giving them a map - a compass - and the rest is up to everyone else.
TCR: Capturing the look of the early '80s is actually much harder than people probably think. There’s a fine line between looking authentic and beautiful and lust having it look like a bed episode of Dynasty.
BEE: Exactly. This movie really needed to have an almost Antonioni-esque sheen to it in order to work and they really went all out to achieve that. It is, by far, the most expensive film adaptation that’s ever been done for one of my novels and from what I‘ve seen, it’s the most beautiful looking. We talked at length about how the people would dress. This book takes place in 1983, so it was just before things got really tacky. Armani was very big at the time and all the guys I knew would wear a lot of streamlined Italian clothes. The mullet hadn't appeared yet, nor had shoulder pads. Girls hadn`t gone insane with their hair yet in terms of giant perms or whatever. It's just before that all started to happen. We looked at a movie like The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, even though that movie is actually set in the 1930s, for an idea of how these young people should look. We also wanted to capture the kind of laid-back, So-Cal glamour that kids I knew growing up were into. We weren't making Fast Times at Ridgemont High. We didn't want to make a parody of 1983. The movie is really about the end of the '70s and the beginning of the `80s. It's about that moment when we realized that everything the '70s had been about was going to be wiped away - by AIDS, by drugs, by Reagan-era politics. It's about that moment when this cultural shift took place and everything suddenly felt completely different.
The Informers is out in summer 2008 from Senator Entertainment
http://www.vmagazinedigital.com/vmagazine/2008spring/
I saw this! I'm really looking forward to this film and I loved the part about the scene with the four young actors; you just know one of them was Austin.
ReplyDeleteI don't know today's subject at all, but good for her. It's a bit perturbing about Jodie ...
This movie really needed to have an almost Antonioni-esque sheen to it in order to work and they really went all out to achieve that.
ReplyDeleteOh, oh... now this sounds really interesting...
So what about that Routh guy & the vampires? They cut them out right? Can't say I'm disappointed since this is my least favorite part of the book and I think using them as a metaphor for AIDS would have felt tacky.
Forgot to say thanks to BV! And I just noticed you had the Informers poster as your avatar! (Nice to see I'm not the only one who likes a change of colors.) ;)
ReplyDeleteHeather Matarazzo was amazing in the dollhouse. I hope we get to see her in a lot more quality films. Her gf is hot, too ;)
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm naive but I'm thinking maybe Jodie isn't going back into the closet for good but is just trying to keep her coming out gradual and low-key. I think she was kind of thrown when her comments about Cydney got so much media attention and maybe this is her way of trying to control the situation. I'm hopeful she will be more open again in time.
I guess I knew that, on a certain level, Wicked. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's some kind of double-edged humor, tho, ain't it? ;(
The song by Romanovsky and Phillips is so fun. I have been looking for it in any format, but mp3 in particular. Since Stubborn was able to find "It's Not Easy Being Green" in mp3, maybe she could take a crack at finding this one. It's called "Straightening Up the House" by Romanovsky and Phillips and I think the record it came out on was called I Thought You'd Be Taller. Anybody who finds this will get to have their favorite J&A pic with accompanying song of their choice posted as a reward.
(Sometimes getting the house ready for Mom & Dad's visit requires
ReplyDeleteMore than a dust rag and some Pledge...)
Today I took the nudes down off the wall
Ten minutes after I received her telephone call
She'll be here Friday morning so there's not much time to clean
Better hide the Advocate and Mandate magazine
We'll redecorate the guest room so it looks like it's been used
Separate our wardrobes or she'll really be confused
Then get ready for a lonely week of sleeping on the couch
We're straightening up the house
Tomorrow I will put away your gay pride shirts
And our Halloween assortment of jewelry, pumps and skirts
Then pack up all the books by Quentin Crisp and Rita Mae
And the "His & His" towels that you bought me yesterday
And you'd better hide the albums by that lesbian group
She has no ear for music, but she has been known to snoop
And remember not to kiss me, just forget that you're my spouse
Straightening up the house
The snapshots of the two of us in Spain will have to go
Don't tell me this is totally insane, because I know
And I cannot wear the wristwatch with our names engraved in gold
The one that says "I love you, John, with all my heart and soul"
This is our first Christmas here in our new home
In a hostile world, it's our only safety zone
I never should have promised I'd continue with this lie
But Dad was so certain if she found out she would die
But if it's killing anyone I think it's killing me
'Cause it tears me up inside to hide my true identity
And asking you to help me makes me feel like such a louse
I'm thirty-two years old, why am I acting like a mouse?
I'm a man and he's my lover
If she freaks out she'll recover
C'mon and help me to just CLEAN the house!
^^Wonderful, fantastic. I hope Stubborn or you guys can find it so we can play it! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks a bunch for the lyrics!
ReplyDeleteAnd asking you to help me makes me feel like such a louse
I'm thirty-two years old, why am I acting like a mouse?
Tbose two lines stood out for obvious reasons: ;)
I really hope you find that song too!
Speaking of couples, have you all seen the cover story in todays New York Times Magazine, about young gay married couples? It's very sweet, and the accompanying "photo illustrations" hilariously treat the couples as if they were 1950s domesticity icons.
ReplyDeleteThe NYT Magazine story about young gay men marrying
ReplyDeleteCharybdis is right, the pictures are hilarious.
Thanks for those lyrics, R & P. I hope we can find the song!
Great spotlight today. Heather is a great young actress. I am still amazed at her performance in Welcome to the Doll House.
ReplyDeleteProbably one of my all time favorite movies of hers has to be the Saved. They hit the nail on the head with its satire about so much in the wacky world of fundamentalism.
Interesting about the new book about rappers. I have always heard about Q-tip being gay, but I know there are other rappers who had their share of rumors. I wonder how big of aftershock will ripple through the rap world when the book drops.
I did my own straightening up the house when my minister dad use to visit (where did the wine go?) but there came a point when I said hey I'm an adult I don't need to put it away.
One of the biggest reasons that young gay men marry? They want children. Makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI loved this quote from the article-
ReplyDeleteAs he spoke, I couldn’t help thinking of what Jason Stuart, a gay comic, once said: “Come on straight people . . . if you let us marry each other, we will stop marrying you!”
Also, loved the Brandons. I knew a lesbian couple who were both named Ann. Their phone message said, "You've reached xxx-xxxx. Neither Ann can come to the phone right now..." Cracked me up every time.
Great NY Times article.
ReplyDeleteI asked Marc and Vassili if it was wise for any couple to become engaged before testing their domestic compatibility. Why not live together for a year? The couple deflected the question with a you-must-not-really-understand-the-power-of-our-love look common to so many lovesick young couples. “We just know we’ll be fine,” Vassili told me, rubbing Marc’s back. “We love each other, and that’s all that matters.”
ReplyDeleteTotally squee-able. Great NY Times article. Just what I've always thought - we all want the same things in life. :)
Someone at the Babblers has predicted that by Wednesday at the latest, we will get pix of Jake, Reese, or both. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteReese Witherspoon will attend Avon Breast Cancer Walk in DC May 4th
ReplyDeleteWe'll probably get Reeked that weekend.
“In sickness and in health. Until one of us dies — or, you know, until we kill each other.”
ReplyDeleteNow that sentence should have been pronounced at a couple of straight weddings I attended! ;D
Great article Charybdis. Thanks for linking it. :)
So Reese will be in DC next Sunday. Wonder if she'll be alone. Jake went with her for that NY UN trip she did.
ReplyDeleteyou can bet she'll be wearing the avon bracelet! ya know, the one she hasnt worn since ny!
ReplyDeleteThere are Avon walks all over the US coming up. This is definitely her deal and if Jake went with her it would become OMG that's Jake Gyllenhaal by huge group of predominately women walkers. Does she really want anyone steal her spotlight from her cause? No way.
ReplyDeletebut its reese...gotta have a man by her side!
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely her deal and if Jake went with her it would become OMG that's Jake Gyllenhaal by huge group of predominately women walkers.
ReplyDeleteOh, I looked at this quickly and thought it said "a huge group of predominately women stalkers." Had to do a doubletake. Sorry for the false alarm! ;)
One of the things I found interesting about the article was Dan Savage's comment that he thought some young couples might be rushing into marriage because they think it will show that their love and relationships are valid. Sometimes I do wonder if things haven't moved from one extreme to another. Everyone should have the right to get married, but they shouldn't have to get married to have their relationships accepted. I don't think marriage should be seen as the only "norm" for everyone, straight gay or bi.
ReplyDeleteIf Jake showed up I'm sure there would be some stalkers. And given that, I can't quite picture Jake doing the walk. Might get stories of Reese in S.C.
ReplyDeleteI can't picture Jake walking the walk, anywhere, for anything, anymore.
ReplyDeleteSlow news day all around. I just checked in on Ted. He says his wedding is in a week and he will be off for two weeks after, so I guess there will be no Toothy news for us for quite a while. I am happy for him though on the wedding.
ReplyDeleteWatched The Directors earlier today which did a feature on David O Russell. It was old, from 2006, and he seemed so calm. Although, he did have his hands across his chest for most of it, so hiding his true nature I guess.
Loved Heather in the Dollhouse movie, which was spectacular, but have not seen most of the others.
Not much to say. I too am having a tough time staying interested in Jake's comings and goings lately.
Here's a question that I thought of from the NY Times article.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that the last 25 plus years post AIDS have created a cultural shift in the gay community and we are now seeing it in the newest generation of gay men?
you mean monogamy? maybe its 1 good thing that came from aids.
ReplyDeleteyou can bet she'll be wearing the avon bracelet! ya know, the one she hasnt worn since ny!
ReplyDeleteShe has worn it as a ponytail holder. And the Babblers say the one that Jake wears is hers.