Interviews: Red-Carpet Opening Night at Chicago International LGBTQ Film Fest Reeling33

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StarEvan Todd portrays Adam in “Fourth Man Out”

Evan Todd is the title character in the Opening Night film, as a man in a smaller town with a loyal and diverse group of male friends, who decides to come out on his 24th birthday. His decision is met with confusion and transition, but always acceptance. Todd was also in one of the more notable TV holiday movies from last season, “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever.”

HollywoodChicago.com: Your character comes out to his male friends, and there is almost immediate acceptance. Why do you think your generation of straight men are willing to be more accepting than previous generations?

Evan Todd: I think that simply there are less hang-ups and that feeling of being emasculated when having gay friends. In general society, I think people are figuring out that it doesn’t take anything away from who they are, and really now nobody cares or makes a big deal out of it. We just want our friends to be happy and part of our lives.

HollywoodChicago.com: How did the four of you bond as friends in the film, beyond the rehearsal and story that is in the script?

Evan Todd
Evan Todd (left) of ‘Fourth Man Out’
Photo credit: Jed Entertainment

Todd: We didn’t have much time, we met on set the first day. But we were staying at the same hotel and sharing the same trailer on the set. We had some time when we were hanging out off of the set, and that really helped.

HollywoodChicago.com: You were in the famous holiday classic, ‘Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever,’ What is your favorite type of holiday film, and were you able to duplicate the enjoyment when doing your contribution to the holiday genre?

Todd: [Laughs] Honestly, one of my favorite holiday films was ‘Home Alone,’ so I felt I got to live a dream of being an idiot bad guy in the Grumpy Cat movie, which was similar. It was celebratory of family and all that crap, but also it was fun, and somebody got to win the day, which especially works during the holidays.

HollywoodChicago.com: What were your thoughts the morning of the announcement of the Supreme Court that gay marriage would be the law of the land?

Todd: I was relieved mostly, because I didn’t want to be disappointed. I went through the time when Proposition Eight in California passed [banning gay marriages] and I was so disappointed then, so I was ready for the country to take a stance and say, we’re no longer going to represent that viewpoint anymore as a country, and other people need to catch up.

HollywoodChicago.com: Do you foresee any issue being as important for gay Americans in the upcoming presidential election?

Todd: I think now it’s the transgender community that is picking up the spotlight, where they can start to advocate what they need. All communities are rallying around them as well, because – for example – the gay community wouldn’t have been able to achieve what they did without other parts of straight society rallying with them. And it will be the same for the transgender community.

StarVan Hansis of “Kiss Me, Kill Me” and “As the World Turns”

Van Hansis is representing his new film “Kiss Me, Kill Me” at the Reeling Fest, and he also has a place in TV history as well. While portraying Luke Snyder from 2005 to 2010 on the daytime drama “One Life to Live,” not only did the character come out as gay, but shared the first kiss to be shown between gay men in soap opera history.

HollywoodChicago.com: What is the premise of the film ‘Kiss Me, Kill Me,’ that you are premiering at the Reeling Festival?

Van Hansis: It’s a sexy, stylish West Hollywood noir-type film, and has it’s roots in those 1940s detective thrillers where a beautiful person is murdered and no one knows who they are. I’m really excited to be a part of it, and I had a blast working on it. It’s directed by Casper Andreas, who does a lot of LGBT cinema, and we had a very fun cast.

HollywoodChicago.com: Speaking of the ‘kiss,’ you had a significant moment in daytime drama history, when you shared the first gay kiss on ‘As the World Turns’ in 2007. What surrounded that event at the time?

Van Hansis
Van Hansis at ‘Reeling33’
Photo credit: Patrick McDonald for HollywoodChicago.com

Hansis: It was crazy, because it was my first real job as a performer, and I didn’t understand how much of a moment it was for pop culture, and what it meant to a lot of people. At the time, I was just showing up for work and doing my job, and the script called for a kiss. In retrospect, I completely understand it now, and I’m grateful to have been a part of it.

HollywoodChicago.com: What was it like stepping into a pretty famous soap opera as your very first professional job?

Hansis: On that particular show, we would tape a scene, and then it wouldn’t air for about a month. So you know the feeling when you listen to your voice on an answering machine? It was like that for me times 2000 when I saw that first scene on the air. It was so strange – I look like that? I sound like that? That’s the way I move? [laughs] It took a lot of getting used to, I especially thought the boom mike was odd, towering above my head.

My first line was yelling something in a coffee shop. I took over the role of Luke Snyder as a older teenager. On soap operas, Luke was born on the show, and then they accelerate their ages until they get to be teenagers, and that’s when I took over. The kid left one day, and I came in yelling at someone in a coffee shop, in my letterman jacket.

HollywoodChicago.com: What were your thoughts the morning of the announcement of the Supreme Court that gay marriage would be the law of the land?

Hansis: I was absolutely thrilled and excited. I actually did an interview that morning for a web series I’m directing, and I was saying then it’s about damn time. I think the country as a whole knows it’s about damn time, and I’m glad it turned out the way it did.

“Reeling33,” Chicago’s LBGTQ International Film Festival, runs from September 17th-24th, 2015. For film, events, venues and ticket information click here.

HollywoodChicago.com senior staff writer Patrick McDonald

By PATRICK McDONALD
Writer, Editorial Coordinator
HollywoodChicago.com
pat@hollywoodchicago.com

© 2015 Patrick McDonald, HollywoodChicago.com

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