Fire Island

Here's how a Jane Austen classic got a landmark queer update in 'Fire Island,' from writer-star Joel Kim Booster.

They’re finally being honest,” said Ahn. “We had to make other concessions, but we wanted that centerpiece of that sequence of the film.” “But the reality is that’s just the beginning.” “I’m so happy that we can now say, as a community, that we have an Asian American Mr. Darcy,” said Ahn. “And Conrad was the only actor that made Joel forget his lines.” “Those early trips were pretty decently reflected in the movie in terms of where we were falling in the strata of the island,” Yang said. Did that person give you a look when you walked into this place, or make a comment about whether or not we belong there?’”

Star and screenwriter Joel Kim Booster and director Andrew Ahn discuss their unapologetically gay take on the Jane Austen classic. Margaret Cho in "Fire ...

I hope that this is just the beginning of the conversation and not the end of it.” “My hope is that people watch ‘Fire Island,’ and it inspires them to understand that their stories are valid and that they can go out there and tell their stories.” What are we eating?’ … Just to see how they let loose, going to tea with them or sitting by the pool, and just sitting around Margaret while she holds court and tells us all of these amazing stories from her decades in the business — I’m so glad we were able to do that on the island.” “I wanted him to be OK with everything that I was asking him to do as a performer, and so he was really, really involved as just a test reader and as a friend early on in the process.” “And it reminded me of [the 2005 film] ‘Pride and Prejudice’ where the camera goes from window to window and everybody’s chatting and debriefing about the day. As he began to revisit the storied courtship of Elizabeth Bennet, a young woman sharing a modest estate with her parents and four sisters, and Fitzwilliam Darcy, an aristocratic landowner, Booster was struck by the comparisons that could be drawn between Austen’s observations about class in 19th-century English society and his own experiences as a gay Asian man in the 21st century.

Queer male identity is ready for its Hollywood closeup in Joel Kim Booster and Andrew Ahn's spin on Pride & Prejudice.

And so, I think that's a big part of it, that there didn't seem to be avenues to gain that trust in the way that we're now in the era of the writer/creator." "We created a support system that I just don't think we were given space to do as queer people 20 years ago," he says. "I made two very small indie films that are fractions of the budgets of what Fire Island was made for," adds Ahn. "And I think if I hadn't made those films, I wouldn't have been able to get hired for this, and I probably wouldn't have done it very well. He doesn't think he would have survived in the New York comedy scene without his own chosen family, including his Fire Island co-stars Yang and Rogers. He's part of a surge in queer writers, actors and comedians (or in his case, all three) who are getting to create work on their own terms. After a two-decade hiatus, Fire Island and Bros mark a major return to the genre for mainstream studios, except this time queer folks are behind the wheel. I think that for Billy [Eichner] and I both, it is very much like we had to prove ourselves in other ways before the industry would allow us to make these movies. Ultimately, it's still one of my favourite places to be because it's beautiful and I think the history just feels so tangible there. Their collective efforts would result in a reimagining of Pride and Prejudice not unlike how Amy Heckerling adapted Austen's Emma for Clueless (a film that is aptly referenced multiple times in Fire Island). The Bennet sisters become a chosen family of gay men heading to Fire Island for their annual week-long adventure. We need to, as a community, find ways to make it even more inclusive, because our community is growing, because our community is being redefined, because parts of our community have been rejected for so long." It's as much an indictment of Fire Island as it is a love letter. In 2018, Booster (who you may know from his stand-up, roles in shows like Shrill and Sunnyside or his podcast Urgent Care) wrote a popular essay about reading Pride and Prejudice for the first time while vacationing on Fire Island with Yang, who he had befriended when they were coming up together in New York's comedy scene.

The long trip to the screen behind "Fire Island," a gay rom-com loosely adapted from Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice," may be more interesting than the ...

Austen adaptations clearly never go out of style, but this latest variation reminds us that alone doesn't mean they pack enough accessories to completely validate the trip. There are also funny throwaway lines scattered along the way, including an overt Austen reference lest anyone have missed the parallels. , who has seemed poised for bigger things since joining "Saturday Night Live," and comic Joel Kim Booster, who is actually the movie's star as well as its writer.

Movie writer Joel Kim Booster and director Andrew Ahn want to 'celebrate joyful, queer, Asian American friendship'

Ahn observes that it was a difficult movie to make during the pandemic, but the pandemic was also a reason to make it. “I think it was really easy just because every day was like a party,” Booster says. “She was so much fun on set and so game for the shenanigans of it all.” Ahn says. “When I was a little kid, watching, it was the first time I ever saw myself on screen in that way and it really sort of blew my world open in terms of what I thought was possible for myself,” Booster says. “I got the script for the feature about a year into the pandemic,” he adds. With Yang due back on the SNL set and Booster and other cast crew with jobs to go to as soon as shooting was over, there was no way to extend the shooting schedule if anyone came down with COVID. Protocols were strict and Booster credits an amazing COVID team for helping them get through it. “It had been a year since I had gone out drinking and dancing with friends. A lot of people in the industry see us as the same. “I wanted to honor our friendship,” Booster says. Become a 48 Hills Hero and support the only daily progressive news source in the Bay Area. “It’s very difficult to get there but people find a way and that’s how special that island is. But he still loves the place, enough to write Fire Island, a rom-com set there.

(From left) Margaret Cho, Tomas Matos, Bowen Yang, Joel Kim Booster, and Matt Rogers star in "Fire Island." Jeong Park/Searchlight Pictures. I' ...

Two best friends set off to have a legendary summer in the iconic "gay paradise" of New York's Fire Island I would argue that the title is wrong as Macdonald was absolutely special. But it would not be the internet if people weren't also unhappy. His new reality focuses on family life with his current wife and their three children. What did we miss? What did you like about today's newsletter?