coverEastSiders
in their relationship. We find out what happens in between seasons based on what we see happening in that next scene. Each new season has progressed a certain number of years, but Tom and Cal have been together, so now they’re like seven or eight years in. It’s interesting to see the progression of the relationship.” “I want the show to be as honest and as real as it
can be. I really wanted to give both of them their due and think it’s possible to disagree and still both be right… or both be wrong,” Williamson added. “What’s so fun this season, is our ability to deepen the relationships of our characters. Not only of Thom and Cal, but to explore the arc between Douglas and Quincy and the audience’s relationship with those characters. To take the fun, comedic character and give them the chance to portray the lovers. I think we’re seeing that realness more, in terms of inclusive portrayals on mainstream television who happen to have LGBT characters. But, we still do deserve stories that have us as the main character and we deserve more than one at a time.” A favorite element and I feel one of EastSiders’
keys to success, is that the characters are imperfect, flawed and that they struggle. Hansis talked about the key to portraying them and where the ease of it originates, “First off, the writing is so strong. It’s a gift as an actor to have really good writing because honestly, you don’t have to work as hard to figure out why you’re doing what you’re doing, he said. “But, I think it would be a lot more boring and I think that the show wouldn’t be where it is, if one of them was villainized and the other one wasn’t or if they were both the perfect gay, Instagram couple. They’re not that. They’re messy, they’re immature and yet they’re not terrible people or anything like that. They’re good people who are kind of trying
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to find a direction. It’s really interesting to see a show about growing up and trying to find that path with people who many probably think should have already grown up.” Williamson followed with how those perceptions influence his writing and the direction of the plot lines. “We’re definitely very aware of people’s reac- tions to the show and the different story elements in it. It’s fun to play off of expectations in that way,” he said. “For every person who rails against the stereotype of drunk, sex-obsessed gay men in the show, there seems to be ten who understand that it is worth exploring. We shouldn’t censor stories just because they make us uncomfortable, we are gay men who have a very open relationship to sex. Is it healthy? I think you have to answer that on a case-by-case basis and situation-by-situation. You can’t just apply the same rules to everyone...Unless you’re an asshole.” (Laughs) Rules and societal changes have happened and
how the show deals with all of the filtering effects those changes and in particular how it affected their characters wasvoiced byHansis first. “I feel like each season has its own genre in a way. It’s about finding the characters, how they’ve changed and what the new world of the show is. The first season was very much like a soapy, relationship drama, the second was still very funny, but was a lot of sex comedy and sex farce. The third season is much more of an intimate, character study. We get to see these characters in different situations,” he offered. “This is the season where we dive more into Thom’s actual feelings about where he is now and where he’s going. He talks a lot more about his career and the fact he doesn’t feel he’s where he should be… or where he’d like to be. He’s having fun and doing things that make him feel good in the moment
and we see in this season that it doesn’t fill him in the way that it did five years ago. He’s got more fears and demons—the stuff that keeps him up at night—it’s a progression into growing up.” Williamson talked about his character and how
close an approximation he is to real life. “I wanted to allow myself the opportunity to use the characters as a way of having conversations with myself, about life and relationship,” he said. “I think it’s important to say that the show’s not autobiographical, it’s fiction and way more interesting than my real life. (Laughs) It’s so funny to me how everybody seems to assume that I am actually Cal. I take it as a compliment, though I don’t really look at the world the same way he does. I’m a much freer person than he and I think Cal has a whole different set of concerns than I do. I exist somewhere between Cal and Thom in reality and can relate and emphasize with both of them.” I asked what made them decide to do the road trip concept in the first place, Hansis discussed how he viewed the plotline’s genesis. “That was Kit’s thing. He really wanted to find a way to separate Tom and Cal from the world that had been created in other seasons. To dive deeper into their relationship and a road trip was a perfect way to do that. He got a lot of inspiration fromMy Own Private Idaho, Thelma & Louise and a lot of the classic road trip stories. I thinkTo Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything!was some inspiration and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. There is something great about the classic road trip film and he wanted to put the characters in that situation.” His observation about the pitfalls of such a tack, “It’s a huge challenge to put two people in a car for four episodes, you could end up with a really boring show. But, I think the way Kit structured it and the conversations the characters had, I was
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