Red, White & Blue’s director is ready for far more queer cinema (Picture: AP/Prime/Instagram/matthewmichaellopez)
A film director has called for more ‘matter of fact’ LGBTQ+ representation in movies, including a ‘queer version of Indiana Jones’.
Matthew López, who has a background in theatre as the Tony and Olivier award-winning playwright of The Inheritance, among many other works, is making both his directorial debut and first feature film with his onscreen adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s bestselling novel, Red White & Royal Blue.
The book became a viral sensation on TikTok, in large part down to its refreshing romance between lead characters Alex Claremont-Diaz – son of the US President – and Prince Henry, the grandson of the British monarch (played by Stephen Fry in the film).
Discussing the lack of LGBTQ+-led stories in both cinema and, until more recently, the book world, López, 46, is aware that representation has slowly been improving – but he’s still clamouring for more.
‘It’s funny – it’s undeniable there’s more representation than there was when I was younger, so from my perspective, it’s getting better,’ he told Metro.co.uk.
‘I can imagine being 21,22 with not as much of a perspective that a 46-year-old has and thinking it’s really slow.’
Harrison Ford has retired as daring archaeologist Indiana Jones, so is now the perfect time for an LGBTQ+ replacement? (Picture: Jonathan Olley/Lucasfilm Ltd.)
Nicholas Galitzine as Prince Henry and Taylor Zakhar Perez as Alex Claremont-Diaz in Red, White & Royal Blue (Picture: Jonathan Prime/Prime Video)
He is also extremely welcoming of a change in topic when it comes to gay stories.
‘As someone who was a baby gay in the ‘90s, a lot of the entertainment I was offered as a queer person was about death and dying – and that wasn’t fun. So, I’d rather be here than there.’
However, he doesn’t think there’s enough, and nor ‘could there ever be’.
López is looking for more of a balance in the storytelling too, with some queer-led films not feeling they must be entirely focused on their characters’ sexuality.
‘I love things that are overtly, unapologetically, brashly – just disastrously – queer, but I’m also really eager for things that are matter of fact queer, that are incidentally queer. I’d love to see a genuinely believable queer action hero, I’d love to see other genres tackle the queer canon,’ he shared.
‘When we get a queer version of Indiana Jones, then I’ll know that we’ve really started to make progress. Yes, more please. But I can’t help but notice it is better than it was when I was younger.’
Now Indy star Harrison Ford has stepped away from the role at the age of 81 (but with no plans to retire) following this year’s final outing, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, perhaps the time is better than ever for the world to embrace a new – and LBGTQ – adventuring archaeologist?
Director Matthew López wants more ‘matter of fact’ queer stories in cinema, as representation slowly increases (Picture: Matthew Brookes/Prime)
With his impressive background in writing, Red, White & Royal Blue marks the first time López has taken the material of another person to interpret and direct – how did he find it?
‘Casey’s work is so wonderfully specific and so generous [regarding] what we get in terms of wish fulfilment and escapism,’ he enthused.
However, he’s sensitive to the fact he’s had to cut out a lot from the original book in terms of what’s made it into the movie.
The film is based on Casey McQuiston’s bestseller (Picture: Prime Video)
‘There is going to be, inevitably, in any adaptation of a novel more left out than included, right? That’s just that’s the way it goes. Even if it was eight hours long, there’d still be more left out than is in it.’
His ultimate ambition with Red, White & Royal Blue though is laser-focused on serving its huge fanbase, courtesy of the novel, after he read it and fell in love with it himself – so much so that he pursued making the screen adaptation.
‘My goal for this had always been at the end of the movie, can I get the audience to feel the same way they felt at the end of the book? Can I, when I’m watching the movie, feel the same way as I did when I finished reading the book?
‘It’s great responsibility, because I know there are a lot of fans of the book out there in the world. I’m one of them! I like to joke that this is the world’s most expensive bit of fanfiction, this movie.’
He’s clear in his objective that he wants as many people as possible to see the film and then buy the book.
‘It’s hard to imagine a world with there being more people who have read Red, White & Royal Blue in it – and yet, hopefully, as a result of this, maybe there will be?’ he laughed.
Taylor Zakhar Perez (The Kissing Booth) and Nicholas Galitzine (Cinderella) play Alex and Henry respectively in the film, much to the delight of López who is fiercely caring of the characters.
‘I really did find in Nick someone who I could put that character into his hands and know that Henry would be safe. Nick was less an interpreter of the character than he was the protector of him – and he really took that job seriously.’
López is delighted with his lead actors Perez and Galitzine and their ‘instant’ chemistry (Picture: Jonathan Prime/Prime Video)
With Perez, López says he isn’t ‘really Alex Claremont Diaz at all – but he has this wonderful ability to become him’.
‘Alex is such a vivid character in the book, he’s unlike any character I’ve ever encountered before. A lot of a lot of really, really wonderful guys auditioned for the role, more than I thought were out there, which was very encouraging to me for the future of Latin representation on screen, but Taylor just turned himself into a human cannonball,’ he recalled.
But the success of Red, White & Royal Blue will also live and die by the relationship and spark between the performers, which is exactly what convinced López they had found their two stars.
‘I knew that it wasn’t enough to find Alex and find Henry, I also needed to find Alex and Henry, and it wasn’t until we did their chemistry read that I knew I actually had my leads, because those two didn’t need to be taught how to get on – it was instant, and they really got each other.’
Galitzine and Perez with co-stars Malcolm Atobrah as Percy and Rachel Hilson as Nora (Picture: Jonathan Prime/Prime Video)
And this was evident even over the inconvenient barrier of Zoom.
‘I hate to say this, just because you don’t want to think that you’re relying so much on luck as you are, but boy did we get lucky with those two!’ he added.
López is also measured in his response to what seems to be almost an evergreen debate over whether or not gay parts should be exclusively given to gay actors.
‘If it’s predicated on good intentions, any debate is a good debate to have. I don’t necessarily know if it’s a healthy debate to have long term? I believe in more queer representation in characters on screen, I believe in more queer stories being told, I believe in more queer filmmakers being given jobs across the board and all the crafts,’ he pointed out.
However, the writer and director also wants to draw people’s attention to nuance in the debate, both in general and in regard to Red, White & Royal Blue.
‘Human sexuality is not a binary’ argues López when it comes to both characters and casting (Picture: Rob Youngson/Prime)
‘The fundamental truth is that human sexuality is not a binary. It is a great continuum, not only in terms of expression, but in terms of over the course of a person’s life – and I could never limit what an actor is as a person in order to ask them to play a particular role.’
López reckons it ‘ultimately comes down to the individual decisions of filmmakers and casting people’, and for him the most important thing is ‘finding the heart and soul of a character as defined by multiple considerations’.
‘In a movie like this, of course the characters’ sexuality is vitally important – but what’s also important is Alex is Mexican-American, what’s also important is that Alex is from Texas.
‘A lot of things define us, and a lot of things define actors.’
Red, White & Royal Blue premieres globally on Friday August 11, exclusively on Prime Video.
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