When “Homewrecker” was released via Artiztical Entertainment, Proposition 8’s denial marriage to gay couples was in full swing in California so brothers Paul and Bruce L. Hart altered their comedy to show their support for marriage equality.
Says Paul Hart, who directed the film, “Our film involves three gay couples and we wanted to present them as married. We felt Proposition 8 was unconstitutional and would be eventually overturned. So we decided to make some adjustments to the dialogue even though we had already shot the entire film.”
What they did was go back into the sound studio and dub over all of the dialogue where the characters refer to each other as “partners” and substitute the word “husband”. Adds producer Bruce L. Hart, “Although this film is pure comedy and not political we wanted to show our support for the repeal of Prop 8. It was a tiny change but one we felt was necessary.”
“Homewrecker”, a campy new gay comedy starring Dylan Vox, began life as a hit stage comedy called “Naked Deception” which ran for eight months in Hollywood in 2006. With sold-out houses at every performance writer/producers Bruce Hart and Paul Vanderroest were approached by investors about adapting the play into a film. The film, which recently made its DVD debut from Ariztical Entertainment, spoofs a wide variety of genres — everything from Lifetime Channel melodramas to old Film Noir thrillers to reality TV. The film’s trailer showcases its offbeat tone.
Dylan Vox, who played the title character on stage and in the movie, explains it for us: “‘Homewrecker’ is like this Lifetime Channel movie filled with gays-in-jeopardy. I play this angry young guy who gets out of jail and heads to Hollywood ready to stop at nothing to be a star.” He smiles impishly. “And I can relate.”
Vox, who starred in the Here! Channel’s vampire series “The Lair”, says “We did a lot of racy stuff in the stage version that the producers decided to modify for the movie. But I think there’s enough left in there to keep viewers upright in their seats.”
Bruce Hart agrees. “We backed off on some of the racy stuff from the stage play for the film version but the movie is still naughty enough to raise a few eyebrows. In fact I was a little worried we might get bounced out of a few film festivals.”
Vox — who is something of an expert on camp himself (he starred in the original cast of “Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical”) — relished chewing up not only scenery but all of those fun Lifetime Channel clichés: the jealous spouse, the guy who is gay but hiding it, the stalker, the runaway teenager, and the impostor. “We covered all the bases,” he laughs, “and we threw in a nod to ‘All About Eve’.”
For the film version they signed up some added gay indie star-power in the form of Rebekah Kochan of the three hit “Eating Out” movies. “Rebekah was an absolute delight to work with,” Vox notes. “As soon as she saw we were going for a wrong-side-of-the-tracks vibe for her and my characters — she plays my girlfriend and I play the sleep-with-anyone sociopath — she just went crazy. She invented this white trash hair and wore these outrageous outfits and we had instant chemistry.”
“Homewrecker” is available on DVD from Ariztical Entertainment and is on demand through Netflix. Hart is also looking at more possible film festival playdates and there’s even talk of a sequel. “So far the reviews have been very strong,” Bruce said, noting that Q Metropolis found it “fabulous” and All Movie Guide called it an “outrageous gay parody of Lifetime Original Movies.”
“In fact,” Hart laughs, “it’s renting well both with gay and straight audiences. That’s not something we expected.”
A sign of the times, perhaps?
