The first time I ever saw Steve Callahan was when director Carlos Portugal sent me a screener of his film "East Side Story" well over a year ago. I loved the film and did a write-up on the blog and soon after, got a nice note from Steve thanking me. He got hooked on "Out In Hollywood," would send me an occasional note about an item and we got to meet a few times at various events. I had never had a sit-down interview with Steve but thought the Oct. 2 release of his other film, "Nine Lives," was a good enough to reason for an on-the-record gab. The movie marks the directorial debut of Dean Howell and was written by pioneer activist and writer Michael Kearns.
Although his character is one of many in this ensemble film, it is his sexy image that is featured on the cover of the DVD. I dunno, I think it might help sell a few more copies, don't you? Anyway, Steve and I talked so much at a Starbucks in West Hollywood that this interview will be posted in two parts with tomorrow's focus on "East Side Story" which is set for DVD release in December.
"They are so different which is great -completely different," Steve says of the two indie films. "The funny thing is, people will talk about doing two gay roles back-to-back and being typecast and it's so funny because Corey in "Nine Lives" and Wesley in "East side Story" could not be further apart. Those characters are nothing alike."
But Callahan has no reservations about playing gay since he is a gay man.
"I definitely made a choice that I never wanted to be in the closet - that was not something that ever interested me. I came out of the closet to friends when I was 18, to my family when I was in college [Ohio State University]. You come out of the closet and it's such a free feeling when you come out. I couldn't imagine moving to L.A. and then going back into the closet."
But he had plenty of people who advised him to remain private about his sexuality because to not be would cost him roles.
"I was the typical kid from Ohio, thought I was going to come out here and be a big movie star. I'd do TV for a couple of years then segue into film [laughs]. Then you come out here and you see how many people there are and you see what the competition is. But I love acting. I don't have a back-up plan, there's nothing else that I want to do. I gave up a long time ago wanting people to say, 'This is the next Tom Cruise.'The last thing I want to be really famous and lose that private part of your life. I just want to do good work. There are so few out of the closet actors out there. When I was a kid, I didn't see anyone. I thought I was alone. I thought I was the only one."
The role in "Nine Lives" came about after Steve had performed the same role in a stage production of "Complications" which the film is based on. It focuses on nine individuals whose lives intersect emotionally, sexually, and dangerously over the course of one day. His character, Corey, is living with a rich and famous television executive, Daniel (John Ganun) who is arrogant and closeted and treats his lover with increasing indifference. Things heat up when Corey gets it on with their pool boy, Carlos (Eric Turic).
"I was just so thrilled to be a part of it," Callahan says. "I thought the script was daring and edgy and I so respected Dean Howell the director and I loved his approach to the material - he just went for it. It's certainly not pornographic but the movie is about nine sexual encounters over the course of a single day in L.A. If you're going to film nine sexual encounters, you film the sex. You have sex scenes."
"With Daniel who was my lover, it was a violent sex scene and when it was over we just lay there and don't say anything to each other. And then Carlos whose the pool boy and someone I don't know at all, it's very romantic and very intimate. And afterward, there was the intimacy of touching and connecting and talking to somebody who's a complete stranger. That's what was so sad about my character - I had nothing to say to my lover of four years."
I don't want to give a major plot point away, but at one point, Callahan's character gets into a violent struggle in the pool with his lover: "That scene was so interesting to shoot. We filmed it in a pool and they had an underwater camera but they couldn't hook it up to the monitor to see what they were getting so we did a lot of stuff. You are doing take after take after take of holding somebody under water and we had to have a safe word."
"Nine Lives" played in many film festivals throughout the country and Steve was among the cast members who appeared at most of them: "We opened in North Carolina and I went to a half-dozen other ones. The reaction in different parts of the country was so amazing. In North Carolina, somebody came up to me after the festival and said, 'It is so important to show a movie like that here." When we showed it in the big cities like San Francisco, Chicago and New York, everyone's reaction was, 'Wow! The sex scenes were hot.' When we showed it in the South and other place, it became more of an issue movie - much more so than in the big city."

For those of you in Southern California, Outfest is having a special cast and crew screening to celebrate the DVD release on Tues, Oct 16 - 7:30pm at the Rigler Theater. For more information on the screening, go to http://www.outfest.org