Chatting with Douglas Spearman about "Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom"

He plays a college professor on "Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom." That does not seem much of a stretch since off-screen, Douglas Spearman is so thoughtful and articulate.

But above all, when we spoke last Thursday, he was feeling the enormity of his TV series having a big splashy premiere as a feature film at Grauman's.

"I am nervous beyond belief right now," he said. "People ask if I'm excited and I think there is a very fine line between nerves and excitement. It's crazy that we're in a movie about four gay black men that is going to be in theaters nationwide. We're standing here at (Grauman's), the most famous theater in all of the world and we're doing a movie with four black men. I mean, what happened to the world? Who are we? Times have changed."

So why has "Noah's Arc" struck a cord with so many people from its early days to its two seasons on the Logo network and on DVD.
"The thing about 'Noah's Arc' overall, whether we're talking about the TV series or the film, it's about relationships. It's about friendships, it's about marriages, about meeting and hooking up then breaking apart. 'Noah's Arc' talks about the way that people feel when they go through them. I don't care if you're dealing with two women or two men, the story's the story. A marriage is a marriage and making a commitment is making a commitment. It applies to everybody."

I wondered if "Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom" would give people a unique window into gay relationships: "People don't know what gay relationships are like because you don't see gay relationships," Doug said.
"One of the reasons why I wanted to play Chance and that I really invested in him was because he was a guy who's working it out in a relationship with a child and you never get to see that kind of behavior modeled. Not until 'Breakfast with Scot' came about did you see two men actually raising a child that I can remember. Everytime we tell a story that isn't just ablout some 17 year old white kid's coming out or something that we've seen over and over again, we edicate people. We're just like your neighbors."

The series and the cast has come such a long way from the early days of "no money, no studios. Nothing. It was very guerilla filmmaking."

"To now be here five years later, it's pretty astounding to me. But then again the world has changed to allow us to be who we are and do what we do."