MATHEW CAZIER OF LIONS GATE FILMS

A dream come true

October 12, 2001 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE આતા

Dan Bucatinsky, left, and Richard Ruccolo.

Dan Bucatinsky talks about producing and starring in 'All Over the Guy'

by Kaizaad Kotwal

Love is a many-splendored thing, or so they say. But those of us who have been in love also know that it is a very messy thing. All Over the Guy, a new film by Julie Davis, is about the splendor and mess that is this thing called love.

Eli and Tom are set up on a date by their best friends. Tom is a special education teacher who is trying to give up his ways of alcohol, smoking and promiscuous sex. Eli, who grew up with very touchy-feely therapist parents, is more reserved and conservative.

Both are looking for that perfect mate, and like many in that boat, they fail to recognize that blessing when it is standing there right in front of their noses.

Dan Bucatinsky, who wrote and produced the film, stars as Eli. Wearing three hats on a low budget film is an extremely challenging job. For Bucatinsky, though, All Over the Guy has "been a dream come true." It has played in 14 film festivals, mostly gay and lesbian ones, in cities such as Austin, Seattle, San Francisco, Honolulu, and Kansas City.

"The film has done well in places I never imagined even visiting," said Bucatinsky. People respond favorably to both the humor and the relationship aspects of the film. Even though the film focuses on a gay relationship, Bucatinsky feels that the film is universal.

"The fact that the central characters are gay," he continued, "is really besides the point."

Bucatinsky adapted the story from a twocharacter, one-act play of his about a heterosexual couple.

"That was a really sketchy precursor to the film," explained Bucatinsky, "and it was fun to expand it to a full length piece and to get to meet the parents and the friends who are merely mentioned in the play version."

"Gay is in, isn't it?" he rhetorically asks in response to questions about why he changed the central relationship to a gay one.

"There is this appetite right now," he continued, “for diverse, contemporary and gay stories."

As a first-time producer he felt a lot of pressure, from others as well as from himself, to make the best film possible. “As a producer you get to carry the tone of the set," he said, "and there are a lot of expectations." The film's budget came in at approximately $500,000, which by film standards is not a lot of money, but as Bucatinsky said, "It's a lot more than I've ever seen."

Bucatinsky, who grew up in New York, has been writing and performing in theater for years, doing a lot of comedy and improv. He realized that in order to get roles that he wants to play, he would have to write them for himself, which is what he did with All Over the Guy. He claimed that he has "never been happier than when I was on the set."

"If you're demented enough to go into show business in the first place," he explained, "then it's pretty amazing to be on set and get that kind of respect for twenty-five days."

Richard Ruccolo (Two Guys and a Girl) got the part of Tom after showing up at an audition. Ruccolo, who had played a very heterosexual role for four years on ABC, was eager to try something new and completely different.

The other good part, of course, was Bucatinsky's.

Playing Eli was a challenge for him not so much because of the demands of the role per se, but more so because of his multiple duties.

'The fact that the central characters are gay is really besides the point.'

"Putting the other hats away and letting myself be in the scene and feel the scene was the real challenge," he said.

One of the tougher scenes to shoot was the love scene between Tom and Eli. "We shot the sex scene on the second day of shooting," he explained, "and there I was in a room that was a hundred and three degrees hot with a guy I barely knew." Bucatinsky said that he was "more uncomfortable for Ruccolo's sake."

Bucatinsky is not necessarily uncomfortable discussing his sexuality but he does believe that as an actor it has the potential to get him pigeonholed.

"Before I was in or out," he explained, "I had played a lot of gay roles and that will continue."

"I know I am not competing with Brad Pitt," he added, "however, I know that I will have to continue to write roles for myself."

An obvious question for this actor is about how similar he is to the character he portrays. "There are a lot of similarities," he admitted, "but I have never been in a relationship like the one in the film."

Bucatinsky's mom, like Eli's, is a therapist. The actor also believes that like Eli, he is neurotic. "Well not really neurotic," he hastily added, “rather I like to think of myself as concerned, responsible and someone who pays attention to detail."

Eli in the film seems to be somewhat of a hopeless romantic. Not Bucatinsky, who labels himself as a “pragmatic romantic.” He likes to make special occasions special" but he does cringe from sentimentality. For instance, "I will buy roses and then get a really flip card to go with it." For him it is essential to "love in the moment."

Bucatinsky is also one to live in the moment because he is "motivated by fear." Some of his fears include "getting mugged, getting audited, acquiring an extra chin, losing hair, getting a bad review, dying in car crash."

"Dying, period!" he exclaimed with a sigh. Bucatinsky came out to his parents at twenty-five and for the last eight years he has been in a relationship with filmmaker Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex, Bounce). He isn't sure that dating someone in the biz is a great idea, but the two had been in too deep before they could do anything about it. According to Bucatinsky, “it is a challenge" to be in a relationship where both partners are filmmakers.

"But I think it is more difficult for me," he admitted, "because Don puts the work away when he comes home and I seem to carry it with me at all times."

Roos has made "much bigger films," Bucatinsky said, but they still have to deal with the same issues, including dealing with the press.

"Our relationship," he concluded, “is good when it's great and a challenge when it's difficult."

Roos and Bucatinsky were set up by a friend and while it wasn't instant love, it was "friendship at first sight." At the time, Bucatinsky was a struggling actor in his twenties, selling T-shirts in a theater.

"Don wanted someone older and with direction," he admitted, “and he got neither." Both have made the right compromises and managed to stay together.

"The ultimate test to commitment is you care enough to do everything to try and stay together."

As for the future, Bucatinsky has many irons in the fire. He has just sold a TV pilot to CBS for an hour series format which he describes as the "first HBO-like programming for network television." After "whoring in Hollywood for money" for a long time he is thrilled “to be earning a bit of living in two years."

As for the films that his partner has made, Bucatinsky said that he is a "huge fan of each of his films for very different reasons." But for now, he is totally focused on All Over the Guy and getting the word out.

"I know that for a movie of this size with no advertising budget,” he concluded, "word of mouth is extremely important."

He is right, because if word of mouth can help his film succeed then it makes it just a little bit easier for the next independent feature.

The film is now playing at the Esquire Theatre in Cincinnati, and will open October 26 at the Cedar Lee Theater in Cleveland

Heights.