LOCAL FEATURE

Charlie David
Star of the hit indie comedy, "A Four Letter Word."

By DAN RENZI
Thursday, May 15, 2008

Fort Lauderdale’s Gateway Cinemas hosts the gay indie film “A Four Letter Word,” starring Charlie David (“Dante’s Cove”) and Jesse Archer (“Slutty Summer).  The film won a positive review from The New York Times, described as “good natured raunchiness;” it opened in Fort Lauderdale on May 9.   Express caught up with David, to ask him about relationships, nakedness, and what that “four letter word” really means.

The film just opened in Fort Lauderdale, so I haven’t seen it yet.  What’s it about?

It’s about finding love in New York City, which is definitely a difficult thing to do.  And it asks some questions about the meaning of relationships…but in the end, it’s just for fun.  You’re not going to walk away learning any life lessons, but you might walk away feeling like you just ate too much cotton candy.

Do you think it is difficult to find love?

I think it is difficult, especially living in metropolitan areas, where we have the tendency to be looking for the next best thing.  And it’s an unfortunate part of our culture that we’re always looking to upgrade, whether it’s houses or cars or boyfriends.  I think there are definitely men who do stick it out and are monogamous or whatever, but there are also those of us where that’s not in the cards.  And that’s a question the film asks: as gay men, we’re able to define our own rules, so what should they be?  Should we be pursuing marriage in the traditional sense?

Do you think it’s difficult to be monogamous?

I’m single right now, so I don’t know if it really applies.  But I’ve always pursued monogamy in relationships, so I guess it’s worked for me.  I believe in whatever is right or two or three individuals, or four or whatever.

But the film is about finding love in New York  Do you think the problem is just that gay men in the big cities are tempted by too many choices?

Yeah, I guess gay men out on a farm in Colorado don’t have as much available, so they are more likely to hang on to what they have.

These guys keep dumping their boyfriends to get someone who is cuter, and then when they’re 65 and alone, they look back and think ‘Oh, I should have stayed with the first boyfriend I had.’  But by then it’s too late.
I think that would make a very interesting film.

Do you think straight people ask each other this question?

No. But that’s silly, because it’s not like it’s only gay men who face these issues.  I mean, really, why do you think the divorce rate is so high in America?  It’s because people are sleeping with other people.  And people haven’t necessarily defined what the boundaries are in their relationships.

There is a lot of full-frontal nudity in this film.  Do you get naked?

Does underwear count?

No.

Oh.  Then no, I do not get naked in this film.

Why not?

Because it wasn’t called for, I guess. It wasn’t in the script.

So what?

Well, I’m not just going to get naked randomly.

If you were given a part in the film that did include nudity, would you have done it?

(pause) Ummm…no.

Why not?

Because…it wasn’t necessarily done in a way I would feel comfortable with.  Y’know, there’s a huge temptation in gay cinema to be overly-sexualized, and I think that in some way that’s to our detriment.  It’s not as good as it could be, because sometimes we take the easy way out.

Would you ever get naked in a film?

I would if it was artistically significant.  I have no problem with nudity itself, if it is artistically significant.  And porn, I have nothing against porn.  Get rid of the story line, I go for that when it’s what I want.

Enough about you being naked. Why are gay stereotypes funny?

Y’know, I think we see ourselves in the stereotypes at some point in our lives.  People who see the film say “Oh my God, I recognize myself” in the film.  And that’s what’s funny about it. It’s the recognition factor, of going ‘I’ve been the super-tramp,’ or ‘I’ve been the guy in drag at the party.’  It’s so over-the-top, but we’re looking in the mirror a little bit.  We’ve all been there at some point.

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