What Inspired Gay Filmmaker Casper Andreas? Queeried Finds Out…

Originally from Sweden, Casper Andreas has quickly become one of the most prolific gay filmmakers of our times, having released a whole host of films that include “Slutty Summer,” “A Four Letter Word,” “Between Love & Goodbye,” just wrapped production on “Violet Tendencies” (with Mindy Cohn).

Also an Out 100 honoree,  Casper’s latest film, “The Big Gay Musical,”  will be released on both DVD and Blu-Ray on April 6, but don’t think that’s all he’s up to, as this talented filmmaker is juggling that with the shooting of his sixth film, “Going Down in La-La Land,” in LA!

Thanks for joining us Mr. Andreas!

Thank you for having me!

You are about to release your next film, “The Big Gay Musical,” on DVD and Blu-Ray on April 6. Can you tell us a little bit about this film?

It’s a gay musical love story! The film is about the production of an Off-Broadway show called “Adam & Steve, Just the way God Made ‘em” and about the lives of the two actors playing Adam and Steve in the show. One of them deals with finding love and the other one deals with coming out to his Southern Baptist parents and accepting himself as gay. The film has great musical song and dance numbers, lots of comedy and some drama too. It’s a lot of fun!

You are quite the prolific filmmaker, working now on your sixth film, “Going Down in La-La Land.” What gives you the energy to keep working and creating fun and interesting films?

Well I have to keep doing it because the alternative is getting a day job! In order to keep making films I have to keep my budgets very low but that also means I can’t pay myself very much. Maybe one day I can take two years to make one film but I haven’t reached that point yet…. The energy comes from having a lot of fun making them though. I love doing creative stuff and I can’t think of any job more creative than making films. But not everything I do originates with me. I get to work with many other very creative and fun people who bring so much to the table.

Your last film, “Between Love & Goodbye,” had a bit of a mixed reaction from critics and fans, simply due to its darker undertones. Did this make you question the future films you will release, or were you happy with the end product being a bit darker?

I wanted to make “Between Love & Goodbye” for a long time and I was very happy with how the film turned out. Of course I would have liked everyone to love the film but as with all my films, some people love them, some people don’t. People who expected a fun and upbeat movie like “A Four Letter Word” did not get it. On the other hand, I never got so many emails about any other film from people who tell me they LOVE LOVE LOVE the film, how much they cried, and that they watched it over and over again, so I know it touched many people. Ultimately, it’s a cautionary tale about a beautiful love story going bad and my goal with it was to get people to think about how they choose to treat loved ones and not to take love for granted.

As far as the future goes — I want to keep making different types of movies. I don’t want to get stuck in any particular category of films. And though most of the films I have made have been on the lighter side with lots of comedy, my favorite films that I like to watch are all dramas so I definitely would like to do that again!

In addition to filmmaking, do you dabble in or excel at other types of art?

Well in addition to directing, I also write and act. In addition to screenplays, I plan to write a novel one day. I used to paint and draw a lot but that has been a while since I did that. Maybe I’ll pick it up again when I get older. I always loved being creative and I’m very happy to be able to have a job where I get to do that.

For your next film, “Violet Tendencies,” you enlisted the help of veteran “Facts of Life” actress Mindy Cohn. Why did you choose Mindy, and were there other actresses who you went after to play her role?

There were other actresses we considered for the role before someone suggested we should look into getting Mindy for the role. Mindy loved the script and wanted to do it and we chose her because she was perfect for the role. As a self-proclaimed “fag hag” in her early 40s, Mindy had the character of Violet down!

Can you tell us a little bit about what we can expect to see in “Violet Tendencies?”
“Violet Tendencies,” which we shot in the summer of 2009 and will premiere sometime this spring, is a lot of fun! Jesse Archer wrote the script and brought back some of the characters that appeared in the other two films we made together — “Slutty Summer” and “A Four Letter Word,” so in a way it’s the third film in a trilogy (though the films are all completely free standing). Basically it’s a film about a fruit fly who goes on a quest to find a straight man and decides to leave all her gay friends behind. It’s a straight love story set in a totally gay world. Other people in the cast include Marcus Patrick, Jesse Archer and myself reprising the role of Markus from “Slutty Summer.”

Last year, you were honored with a prestigious Out 100 award. How do you feel this award validates all of your hard work for the LGBT community?

It was of course a fantastic honor to be recognized for my work by Out Magazine. I have made all of these films with a gay audience in mind, without worrying about cross-over appeal or toning down my story-lines to appeal to straight audiences. The reason being that I feel gay audiences deserve to have films made for them telling our stories. “Slutty Summer” was about finding love in a promiscuous world; “A Four Letter Word” was about dealing with being true to who yourself; “Between Love & Goodbye” dealt with breaking up and letting go; “The Big Gay Musical” deals with many gay issues, but primarily with loving yourself for who you are; and “Violet Tendencies” is about the true meaning of family. Of course straight people can relate to all these topics too and I love when I hear from them saying that they do despite the fact that the characters are gay.

Now I’m not saying that I always will make films about gay people cause I want to do different things, but it is very nice to get recognition, like the Out 100 award, and get validation that what I do as has some value.

“Going Down in La-La Land” will be your first L.A. production; a change from most of your other films being based in New York City. What makes L.A. different from New York? How will this change the content of the film? Can you tell us a bit about this film?

This film has to be shot in L.A. because it’s about struggling actors in L.A. and some of the things they go through trying to make it in Hollywood. I’m about to start shooting it here in L.A. and what I learned so far is that L.A. is not very film-friendly and it’s very difficult to make a low-budget film here. The city charges a lot for permits, and forces you to get cops and firemen to watch over you at times that we have to pay for. In New York, the city gives you free permits, free locations if they are owned by the city — like parks, free parking and free cops if you need to stop traffic, etc. Plus, we get tax breaks, so I very much prefer shooting in New York. But the challenge is fun and this film HAS to be shot here so there is no way around it.

For “The Big Gay Musical,” fans will see practically a full cast of Broadway- and Off-Broadway-based actors and actresses. What do you feel the difference is in casting theater actors from film actors?

Though most of the actors in “The Big Gay Musical” had very little film experience, I was very impressed with how easily they picked up on everything. Of course since they were mostly Broadway talent, they had fantastic skills and were quick to learn new tricks! Some of them wore themselves out too quickly, sometimes by going full out when they did their big song or dance numbers, not realizing that we have to do it again and again, but of course that gave us fantastic performances! Another thing I really liked was that theater actors were much less concerned about their sexuality than actors working primarily in film, and basically all our cast in this film is openly gay.

“The Big Gay Musical” is said to be the first independent gay title to be released on Blu-Ray. Do you feel that Blu-Ray is the way of the future and will replace the DVD format, or do you see it as duplicating something that is already available, which is the DVD?

Of course the image is much better and since we shot it on HD, it’s exciting to release it on Blu-Ray. It will look fantastic! It’s much better than DVD. But I don’t personally think Blu-Ray will ever get as big as DVD was. The future is in streaming or downloading films online.

You’re working on your most anticipated film; a film that is going to define you as a filmmaker. And you have to choose one actor and actress to star in the film. Who do you choose?

Wow, is this like in general? It of course depends on the film and who is right for the roles. There are so many wonderful actors I would love to work with. Kate Winslet probably being No. 1.

Which do you find to be easier: filming from a script you have written, or someone else’s?

Tough question. It’s easier to explain to everyone on my crew and the actors why something has to be done in a certain why if I wrote the script since I know exactly why I wrote it the way I did. Of course if I didn’t write it, it’s much easier to blame the script when things are not working

If you were not a filmmaker, what would you be?

Well I started as an actor, so I might be pursuing that harder if I wasn’t making films. I always loved writing, so maybe I would be an author or journalist. But so many other subjects interest me too — history, religion, psychology. I think it’s great though that as a filmmaker I can explore all my interests by what I choose to make a film about. It’s a big dream of mine to combine filmmaking with my interest in history by making period films.

Would you ever do a documentary?

Yes, I would love to. Some of the most important films made have been documentaries. To me that seems so hard to do though. Without a written script and dialogue — how will you even know when you are done!

Overall, would you like to be remembered for your comedies or dramas?

I like all the films I have made and all my films have both comedy and drama in them. I love a good drama myself and I would definitely like to make more dramas but I have the most fun making comedies. So I can’t really answer that question. I would like for each of my films to be important to at least some people.

Thanks so much for sharing your time with us, Casper! It was a pleasure.

Thank you!! Now go out and buy “The Big Gay Musical!”