therealstevegray.com

FIRSTLY, IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED ‘OLD DOGS AND NEW TRICKS’ YET, GODS YOU ARE NOT EVEN A SLOW ADAPTER, LET ALONE A DOUBLE ADAPTER. WATCH IT HERE RIGHT NOW, AND WILL MEET UP FOR THE INTERVIEW IN 5 MINUTES. IF YOU HAVE SEEN IT, FUCK, ISN’T IT GOOD?

JUST BRILLIANT. FUNNY, REAL, GAY, NOT PANDERING, THEY ARE NOT ALL AIR BRUSHED AND ‘WANNA BE HETEROS’, BUT ARE ALL REALLY WELL WRITTEN AND RESONATE ARE REAL MEN. AND DID I MENTION FUNNY AS A FIT? SO BEFORE THE FIRST SEASON STARTS ON JAN 8, I HAD TO TALK TO THE MIND BEHIND THE PROJECT, WHO I AM SURE WILL HAVE HATED THAT I CALLED HIM THE STAR, LEON ACORD…….

FIRSTLY, HOW ARE YOU DOING LEON? AND WHAT IS YOUR ‘BACKSTORY’?

I’m great!
I was born and grew up in Indiana, but escaped to California pretty quickly. I lived in San Francisco for about 20 years, working constantly as an actor, averaging about three plays a year and almost as many films. But when I moved to LA in 2007, the work really slowed down for me, and I thought, “Oh, god, I really have to take action here!” And that’s what prompted me to write the show.

HOW LONG HAS ‘OLD DOGS’ BEEN SIMMERING IN YOUR MIND?

I had always wanted to do a show about gay men who actually spoke and behaved like gay men, but I didn’t have a specific show in mind until I sat down and created these characters. Once I did, the show began to write itself very quickly.
Plus I’m a huge fan of traditional, three-camera sitcoms so it took a while to let that go and move into the future.

SO, WHAT HAPPENED THAT FINALLY MADE YOU WRITE THE PIECE?

By the summer of 2009, Los Angeles had really worn me down, and I went back home to Indiana for two months. It was to figure out what I wanted to do with the rest of my life, that maybe it was time to give up acting and have a real life. I found myself without internet access and cell phone reception, so I had a lot time on my hands. I started sketching out the characters and the whole show kind of exploded in my head, and I pounded out 12 episodes in two months. Before I knew it, I had created this series. I came back to Los Angeles with a renewed mission in life.

therealstevegray.com

Well, the show is, in a way, a response to the way gay men have been portrayed on network television. They are homogenized, watered down. I hear the gay characters on Brothers and Sisters could be wicked, but for the most part, gay men are always heroic and long-suffering and a bit bland and tragic. If they are sexual, then they have to be funny. If, god forbid, they are ‘of a certain age,’ then they are noble beyond belief. And they almost always only exist in relation to the lead characters—the brother, the co-worker, the neighbor. I wanted to do a show where gay men were the leads, where they spoke like gay men, and found themselves in the type of situations that they would talk about with their gay friends. I wanted characters that made mistakes, who didn’t ‘act their age,’ who weren’t always noble, who had sex and didn’t have to pay a price or seek redemption

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