QX: Because they're irrelevant. You watch a film like American Beauty, which was essentially a gay film, but no one ever mentions that. It was a huge success on every level.
RG: Or going back further, My Beautiful Launderette, which was completely a gay film but was never discussed in that way. It's almost if people perceive the film as having a certain level of quality it no longer becomes a gay film. Which is truly insulting.
QX: Or if it has a recognisable star. If Rupert Everett is in it, playing a gay character, it doesn't count.
RG & WW: Right!
RG: I mean I would certainly like to think that In and Out was not a gay film, because I found it really offensive! But that was a big-budget Hollywood movie with stars that nobody thought twice about going to see, even though it was obsessed with ridiculous ideas of gay and not gay.
WW: In Britain gay and straight entertainment has been so fused for so long. For 20 years the general public has seen gay characters in Eastenders who are normal human beings with loves and hates and problems paying the rent just like everyone else. Why is it that the cinema can't make a similar transition? I mean for a long time gay people have been going to the cinema and identifying with straight characters without any problem. It's about time that if you can't identify with a gay character in the lead, well that's your problem and the film shouldn't pander to you.
QX: You obviously had a lot of fun coming up with the titles in The Fluffer. What's your favourite porn film title?
WW: I think my favourite title is my own movie, but Richard invented the title: Dr Jerkoff and Mr Hard. It's the classic 20th century masculinity myth about the schlumpy physics professor who finds a magic potion and becomes a porno sex god. And Armistead Maupin mentions it in the first chapter of his latest novel.
QX: So are you going to go back and do more porno stuff, now that you've done a proper feature? WW: I went back and I've done a film called The Porno Picture of Dorian Grey, which is a riff on the classic Oscar Wilde story and it turned out really good. I think that on the whole I'm looking towards feature films now-Richard and I are working on two new projects together-but I think I'll always have an eye for porno!