Must Read Noah Galvin Interview
Thursday, June 9, 2016 at 6:58PM If you haven't yet read Vulture's interview with Noah Galvin do that immediately.
The Real O'Neals star is candid, cocky, and catty. Though the big 3 networks have a tough time making headway in Emmy categories these days, that show would be a wonderful addition to the comedy lineups in several categories. Though Noah is the lead he's campaigning as supporting actor and he 1000% deserves a nod for his clever, heartfelt, nuanced but hilarious work as out gay teen Kenny O'Neal dealing with his Irish Catholic family and new confidence.
Still, I'm guessing Noah Galvin's scorched earth interview style, talking Hollywood's closeted gays for filth (yas queen!) and trashing Bryan Singer, Colton Haynes, Modern Family etcetera ... is not going to win him much favor in Tinsel Town though we're totally for it here at TFE. Hollywood needs to get woke on so many levels but especially in regards to ethnic and sexual diversity, both of which they're hopelessly behind with.
Here's an excerpt:
Are you trying to get me to throw somebody under the bus right now? Because I've thrown Eric Stonestreet under the bus a solid seven times this week. No, I think as wonderful of an actor as Eric Stonestreet is — I've never met him, I assume he's a wonderful guy — he's playing a caricature of a caricature of a stereotype of stereotype on Modern Family. And he's a straight man in real life. And as hilarious as that character is, there's a lack of authenticity. I think people — especially young gay kids — they can laugh at it, and they can see it as a source of comedy, but like, nothing more than that. And I want Kenny to be more than the funny gay kid.
UPDATE: Noah Galvin has retracted his comment on Bryan Singer and issued an apology to those he offended with the interview saying:
I am new to this and will certainly commit to being more thoughtful and wiser as I navigate all of this moving forward.
UPDATE #2 Colton Haynes has responded on Instagram
Reader Comments (38)
EVERYTHING he said was awesome and true. Love him.
I love everything about this interview...except his apparent unfamiliarity with queer life and culture in LA outside of Hollywood and West Hollywood. Our community is as healthy as the one in NYC and we are not all either dumb or closeted. There is life both east of LaBrea Avenue and south of Olympic Blvd., Noah. If The Real O'Neals keeps him out here, maybe he'll discover it as he matures.
He has resting gay face so his career is limited to begin with. His blunt conversation will close doors and I see bitter conversation for him in the future like that British actor who had brief relevancy when he played Julia Roberts' gay best friend.
/3rtful -- join the new century. This isn't the 80s or 90s anymore. and when it comes to Rupert Everett he was an acclaimed relevant actor before My Best Friends Wedding. He's currently starring as Oscar Wilde in a play and he has literally never stopped working so he's doing just fine.
I actually don't think that his bluntness will close doors. It will likely get him more attention/notoriety than the ratings of the show's first season did, and that's never a bad thing. And if he has the talent to back up his outspokenness, "resting gay face" won't be an issue, because it won't be true. I look forward to seeing him play parts that are nothing like Kenny.
Wow, there's already a redaction and a follow-up statement apologizing to Haynes, Stonestreet, Singer...
I feel like his handlers got scared and made him retract before he got a reaction, a legal one from Synger for example. His a young gay still just getting out there, so he could be more articulate because he could messure his words a bit. But I feel most of what he is saying. It's good to stir things up on this subjects.
His interview was great AND his show is great.
as a commenter on Vulture put it: "...he's going all Neely O'Hara [because] he completed one season of a sitcom..."
Colton Haynes response: (https://www.instagram.com/p/BGdDNtWDTCL/)
The candidness is refreshing, but I mostly find this mean spirited. People have different journeys with their sexuality, their coming out, and the lifestyle they choose to lease. Live in your own lane and don't shade people you haven't met because of their choices.
He was rather nasty with Colton Haynes- coming out is a personal choice... I hope karma doesn't come back to bite him
I am a little inclined to give him a pass but sure enough the lawyers and corporations immediately replaced his free speech moment. Colton Haynes response was perfection.
Jaragon & JoFo - see my thing is the gays need to get over the "personal choice" business and start believing that their lives are 100% as valid as straight people's and there's no point in not being out because it only adds to the narrative that there's something shameful about being gay. There's not. It's shameful to be considered a second class citizen that needs to hide.
we need more people as "fuck em if they can't take it" as this kid.
LOL this is one hilariously stupid kid.
That was one messy as fuck interview. I cackled my ass off when I read it this afternoon. I mean it's refreshing but so many of those comments are for a Friday night bitchfest with your buds and a few drinks rather than an interview to promote your show. There's a time and a place for this and this wasn't one of them.
I sincerely hope he keeps this shit up because it's beyond entertaining but he's probably going be reined in now.
Could not disagree with you more Nathaniel. Yes we should all stand up for ourselves and demand not to be treated like second class citizens, but for many the journey to even understand or accept who we are can take many paths, some thornier for some. You haven't lived Colton's life or anyone else's whose coming out was different than yours. But, though I found this interview funny, it was funny in a mean girls kinda way.
I agree with Derreck completely. This type of speech Is better reserved for casual conversations with friends and close ones. It is neither professional nor honorable to trash people you have never met in a public interview. Especially people who work in your business and people who may be professionally harmed by your words. I agree with some of the things he said about Colton Haynes who in my opinion is incredibly annoying and non genuine but the speech is crass. He is too young and new in the game to take such professional risks and he would be lucky if he comes out of this untarnished.
I also think that gay men should not attack other gay men in such a manner in public forums. Galvin himself attested to the difficulties of thriving as a gay man in that business. What is the point of creating animosity and conflict within the community. Are Noah's words really going to inspire closeted actors to come out? It seems pointless and reckless. And like him or not, Colton Haynes, in his own ken doll way, has done something very very few others have done. He's a heartthrob who has actually come out of the closet. He was not caught in a public restroom or cornered by Barbara Walters. He actually made a decision, a very risky one, at a very young age to come out. And we are yet to see if he has any career to speak of afterwards.
Celebrate the men for "trashtalking" other men, but when women does the "trashtalking", call them a bitch.
I think someones journey with their sexuality is so much more than a case of being out and proud at the end of it. The personal journey is an entirely personal, it also effects the people around out. 'Fuck em if they can't take it' is true in many cases, but in some it is literally life and death involved. This may not be the case, but eat person has such a specific experience, I shudder than anyone would be critical of anyone else.
He reminds me of the many twentysomethings I've met who think they know it all and start shooting words aimlessly from their hips. It is one thing to be proud and out, it's another to deconstruct someone else's coming out and vilify its authenticity.
As a fan of wildly candid showbiz interviews, I love this.
On the other hand, as a PR student, I feel desperately sorry for the publicists charged with mopping up after him.
Some people should keep their thought to themselves,not that I was aware of the 2 people Colton whatever and this young actor fella.
I'm not a fan of what I've seen of the show or his performance, but it's shitty that this will probably come with further consequences for him. The interview reads like he got very comfortable with the interviewer, so maybe there's a sugarcoating to the candidness that never came into play.
I agree with his sentiments about coming out in Hollywood, but maybe calling someone's coming out process a "pussy" move is less eloquent than calling it ingenuine or harmful. The schoolyard terms don't help his case, even though he's right. Yes for the average person, safety can be a factor in coming out, but let's keep it 100: a famous, or quasi-famous person is not at physical harm for coming out.
The Eric Stonestreet bit is very on point and valuable so I hate that that was specifically something he apologized for. There's nothing wrong in saying it's a good performance that isn't real, especially considering what that show is going for. Whenever I've had my husband and myself referred to as a "Mitch and Cam".... *flames*
Have to politely disagree with you, Nathaniel, as well. While entertaining in a "he didn't say that did he" way and containing some worthwhile calls to action, I think it's immature. Why is this cool but the recent takedown of Keira was not acceptable? Beyond the personal attacks, I also find his discussion of gay promiscuity retrograde. Be ballsy. Call out injustice (look at the amazing way #starringJohnCho accomplishes that) but not like it's the high school cafeteria. Don't we get enough of that from a certain Presidential candidate?
Tom M -- I guess it's a tonic for me because gays are WAY TOO CAUTIOUS worrying what straight people will think. I hope the LGBT community can move forward and be as emboldened as, for instance, the black community who are rapidly approaching 'no fucks left to give' about racist white people and getting very political.
This is VERY different than the Keira takedown. By all accounts (other than Carney's) Keira is a professional actress who is not a diva and does not travel with an entourage. There is absolutely nothing wrong with what Noah said about Eric Stonestreet (it's 100% true and he complimented him as far as he could given what he was saying) and the general knocks on how weak willed actors are about coming out was spot on as well (though yes, he maybe could have been kinder to Colton Haynes... but the frustration with people who just take forever even though everyone knows is real. see also Jodie Foster hinting for her entire career and never being able to just say "I'M GAY. DEAL WITH IT"
He's speaking truth but people just aren't ready to hear it yet I guess.
I agree with you Nathaniel. It is refreshing to see a 'no fucks left to give' kind of gay in a way, being so vocal in public. I guess is just a case of him being too young and not understanding how to take this approach in a powerful way.
He raised some valid questions, but the way he talks hurts the message, it comes off too harsh. Actors are too afraid to come out, yes, and even when they do we get so many ones that come out but keep trying to down play the gay. We do need more vocal people.
The take down on Colton Haynes and his comming out journey was a bit much. The frustration with people who take forever to come out while living in a "glass closet" is so real, but still, he could've made his point better.
And the Modern Familly bit was such a valuable discussion to be had so I hate that he apologized for that like someone said here. There's a much bigger talk to be had about the kind of representation that goes on that show.
I think there's a legitimate discussion to be had about actors like Colton Haynes, who are coy with their sexuality and then come out... but are white, conventionally handsome, masculine, and are notable but not really "famous" so that coming out is more of a good publicity act than anything risky. I don't think the whole "coming out is your personal journey!" thing can be neatly applied to a public figure living in a glass closet, and I don't always think these actors coming out is such an "omg so brave" act.
I appreciate that Galvin gave such a candid and at times crass interview (but so did RuPaul a few months ago, and everyone loved that). Why do gays (especially younger ones) need to be so nice and ideal role model-y and nonthreateningly gay in every interview? Galvin owns his sexuality in a way other out actors don't- probably because Galvin is less "masc."
This kid needs to go to finishing school. His whole attitude reeks of millennial entitlement. Maybe Professor Higgins can take him on as his new assignment.
As far as Eric Stonestreet, once again, everyone is missing the point of Modern Family. Every single character on this show is a stereotype. That is the relevant perspective. And the show is about how those caricatures are subverted through the storylines and performance. Gloria is more than just a hot Latina trophy wife with big boobs. And Eric is not doing pinkface--the character is way too layered for that.
Maybe it would have been seen as coy, but if he would've dissed Haynes without actually calling him out -- say "I'm not like these actors who feel they have to make a publicity stunt out of coming out, no T no shade" -- it wouldn't have been such a firestorm. Instead it came off as mean and personal, and Haynes was right to clap back. Also, Colton Pussy Haynes is going to be my new drag name.
Yet I also feel hypocritical because I was more disappointed in him retracting everything right away as that was obviously his PR or ABC.
Agreed, Austin. I can't imagine how difficult Colton Haynes' journey was. :( :(
Also, it should be said, using "pussy" and "faggot" as insults reeks of misogyny and internalized homophobia. If he doesn't know the problem with using these words, then he should make take a step back and educate himself before patting himself on the back for being so edgy and outspoken.
I don't care about most of his slams (Colton Haynes has quite literally gotten away with blackface because he's such a generically pretty white dude, mock away) but that one rant about the guy who was unsure about his sexuality after the glass closet question was just tacky.
I think the problem is not someone like Colton Hayne's but gays who have actual power in Hollywood but still refuse to green light a major production with a gay theme- "Brokeback Mountain" is beginning to look like ancient history.
<I hope the LGBT community can move forward and be as emboldened as, for instance, the black community who are rapidly approaching 'no fucks left to give' about racist white people and getting very political.>
What does this even mean? Such a statement marginalizes the experiences of "Blacks" and "gays," and negates the existence of those who happen to be both.
As for Galvin, of course he doesn't or have to give two fucks: He's a young white gay man on a successful network series. Membership does have its privileges...
Newmoonson -- how does it negate the experience of Black people and the LGBT community to praise one minority for recent activism and wish the other would stop being so into respectability politics?
I am aware that you can be both -- many people belong to more than one minority group. It doesn't mean that different groups all share the exact same history of oppression or have reacted to it in the exact same ways.
and I'm also aware that there are dangers in talking about groups as monolithic entities when every group has so much diversity within it but in order to talk about communal political movements you have to.
The problem? Looking at groups through a monolithic lens means you will fail to recognize the most obvious connections. The Black Lives Matter movement (which I gather you are silently referring to in your comparison of the two communities’ political movements) was conceived by Black women who are queer (while its most prominent spokesperson is a Black gay man). So, when you wish that gays were as unapologetic and uncompromising as Blacks, you’re erasing the lives and activism of those who are both.
I have nothing interesting to add except that he lives in my neighborhood lol. Every time I'm bored/horny and download Grindr for a few days (until realizing yet again why I deleted it before), he's one of the closest people to me. lmao. According to his profile, he likes older guys. (In LA it's not weird to find quasi-celebrities on Grindr. I once had a two message exchange with Violet Chachki on there too :p)