Interviews: Red-Carpet Premiere of New Christmas Film ‘Scrooge & Marley’

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Richard Ganoung, Portrays the Charity Solicitor in “Scrooge & Marley”

Richard Ganoung also is notable for a lead role in the classic 1980s film, “Parting Glances.”

HollywoodChicago.com: The ‘charity solicitor,’ of course, encounters Scrooge in the beginning of the original novel. What do you bring to the character or essence of the character that was in that famous story?

Richard Ganoung: I just fed off the other actors, especially David as Scrooge. The part was expanded in our version, with a secret twist at the end.

HollywoodChicago.com: You were one of the featured players in the legendary film ‘Parting Glances.’ What was the original feeling of the film when you were first shooting it, and what has been most satisfying about the status it has achieved since?

Richard Ganoung in ‘Parting Glances’ (1987) and Today (right) Photo credit: Richard Ganoung

Ganoung: Obviously when we were making it, we didn’t know what it was going to be. I’m proud of it, it was a labor of love. The cast has kept in touch – Kathy Kinney, Steve Buscemi and I are still friends to this day, and Buscemi has said that Nick was his all-time favorite role. The writer and director, Bill Sherwood, has unfortunately passed away, so we’ve carried on as a family, and that family has stayed close since we made the film in the 1980s.

HollywoodChicago.com: Another infamous film you were in, the farce ‘Billy Hollywood’s Screen Kiss’ features a young Sean Hayes. Hayes for years would not reveal his orientation. Do you think it’s easier for a gay actor to come out now, and do you think it still can make a difference in a career?

Ganoung: It’s an excellent question, and a very personal one. I chose to come out immediately when ‘Parting Glances’ was released, in the magazine The Advocate. I think it’s every actor’s personal choice, I don’t begrudge the decision that anyone else has to make regarding it. Fortunately I think it is easier today, because of landmark films like Glances. I want to get to a point where it doesn’t matter, I want to see our orientation as incidental, and in works like ‘Scrooge & Marley’ we do see that.

HollywoodChicago.com: Finally, What was the best advice someone ever gave you about acting?

Ganoung: The best advice I’ve ever received is ‘don’t let them catch you acting.’ It’s just has to be so innate, that you just are the role, rather than just acting the role. Another piece of advice I once got was you can get your part by looking into the other actor’s eyes. They can give you what you need for the work.

Co-Directors Richard J. Knight Jr. & Peter Neville, Composer Lisa McQueen of “Scrooge & Marley”

HollywoodChicago.com: Richard and Peter, you’re taking a classic story and giving it a new twist. What kind of essence did you want to keep from the original story, and how does it speak to the gay community?

Poster for ‘Scrooge & Marley’ Photo credit: Sam I Am Films

Peter Neville: The mood, the feel and the style…that would give it the same impact as Dickens intended. It has a particular direction it goes in, and it goes there for a reason – to change people’s minds about the character of Scrooge as he goes through the redemption. In the gay community we try to do that all the time, to the change the minds of people who think gays are different or somehow bad.

Richard Knight Jr.: We wanted to honor the spirit, which I hoped we did. This is a story that has been adapted thousands of ways. There have been Diva Scrooges, Dog Scrooges and Puppet Scrooges, but there has never been a gay-themed Scrooge produced as a film. Our experience in the LGBT community lent itself beautifully to the story, especially when done in a modern day perspective. The community has had the same traditions as everyone else, so it was great to adapt this wonderful story within those traditions.

We had almost a selfish reason to make the film. Every year, my husband and I love Christmas movies, but there are very few gay-themed ones. I wanted to have one of my own. I was in a writing group with my co-screenwriters, Timothy Imse and Ellen Stoneking, and we started working on it, and then [producer] Tracy Baim got involved, and that’s how it got going. Here we are six months later, with a real movie. From this December on, I will have a gay themed Christmas film to watch every year.

HollywoodChicago.com: Lisa, what was the origin of your involvement as the film’s music composer?

Lisa McQueen: I knew Richard and Ellen, the co-writers, plus Ellen is my best friend in the world and Richard I knew from the improv scene. They asked me if I’d write the score for the film, and I said yes.

HollywoodChicago.com: What kind of feeling did you want to give the familiar story?

McQueen: I really wanted an ominous [composer] Bernard Herrmann-type of feel, with a foreboding undertone, but at the same time celebrate the campy and fun cabaret scenes the movie has. It was a challenge to balance those emotions, but those were the two tones I felt in the film.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com pat@hollywoodchicago.com