As the LGBTQ community continues to face threats to their safety and rights as equal American citizens, the cast and creatives of “Plainclothes” were quick to admit that things feel “terrifying” right now. But that’s what makes their film so important for others to see, they shared.
Having its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year, “Plainclothes” tells the story of a promising undercover police officer assigned to lure and arrest gay men, who defies those orders when he falls in love with a target. Starring “The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes” star Tom Blyth, Russell Tovey, Maria Dizzia and others, the film is set in the 1990s.
But stopping by TheWrap’s Sundance Studio presented by World of Hyatt, Tovey said that it unfortunately doesn’t feel like a story of the past.
“The world moves in circles, and you would hope that, you know, this would be a period piece, and this would be stuck in that time in history, and we’ve moved on,” he said. “We haven’t. You just look at what’s happening in the last few days. This is terrifying times.
“And this sort of work has to be visible, and we have to tell these stories, and you have to normalize it, and you have to see these experiences and understand that, you know, there’s humanity there,” he continued. “That you can’t demonize a whole community of people because of a certain rhetoric. We have that responsibility.”
Written and directed by Carmen Emmi, “Plainclothes” is inspired by a true story, but Emmi also infused his own experiences of coming out in the ’90s and having a brother who was becoming a police officer.
“I was just doing a lot of soul searching and reflecting on my own life, and I kind of pinpointed 1997 as the year where I had in my mind that being gay was bad and not desirable as a boy. And that’s when I knew I wanted [this] story to be set during that time.”
In making the film, Emmi also made sure to send early cuts to fellow queer filmmakers, as “Plainclothes” marked his first-ever screenplay.
“Ira Sachs, Oliver, Hermanus, and they — amazing support. I mean, I met Ira in the Waverly Diner in New York, and it’s honestly still like — I feel like it’s a movie in my mind. It’s just something I’ll always remember for the rest of my life. People have been so supportive, especially filmmakers. It’s been wonderful.”
You can watch TheWrap’s full conversation with the “Plainclothes” cast and filmmaker in the video above.
The post Russell Tovey Says LGBTQ Drama ‘Plainclothes’ Is Sadly Resonant in Today’s ‘Terrifying Times’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.