Urie and Jennifer Coolidge in a still from Single All The Way. Photo: Philippe Bosse/Netflix
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https://scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3158276/netflixs-first-gay-romcom-single-all-way-brings-christmas Entertainment
Netflix’s first gay romcom, Single All the Way, brings Christmas cheer in a story that refreshingly steers clear of the usual LGBT trauma narrative
- Instead of another story about traumas queer people face, Single All the Way tells a festive story about the lives of gay people after they come out
- Star Michael Urie hopes the film, which has a cameo by gay icon Jennifer Coolidge, will give LGBT kids an idea of ‘what they might become when they grow up’
Philemon Chambers and Michael Urie in Single All The Way. Netflix’s first gay holiday romantic comedy is one that refreshingly avoids a coming out story and caters to a queer audience. Photo: Philippe Bosse/Netflix
Be prepared for more than just holiday cheer this December – get ready for holiday queer, too.
Netflix’s first gay holiday romantic comedy, Single All the Way (now streaming), has arrived to lift holiday spirits and change up a traditionally heterosexual genre.
Yes, there have been a glut of LGBT holiday romance films as of late – Hulu’s Happiest Season and Hallmark’s The Christmas House both premiered last year, among others – but this one refreshingly avoids a coming out story and caters to a queer audience.
Not to mention that the presence of gay icon Jennifer Coolidge (Legally Blonde, The White Lotus) was “like a gay dream come true”, says star Michael Urie.
The film centres around Peter (Urie) and Nick (Philemon Chambers), best friends and roommates in Los Angeles who have always kept their relationship platonic.
Peter brings Nick home to New Hampshire for the holidays, where he plans to lie and pass Nick off as his boyfriend to show his family he can actually be in a relationship – like many a romcom protagonist who gets grief about being single.
But when Peter’s mother, Carole (Kathy Najimy), sets him up with her spin class instructor James (Luke Macfarlane), both Peter and Nick are forced to grapple with how they really feel about each other.
The script floored Chambers. “It’s a family trying to love their son, wanting the best for their son,” Chambers says. “I’ve never seen that portrayed where there is a gay son and the family who is heterosexual wants the son to be in a relationship with another gay man.”
Najimy – who’s been an LGBT activist since the 1970s – also couldn’t help but marvel at the script. So many straight holiday romcoms aren’t realistic but offer a glimpse at a kinder world. Why couldn’t the same be done for gay stories?
Urie, Kathy Najimy and Luke Macfarlane in Single All The Way. Photo: Philippe Bosse/Netflix
“Although we know that this isn’t the experience for a lot of LGBT people, that it’s that easy, that their families and the communities are supportive, I thought it was a great example of what it could be,” she says over the phone, taking a breather from filming Hocus Pocus 2.
Netflix approached screenwriter Chad Hodge (The Darkest Minds, Good Behavior) and asked him to write the streaming giant’s first gay Christmas romantic comedy. The gay writer had never written a Christmas movie before but likes to keep himself on his toes.
He wrote the role of Peter’s Aunt Sandy – a former off-Broadway diva in charge of the local Christmas pageant – with Coolidge in mind, with no guarantee she’d actually sign on. That turned out to be an early Christmas present.
“I made a list when I was starting out writing this movie of all the things I would want to see in a gay Christmas movie,” he says, “and one of the things was Jennifer Coolidge.”
Also on Hodge’s wish list for the film: an accepting family atmosphere; a distinction between big city gay life and small town life; and what you give up when you’re far from your loving family.
And instead of another story riddled with trauma queer people face for just existing, Single All the Way opts to tell a story about the lives of gay people after they come out and what their adulthood looks like.
Chambers in Single All The Way. Photo: Philippe Bosse/Netflix
Urie has grown all too familiar with coming out stories and acknowledges their importance. But he knows tales beyond that deserve moments in the spotlight, too.
“I’ve done coming out stories. I’ve been in stories about homophobia, I’ve been in stories about shame, I’ve been in stories about trauma in relation to the LGBT community,” he says. “There is still a place for films like that. But we are allowed to represent ourselves and tell stories about ourselves the way that the world is for a lot of us – and the way that the world should be for all of us.”
Hodge agrees, saying he wanted to create a story that felt recognisable “in unique ways” to a gay audience, peppering the film with references to Instagays (gay Instagram users), dating app Grindr and pop divas.
Urie desired a role in a romantic comedy early in his career but stopped dreaming of opportunities that didn’t exist. “I had to stop dreaming that because I didn’t really get to play straight characters, certainly not romantic leads,” he says.
Today, those behind Single All the Way hope the film can lighten up some strait-laced – emphasis on the straight – Scrooges out there over the holidays.
“Hopefully, some people will put it on this Christmas and it’ll make some families a little bit more accepting, maybe broaden some people’s minds a little bit and certainly give queer kids watching something to look to that is representational of what they might become when they grow up and bring someone home for Christmas,” Urie says.