Noam Ash was about 27 years old when he and his then-boyfriend called it quits. At the time, Ash didn\u2019t have much money nor another place to live.<\/p>\n
What did he do?<\/p>\n
He moved in with his grandparents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lived with them for over a year,\u201d Ash tells me. \u201cIt was the best year, but honestly, I was so mortified and embarrassed by the whole thing. I did not want anyone to know that I lived with them. But my manager at the time thought it was hysterical. She said, \u2018You have to write something about this.\u2019 And then I did and this is the result of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The this is \u201cBookends,\u201d a rom-com written by and starring Ash as an aspiring novelist who finds romance with his grandparents\u2019 doctor (Charlie Barnett) when he moves in with them after he finds out his boyfriend (Spencer Belko) is having an affair with their spin instructor (Jared Reinfeldt).<\/p>\n
Noam Ash and Charlie Barnett in \u201cBookends\u201d<\/p>\n
Ash\u2019s grandparents died before the movie, directed by Mike Doyle, got made. \u201cThey did know that I was writing this, this piece, and that it was really a love letter to them,\u201d Ash says.<\/p>\n
Caroline Aaron and F. Murray Abraham play Nate\u2019s grandparents. As the movie unfolds, the grandfather begins to show signs of dementia. \u201cFor my mom and my aunt, it\u2019s their dad,\u201d Ash says. \u201cWhen they watched the movie, they were like, \u2018Oh, my god, it\u2019s dad.\u2019 My mother asked if I showed Murray videos of grandpa. I was like, \u2018No. It\u2019s all in the writing, honey. My mom was like, \u2018How does he know the mannerisms and the hand gestures and everything?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Not only is Ash openly gay but so is Barnett. Authentic casting was important to Ash and Doyle. \u201cThat was something Mike and I discussed a lot,\u201d Ash says. \u201cWe also wanted to show that Jews come in all different shades, shapes and sizes and Charlie\u2019s mom was actually Jewish. He was like, \u2018I wasn\u2019t raised Jewish. I was like, \u2018That\u2019s OK. We\u2019ll claim you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
F. Murray Abraham and Caroline Aaron in \u201cBookends\u201d<\/p>\n
With an upswing in political attacks aimed at the queer community, Ash admits he initially worried that the movie would have trouble finding a distributor.<\/p>\n
But then \u201cHeated Rivalry\u201d came along.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think they proved that in the absolute biggest way that you can have the steamiest, gayest, most homoerotic show probably ever made for television, and it could also have huge mainstream success,\u201d Ash says. \u201cThat has put my mind at ease.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBookends\u201d premieres Feb. 9 at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.<\/p>\n
Source: RhinoEasy News<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Noam Ash was about 27 years old when he and his then-boyfriend called it quits. At the time, Ash didn\u2019t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1523,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1524"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1524\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rhinoeasy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}