Armistead Maupin talks!

Armistead Maupin is a man I dreamt up was the title of a 1993 BBC documentary that fueled further speculation that the famous gay author's name is, in fact, an anagram. Not true, says Maupin, writer of the celebrated six-book Tales of the City series.

But dreams and deceptions are never far from the heart of a Maupin tale, and The Night Listener, Maupin's most recent book--now a major film--is no exception. Maupin sat down with PlanetOut for a phone interview from his San Francisco home this week.

Tell us about the film The Night Listener.
The film itself involves a New York City radio storyteller, Gabriel Noone, who strikes up a friendship with one of his fans, an abused 14-year-old teenager who is suffering from AIDS, who does not have much longer to live. This friendship comes into his life at an important time, because he has just broken up with his partner and he's in need of a friendly listener. His partner begins to raise questions about the caller on the other end of the line, and all hell breaks loose.

I don't want to tell much more than that because I think it's the type of film that people should discover for themselves. There is a lot going on in this film that you don't see coming.

Now this was based on a real life experience that you had yourself, correct?
Absolutely; the real-life story is somewhat like I just told you. I was sent the galleys of a manuscript back in 1993 and subsequently struck up a friendship with a kid on the phone. My partner, Terry Anderson, who is also one of the screenwriters, initially brought up the question of the child's identity. Unlike Gabriel, I suspected something was going on somewhat earlier. But it was hard to wrap my head around why someone would do this. It may interest you to know that my breakup with Terry and this mystery did not happen concurrently in real life. That is a writer's device, which places Gabriel under even greater pressure when the mystery begins to reveal itself. I actually began to write the novel about two weeks after Terry and I broke up. I think the entire piece is colored by the gloom and despair of that experience.

Why did you choose to partner with Terry on the screenplay? Did that come about naturally?
I felt it was the right thing to do because we had both shared the experience. Not only the mystery of the boy on the phone, but the breakup itself -- I think it was a lot harder on both of us than either one imagined, because it requires you to dredge up a lot of old shit and discuss each other's angles on that shit. (Laughs.)