Dustin Lance Black says it was "unprofessional" for an interviewer to
ask Taylor Lautner if Black and director Gus Van Sant made a pass at him
when the three recently had dinner, and he said it perpetuates stereotypes about
gay people.
Black just launched a new website, and on his blog he addresses GQ's cover interview with Lautner. Black writes:
"For my very first post I’d hoped to keep it light and talk about how my new swimming pool isn’t coming along at the rate I’d hoped (fingers crossed for summer 2012). Instead, more than a few friends and co-workers pointed me to a recent GQ interview with Taylor Lautner and I felt I had to respond. Evidently the GQ writer asked whether director Gus Van Sant and writer Dustin Lance Black made a pass at him when the three dined together in Los Angeles recently. Really Mr. GQ writer? I’m curious, will you be asking all of the handsome actors I’ve ever had the privilege of working with or meeting if I made passes at them as well? I’d love to be there when you ask Sean Penn that same question. Or, Mr. GQ writer, were you projecting your own unprofessional desires onto me and Gus? Perhaps? Or worse still, are you a homophobe? Above and beyond this clear attack on my character, I’m shocked that GQ would allow their writer to lean on the scurrilous, outdated stereotype that gay men are by nature sexual predators. I mean, would you have asked this same question if it were Diablo Cody and Kathryn Bigelow at dinner with Mr. Lautner? Leaning on lies, myths and stereotypes about gay people is hateful, harmful and outdated. It’s not the 1950s anymore GQ, it’s 2011 and it’s time to grow up."
Black's latest screenplay, J. Edgar, was turned into a hotly anticipated film directed by Clint Eastwood and stars Leonardo DiCaprio as controversial FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover. It will open in theaters next month.
READER COMMENTS (