Children’s Club.
A24
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A24
Firstman wrote, directed and starred in Children’s Club
It turns out that Firstman became a biological father – or, as he describes it, “uncle-dad” – last year, after donating sperm to his sister’s wife. The baby was born the same week he wrapped Children’s Club and its HBO comedy series I love Los Angeles created.
In May, Children’s Club received the Un Certain Regard prize at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s a surreal moment for Firstman, who put so much of himself into the movie. “What a blessing that we have art and we get to make things. We get to make things that change us.”
Interview Highlights
The English teacher Rotting in the sun.
Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
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Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images
Showing the ups and downs of club life
I wanted to show the ups and downs because you have both. …As homosexuals in particular, we subject ourselves to high-risk, high-risk, high-reward behaviors. I mean, we really live. And I think it’s because we haven’t been able to live for so long. I think we choose to live very hard and love very hard and sometimes that comes at a cost. So I wanted to show beauty, joy, community, connection and how we behave towards each other.
I love the texture of New York from the 70s. We shot only in places that felt like old New York. That’s why we shot in Chinatown and (the) Lower East Side, because it feels kind of unchanged, and some streets in SoHo. And we tried shooting streets with no cars, so it kind of had that older feel to it. But it was very important to us to capture a nostalgic New York that maybe doesn’t really exist anymore.
We were allowed into these spaces because of my involvement in the last decade with clubbing and having friends. And there was a sense of community in the film that made the underground queer rave scene in New York want to come forward because they believed that what we were doing would be positive representation because of its honesty. …
No shade to background actors, but they don’t look like club kids. This is simply not the case. We had to have a certain amount, just, like, for SAG rules, but we kind of hid them in the back. A lot of people showed up for this movie in the community.
Sneaking around New York when I was a teenager
(I went) alone to the city with my backpack and (I went) alone to the auditions. I would like to stay with friends I knew during a summer camp. I convinced my parents that I hadn’t had school on Fridays for two years and that they were going through a divorce themselves, so I don’t think they were listening to anything, so they believed me somehow. …I would take the train from where my high school was in Syosset, into town on Thursdays, stay at my friend Ben’s house on the Upper West Side from Thursday to Monday morning, come back, go to school for a few days, then do it again. So I was really living a very independent life. My parents didn’t know where I was from Thursday to Monday.
I I love Los Angeles
I think it takes a lot of tenacity to make it in Hollywood, and it’s not easy. You have to have so much confidence in yourself to keep going because there are years and years where you get these minor signs that maybe you’re worth something, but most of the time they’re major signs that you’re not worth something. I was a photobooth operator for celebrity events aged 21-23 and so I was surrounded by all these celebrities. It’s really funny: there are people who I won’t name who I took pictures of back in the day who were so mean to me and who are now in my DMs saying, “I’m obsessed with you!” … “You are my favorite actor!” It’s funny how Los Angeles and the social hierarchy works. I worked very hard for many years. I feel at home in Los Angeles now, and I feel like I’ve made a name for myself, and I’ve accomplished what I wanted to accomplish, and I feel good about it.
Thérèse Chaloner and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the Web.
