Tribeca 2023 | Our Son Interview with Bill Oliver

Recently, I interviewed Bill Oliver, who was involved in directing and co-screenwriting a film called Our Son.

The film features Billy Porter and Luke Evans, playing partners who've been married for more than a decade, and their journey of divorcing while trying to find the best past path forward for their son. It is scheduled to make its world premiere at Tribeca 2023 and will be shown at The Indeed Theater at Spring Studios & Village East by Angelika.

Watch the interview using the YouTube video player above, or click below to listen to the audio-only version. If neither is your cup of tea, keep scrolling for the transcript of the interview.

Austin: Hi, how are you doing, Bill?

Bill Oliver: I'm good. How are you?

Austin: Good. Thank you for joining me today. For those who don't know Bill Oliver is the director of the Tribeca film, Our Son, which features a couple Gabriel, played by Billy Porter and Nicky played by Luke Evans who are a gay couple who decide.

Over the course of the film to head to a divorce. I'll leave it at that. To not give up some of the character pieces in it. But it is playing June 10th at the Indeed Theater. That's where you'll have your world premiere. And ironically, and I say this ironically because you mentioned in the film, two of your films are actually at June 11th and June 14th.

So I thought that was a fun touch.

Bill Oliver: I, you know what? I hadn't even realized that until you pointed that out.

Austin: Yeah, I was

Bill Oliver: I'm worried, cuz the owns the Village East now, and I have friends who, are like, I'm worried they're gonna go to the original and not the correct place.

But thank you for the reminder.

Austin: Yeah. I was just, I make notes while I watch the films just for. My own notes to be like, oh, hey here's the thing that was noticed that I might not have picked up on. And I was like, wait did you mention ? Oh, she did. And then I looked up the Tribeca page, and I'm like, sure enough.

They're playing at the .

Bill Oliver: Not planned.

Austin: Okay. Not planned. But jokes aside, let's get into the actual film instead of where it's playing. So, I'll say for one, I loved that you set up the drastic differences between the Nicky and Gabriel really early on there. That was just fascinating to me that to plant the seed, I wanna say what is five minutes into the movie, they're going to bed and they just have totally different routines.

One you could see as the quote unquote mom, I and one as the dad who's I'll just do this. Just do that. So I guess how did you want to. Cast that when you have two different entirely different personalities.

Bill Oliver: You know, we were in the casting. It was interesting cuz at one point, I was exploring the idea of Billy as the Nicky character.

Because playing against type can also work in an interesting way. But he really preferred that role. He doesn't have kids. NIcky was the Luke was the one who was like, I love kids. And So, it was actually nice to have the character Gabriel play, who's the more sort of nurturing attentive one played by Billy, who's maybe has a more ambivalent attitude towards children.

And Luke playing Nicky, who's a little more. Removed, loving kids and having a lot of fans who are kids from some of his work. So the casting worked out nicely. But th but thank you for that because the setup is always hard. Especially when you're doing a divorce drama.

Do you wanna plant the seeds and as the audience understand you're just dropped into the middle of their lives, but you need to get a sense of what has happened before, so you really can empathize with them.

Austin: Yeah. And to make it relatable to an audience who maybe isn't gay. And it's just okay, how am I going to invest in these characters as just people. And I, another thing I noticed I'll try not to get too into the weeds with this one. You at a dinner table scene Luke Evans talks about princesses, and I'm like...first I want to ask, is that, was that just Luke Evans just cheekily, Yeah, I know I was in Beauty and the Beast.

Bill Oliver: No, I actually hadn't even thought of that either. But that was, yeah, that was a line that was yeah. Scripted for him and we wanted to, like you said, and from my own experience I am gay, but I'm also a father to two sons who have helped raise and when you start parenting, you realize you, it really is just like everyone else.

You the process of creating the family is different, but once you're in it, it's you bring in a lot of what you've learned from your own parents, who are by and large straight, and you're just dealing with the same things that everyone else is dealing with. So we wanted that sort of universality and that everydayness , but we also wanted to throw in a few little things that were more queer specific about, it's okay to be the princess if you're a boy.

And that's fine too. And in fact your dad was like that. So just a little joke that we threw in there. Yeah.

Austin: Yeah. The dinner scene with the friends, I thought was a particularly nice touch to be like, Hey, they're going out. And talking. Have friends who are also going through bang things, similar, but also not entirely because what was it one of 'em says was like, oh, I'll never have kids.

But I do wanna bring it. A little bit back to the representation side of things. I think there have been there have been a lot of attempts at LGBTQ+ representation. The most recent, I think would be bros. I think Billy Eichner's film last year. So I guess what would be your thoughts on representing LGBTQ LGBTQ families in this film?

A-and just the experience in general. Yes.

Bill Oliver: That was, I, like I said I'm a father. I was a sperm donor to a lesbian couple, so I helped create this queer family. And at the time, this was a, almost 20 years ago, there weren't many families doing it, so it was venturing into the unknown.

And it's been an adventure and it's been very exciting. So I wanted to explore that and portray that. And now, of course, there are a lot more and we haven't really seen it. Represented in a, in the context of a serious drama. We've seen it on some sitcoms and things like that where it's more played for laughs, but hadn't seen hadn't seen it done in a serious way.

And we wanted, so that was important, but also Like you said, with the friend characters who are also mostly gay and they're dealing with their own sort of things. Having a new child, celebrating a birthday, starting a new relationship holding down a job that's stressful. Tho-those things that they're going through are very intentionally, very, almost mundane, just every day things because we wanted to make a queer film, but we didn't want it to be.

We didn't wanna have to explain our queerness, we wanted to be relatable to a wide audience without having it be a lesson, so yeah.

Austin: Yeah. And I think for that reason a lot of people can connect to the divorce aspect of it. Yeah. And you fit in a nice I don't know, I always get tripped up on phrasing.

If this is a double entendre or something else, but I thought it was a nice touch. When Owen they're playing a guessing game at the dinner table and he asked, do you give up? And and I thought that was just a nice little touch of, okay, Owen is asking, do you give up? Trying to guess.

But between Gabriel and Nicky, it's do you give up on the relationship? So I thought a little touches like that were nice and I think go overlooked in a divorce drama, even in say, a critically acclaimed, in one of my favorite movies marriage story. So yeah I thought that was a nice touch.

And there's a bunch of lines I wrote down where I was just like, oof next to them because they hit to the emotional core. And so let's talk about that, the emotional impact of things. How did you wanna to get to the heart of what the emotional core of the story was?

Bill Oliver: We wanted in the writing and in the performing of the film, we wanted the actors and the characters not. We wanted to not be afraid of emotion and without becoming sentimental, of course. So that's like a tricky balance. But we wanted to show these two men being nurturing, being vulnerable, crying, but of course you also don't want it to be too bleak. So the scenes of the friends and the birthday, the celebrations, we wanted to show, the joys as well as the struggles. It is a tear jerker, so that's the end goal, but you don't want, we wanted it to end. Hopefully that was important from the beginning and and, we didn't want it to be, a slog for the audience.

Austin: Yeah. It, it was interesting because you talk about leaving room crying and there is a scene where it's just, I'm assuming Just a tripod aimed at Billy's Billy Porter's character Gabriel and just crying and then shots over. And to include that, I think gives it a sort of gravitas that I think, which is such a weird word, gra- who invented that word?

Gravitas. But, I just think it lends more to, hey, you need to feel however you need to feel, but you also need to let those emotions out when you're dealing with tough situations like this where you're talking about, don't go too into spoilers, who gets the time with Owen?

Who gets this? Who gets that? It really gets down into the minutia and. What was your, gosh, this sounds so bougie, but what, I'll just ask it anyway. What was your goal to, to going into making this movie? Was it to talk about your own experience as a sperm donor 20 years ago, or to represent something now?

It was to

Bill Oliver: represent something now, but you also, making a movie is such a long process that you have to have something at its core that you can relate to. Personally the goal was to in a lot of ways, like you said, was to fill the gap. My writing partner and I are both gay and we, our first movie.

Was did not feature gay characters. And we just were like, we wanna, it's for this second film, it was important to us to if we're not happy with the way we're being represented or we feel that what's out there isn't enough or is maybe. Not to our taste, then let's contribute something that is in our style and to our taste.

And that was, and, but we wanted to make it something very contemporary sort of Even future leaning and divorce was something, we hadn't seen before. It's a fairly new thing, so it felt a little zeitgeisty, but it wasn't really the divorce. It was really, the things that gave us the most pleasure were the kind of more everyday the scenes of just them hanging out with their friends or going to see their parents, or taking an outing, riding the subway.

Just seeing these queer characters just go through life, and trying to keep their heads above water. Like everyone else.

Austin: Yeah. And I think it felt very, and this is also one of those odd words, human to go through because I'll just say I, I will not reveal the name of the film I watched last night because I'm still under embargo.

But but I watched a movie last night and I'm like, and people don't talk like that, that's not even how people interact with one another. So, it was nice to have, you bring up the parents where that's an, that's a great scene to include because I assume one thing going into it, but another thing happens.

Again, dodging all kinds of spoilers left and right, but it's what makes the complete picture of this story, I think, and, By the way, you're getting a probably prime spot because filmed in New York, right? And during pride month. So you're just getting ...this is probably like the best platform other than, I don't know what other great platform you could have other than this to launch to have your world premiere at.

Bill Oliver: And Father's

Austin: Day, the week after. Oh, and Father's Day. So you're just going for all three of 'em. All sectors. Yeah. And but yeah, it's it's an astounding film. I regret this, that I didn't put this on my hidden Gems list that comes out later today a as of a recording. And after I watched it, I was like, ah, I missed the Hidden Gem.

But yeah I fully Recommend people go see this. It's playing gosh the 10th at 2:00 PM Eastern at the Indeed Theater at Spring Studios June 11th at 3:30 PM Eastern at the , and June 14th at 8:30 PM also at the . And those first two

Bill Oliver: On Second Avenue, not the on Houston Street.

Austin: Yeah. Don't get it twisted. Yeah. Make sure you're, when you go to Google Maps you don't go to the on Second Street because then they're gonna be like, I don't know, do you wanna see the Super Mario Bros. Movie or something?

Bill Oliver: And if you have a ticket, go early. And the.

Both the Saturday and Sunday screenings are rush only, but that does mean that there are tickets available. You just have to go early and if you are a ticket holder, you have to get there 30 minutes early because they start letting the rush line in. I was, I was told this on Sunday, so it's a good tip.

Austin: Yeah. I think just based on what- I'll give you the official spiel on Rush. Here's what Tribeca says on their website, according to Rush basically. Rush will be offered when advanced tickets for screening are no longer available. I've been used other than the Beacon Theater. The Rush system functions a standby line that will form at the venue approximately one hour prior to the scheduled start time.

So say if you're going to the three 30 at the arrive at two or two 30. And then admittance is based on however many seats they still have left. And the admins begins 10 minutes prior to the start time, so about three 20 for the June 11th screening. And then brush tickets, no extra cost as advanced tickets, and you just pay that when you enter.

But Bill, thank you so much for your time. I hope whether people are, going to Tribeca and I know actually some people are in Tribeca right now. Already going to P&I screenings and things like that. But I hope people don't I hope I'm not too late in my coverage of this and because I really do want people to see this movie because I think even if you have, like I said in the beginning, I think even if you haven't had the same experiences that Gabriel or Nicky have had, I think it's, if you're a child of divorce, I think specifically you could get.

Quite a lot out of it. Yeah, so I, I'd highly recommend it if you can make the flight or if not, I'm just telling you go fly to New York. Stand in a line for an hour and try and get into this because I think this will be one of my hidden gems of Tribeca 2023 even though I didn't have the time to include it in that article, but thank you so much, Bill

Bill Oliver: saying it now.

So that's great. And it will be playing in other festivals around the country and released widely at some point

Austin: this year or two. Yeah, maybe. Oh gosh. Who would be a good studio for this, not neon but maybe IFC maybe I could see IFC doing that. Fingers crossed, fingers cross.

Fingers crossed. Yeah. Have a great Tribeca, Bill.

Bill Oliver: Thank you so much.

Until next time!

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