Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer Share Boys in the Band Moments That Moved Them

Netflix's take on the groundbreaking LGBTQ+ Tony-Award winning play The Boys in the Band premiered last week, and PRIDE spoke with the cast about the moments from the film that moved them.  

The movie centers around a birthday dinner that delves into madness when the men, led by Jim Parsons' character Michael, begin taking out their insecurities on each other during a particularly wicked party game. The film achingly captures the strength and self-loathing it took to live a gay life in the 1960s.

Star Jim Parsons reflects on how far we've come since the original film originally and how it's moved him to interrogate his own privilege. "We're so fortunate to live in a time where I've been able to kind of ignore some of the subtle ways where there is still homophobia," he says. "You see it sometimes but it's not as overt and you can get by and not deal with it consciously as much. Going through this, I realized there's a lot inside me still that I have not let myself acknowledge completely, and that's a process. As different as things are from 50 years ago when this story took place, the residual stuff is still there and still has an effect on one, I believe. It does on me."

For costar Charlie Carver, he spent much of the film listening and learning, much like his character Cowboy. "One of the pleasures of the Broadway run and then the film for me was just getting to sit and listen," he says. "It's impossible to not be moved... One thing that comes to mind is Hank when he talks about falling for a man at a train station despite being married."

Between the actors letting themselves be vulnerable inside their characters and fans sharing moments that moved them with the cast backstage after the Broadway shows, Carver affirms "there was this really important aspect of testimony to the whole thing."

Matt Bomer points out the emotional arias all of the characters have in the last act of the film. "Every night I had a lump in my throat for Bernard in particular, especially if you're thinking about the fact that this took place in the spring of 1968 just a couple months before Stonewall and probably a month or two after Dr. King's assassination," he reflects. "What that character must've been going through and what he has to face in that room as well was particularly heartbreaking to me."

Tuc Watkins says he was moved by his character Hank's declaration of love. "It's such a personal thing for a guy who's so pent up to be able to say I love you to another man in the presence of seven other gay men, really took a lot of courage even though he was among brethren." 

For Michael Benjamin Washington, the friendship that bonded the men together despite all they put each other through is an important lesson for viewers all over the world. "It's really revelatory how they all come back together or choose their friendships in the end. That is the most important thing because this story is going around the world to places where it is still 1968 to gay people. To know how do you find that connection and how to you hold onto that even through the rough times that every relationship, gay, straight, black, white, then or now, have."

And at the end of the day, Brian Hutchison concludes that "we can't take for granted that we have this comfort and this freedom to live our lives authentically. But there was so much judgment from the outside world that you were always hyper-aware of."

The Boys in the Band is streaming now on Netflix.