Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga Is the Surprisingly Queer Comedy We Need in Our Lives RN
Filled with a bunch of laughs, Netflix's latest comedy movie Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is a surprisingly queer portrait of the long-running international song competition (it's been happening annually in Europe since 1956) and its spirit of diversity and inclusivity.
PRIDE's Raffy Ermac got to sit down and chat with the film's stars, including writer and comedy legend Will Ferrell, Mean Girls and Disobedience icon Rachel McAdams, and Downton Abbey and Legion star Dan Stevens about the film's queer moments, the sentiment of bringing people from all over Europe together to celebrate music, and more!
"A big part of the Eurovision Song Contest is its diversity and its inclusivity and how much it celebrates LGBTQ+ people all over Europe," Dan Stevens, who plays a closeted Russian pop star named Alexander Lemtov in the film, told PRIDE. "And it has such a massive following all over the world for that reason, you know? And it's often a venue for, a band will bring a protest cause or something as part of their act. And there's always a bit of controversy around that, which is great. And so, yeah, I mean, it also adds just to the colorful nature of the competition. And so to bring some of that to life and to really embrace the style of that was so much fun, and obviously a huge part of the creation of Lemtov."
"It was interesting to sort of educate ourselves. I was sort of educating myself on sex and sexuality in Iceland, even, to understand that there's sort of a bluntness about sex there," Rachel McAdams, who plays Sigrit, said when asked the film's campiness and the setting's openness about sexuality. "There's a quality to Icelandic culture that's very embracing and open about sexuality. And then Dan's character kind of comes from a culture that's a lot more buttoned-down about sexuality. Watching those two characters come together in a scene and trying to figure out what's happening romantically and sexually between them, you know, there's a lot of material there. Just having all the differences of culture and sex come together in the movie, was not obviously a huge theme, but something to be explored."
"We didn't realize what a following that Eurovision has for the gay community. There were just a couple of performers and stories we had heard, and we just thought just to have this fun character that is so confident in himself, such an amazing performer, who seems to be pursuing Sigrit for one reason, and only to find out that it's misunderstood," Eurovision's star Will Ferrell, who also co-wrote the film and plays Lars, said about the creation of the Lemtov character, and paying tribute to the big queer fanbase the Eurovision song contest has garnered over the years. "We just thought that was an interesting dynamic. And like we said, the gay community is such a huge supporter of Eurovision and a big part of the show and the community and the experience."
Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga is now streaming on Netflix!
