Ahead of the release of Oscar-winner Alan Ball’s latest feature film as writer and director, Uncle Frank, which lands on Amazon Prime Video this Wednesday November 25th, The Queer Review‘s editor James Kleinmann spoke exclusively with the movie’s cast including Peter Macdissi. Peter plays Wally, the longterm partner of Paul Bettany’s NYU professor character Frank in the film. Following the death of Frank’s father, Wally accompanies him to the rural southern town where he grew up, along with Frank’s niece Beth (Sophia Lillis), the only person in Frank’s family who knows that he’s gay.
Peter Macdissi, whose screen credits include Six Feet Under, True Blood, Here and Now, and the feature Towelhead, told us why he was drawn to taking on the role and what he enjoyed about creating that on-screen relationship with Paul Bettany. “I enjoyed portraying him,” Macdissi tells The Queer Review, “a Muslim from Saudi Arabia who was able to reconcile his religion with being gay, I thought that was refreshing to see. It’s something that we don’t see a lot, that they both could coexist, unlike what people might think. Then what I like about the relationship with Frank is that it’s like any other relationship; gay, straight, white, black, no matter what. It’s a relationship that has been through a lot; a lot of joy, a lot of pain, a lot of sacrifice, a lot of tears. And that becomes evident in the middle of the movie in the hallway scene when he tells him, ‘you’re drinking again’. Basically the subtext is that we had talked about this, that he would stop and he doesn’t, and nevertheless Wally sticks by Frank till the end because for him that love can be self-sacrificing based on his religious beliefs is very important. I thought that was incredible about the role.”
Watch The Queer Review’s full exclusive interview with Uncle Frank stars Sophia Lillis and Peter Macdissi below.
Amazon Studios will release UNCLE FRANK on Prime Video on Wednesday November 25th 2020. Watch the official Uncle Frank trailer below.
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