Ahead of the release of Netflix’s first gay holiday rom-com Single All The Way, written by Chad Hodge on December 2nd, national treasures Kathy Najimy and Jennifer Coolidge who star in the film opposite Michael Urie, Philemon Chambers, and Jennifer Robertson, had an exclusive chat with The Queer Review’s editor James Kleinmann.
“It wasn’t about them being gay and that’s what I really loved”, shares Kathy Najimy, “I love that it was a secondary thing. I know that’s not the reality for a lot of gay people, but I love that there wasn’t someone who was taking them off to change them or really upset, or they were afraid to tell their mom. It wasn’t even an issue. We just started the story and the story was not about their gayness.”
“Not only is it exciting that it’s Netflix’s first gay rom-com”, add Jennifer Coolidge, “I heard that Netflix is sending this movie out to 175 different countries including places where this kind of story isn’t the norm and accepted. It’s going to show up in people’s living rooms and it’s going to be a norm and I think that’s the most exciting thing of all.”
When the trailer for Single All The Way, which has already been viewed over one million times on Netflix’s YouTube Channel alone, dropped on November 10th, a line spoken by Jennifer Coolidge’s character Aunt Sandy quickly became a meme and even made it on to a tshirt: “The gays just know how to do stuff. And for some reason, they’re always obsessed with me.”
“At first there was a side of me that didn’t want to say it”, Jennifer Coolidge tells The Queer Review, “because I felt like if I was saying that that [it meant] I felt that way about myself and it would somehow take me out like I was commenting on myself. I just felt like there’d be like someone, or more than one person, many people would be like, ‘Oh shut up, you shut up!’ You know, someone watching going, ‘Oh, you think that about yourself?!’ But guess what? I certainly would have no problem if they really did feel that way. Those are my people. So if they feel that way, I’m very flattered”
Watch the full interview here:
By James Kleinmann
Single All The Way launches globally on Netflix on Thursday December 2nd 2021.