You know how sometimes you get really passionate about something, and in the process of explaining it you get a little carried away and your mouth speeds off and leaves logic and reason standing on the side of a road in the middle of nowhere holding suitcases and trying to figure out how they’re gonna get to a hotel before the sun goes down because they’ve seen enough crappy horror movies to know how this story ends? Nick Cassavetes does. The Notebook director was in Toronto this weekend to promote his new film Yellow, which features a brother/sister romantic relationship, and while he was discussing the rationale behind the film, he sortakindamaybe compared gay marriage to incest. Ruh roh.
“I have no experience with incest. … We had heard a few stories where brothers and sisters were completely, absolutely in love with one another. You know what? This whole movie is about judgment, and lack of it, and doing what you want. Who gives a sh-t if people judge you? I’m not saying this is an absolute but in a way, if you’re not having kids — who gives a damn? Love who you want. Isn’t that what we say? Gay marriage — love who you want? If it’s your brother or sister it’s super-weird, but if you look at it, you’re not hurting anybody except every single person who freaks out because you’re in love with one another.” [EW]
Um……………..
Actually, that’s a bit unfair. He’s not really saying “Gay marriage = Incest,” which would be, like, really bad. It seems like he’s trying to make the point that his film deals with a form of nontraditional love, and he’s using gay marriage as a reference point to get there. He just did it in a totally hamfisted way. What he probably should have said is something like “My film deals with a brother/sister relationship, which is one of our society’s biggest taboos. But if you’re someone who believes that you should be able to love whoever you want as long as you’re not harming anyone, I think it raises some interesting questions. Not that I support incest, or think it has any direct parallels to gay rights, but it is something worth thinking about at least.” Or, alternatively, he could have just said something along the lines of “Please see my movie. I know Ryan Gosling. I have his number in my phone and everything.” That would have been fine, too.
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