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 Perhaps best known as the zany host of ‘Talk Soup,’ that irreverent review of daily talk shows, and also for his stand-up comedy act, Hal Sparks in an interview is exactly what you might expect of a
comedian— urbane, intelligent, off-the-cuff and witty. But as gay man Michael Novotny in the brashly bold Showtime original series ‘Queer As Folk,’ he shows a dramatic flair that expands his repertoire in
heretofore— unimagined ways. His character is complex but naïve, straightforward but not boring, a boy-next-door type who just happens to be part of a subculture rarely explored on television. Michael also has a strange, sensual bond with his friend Brian (Gale Harold), a
dream boy who enjoys the lavishly hedonistic lifestyle of a sexy gay man. During the first season, Michael has gotten involved with a chiropractor, has had a promotion, was
"outed" to a co-worker, and has been forced to deal with the problems of teenager Justin (Randy
Harrison)— an honest to goodness Brian-worshipper who is in the process of exploring his own sexual orientation. Top this off with the fact that Michael's mom, played to perfection by veteran actress Sharon Gless, has given Justin Michael's old room. And this is all just the tip of the iceberg for the cast of the show, which is currently finishing up on the last of the 22 episode arc. ‘Queer As Folk’ is a project that Sparks and the other stars are proud of, because it takes a raw and honest look at the daily lives of gay men and women.
Sparks has been a comedian ever since living in the Chicago suburbs as a teenager. There, he attended New Trier High School and acted as designated driver every New Year’s for his friends since he did not drink. During that time, he won the WBEZ/Sun-Times Funniest Teenager in Chicago
contest— but he claims that he was never a class clown. “I’ve always been a wiseass,” he tells
UPBEAT, “but I was kind of missing a few important elements of being class clown: one, being in class and two, having large groups of friends who thought I was funny.” At the time of this interview, he was getting off work and doing a little shopping in the Chinatown section of Toronto, Canada, where ‘Queer As Folk’ is filmed and where, at this time of year, the weather is quite cold. In fact, he directed us to
"please try to spell the sniffles right as I’m walking down the
street." Of course, he’s from Chicago, a city known for its freezing temperatures.
"Toronto is not that cold," he declares. "Although to hear all the people from L.A. who are up here, you’d think we live in the Arctic Circle. I walk around in a sweater and jacket and mittens, and they’re all bundled up like extras in John Carpenter’s remake of 'The
Thing.' Oh grow up, that’s my response. Winter toughens you. Too much sunshine makes you
soft." In his spare time, Sparks studies martial arts—
every discipline from drunken fist to kung
fu— in fact, he taught them in the U.S. to make a living. He also records music in his apartment’s studio, and hopes to have an album done by summer.
UPBEAT Your show, ‘Queer As Folk’ is a both a remarkable and
distinctive show… it has such depth to it, such vision.
Hal Sparks “That’s very poetically put. It’s interesting, as things that are interesting go—
it’s very interesting. Unique and interesting, much like myself.”
UPBEAT It’s a great show, in that it really tackles a controversial
topic with a tremendous amount of compassion and respect.
Hal Sparks “That’s one of the proudest points for all of us working on the show that there’s just nothing like it on TV. A lot of times we get lumped in with ‘Will & Grace’ because of gay
content— but in all honestly, that’s like lumping in 'The Simpsons' with 'Life Goes On,' insofar as how the content is handled. I have a tremendous amount of respect for both 'The Simpsons' and 'Life Goes On,' but they’re two totally different shows. And though we have humor in the show, the essence of it is really trying to give it an honest look at one slice of gay life. You can’t tell it all because no show can do that, but this is a side of it that no one has seen before and we’re presenting it in that kind of way. I think 'Will & Grace' in a lot of ways is the same thing, in that it kind of presents an affluent kind of semi-out view of gay life, like the integrated kind of best-case scenario of gay life, where we don’t necessarily have that.”
UPBEAT I’ve heard ‘Queer As Folk’ unfairly described as a show
targeted primarily at a gay audience. Do you think that’s true?
Hal Sparks “I don’t think so. Not solely, certainly. It definitely is a pleasant addition, kind of a refreshing view of gay life for gay people, but
no— I actually think it’s more for broader audiences to kind of get a view of the life
out… (he then mumbles something that a bit inaudible) Sorry, I’m here at a counter ordering this drink that I get every time at this little stand.”
UPBEAT What kind of drink is it?
Hal Sparks “It’s green tea, soy milk and black pearls which are little sweet potato tapioca balls. They’re kind of a gummy bear
consistency— they’re really good. I only get them in Los Angeles the way I
actually like them— so I’ve had to come here to bother this lady who works here to make it the way I like it. (laughs).
Now where was I? Anyway, no, I actually think in a lot of ways the show, ultimately has to be aimed at a larger audience to encompass everyone. Plus, I
also think one of the goals of the show is to help people recognize that gay life isn’t
all that different from their own life. So if you make that the message but you only deliver it to gay people, it doesn’t serve. It doesn’t help. But if you make that
the message and you can broaden it to include everyone, then it becomes a fine show. It becomes something more than just a television show. It’s got the gift of unity which is kind of nice, that’s what you would hope. Aside from that, it’s just a good show. It’s nice to be an actor playing this character, you don’t usually get this shot right out of the box, playing such a complex character that’s different from you
who is complete and really kind of nice. And I get to do comedy and pathos. (He thanks
the clerk in Chinese, presumably for his favorite drink.)
UPBEAT Are you speaking Chinese?
Hal Sparks “Yeah, I actually speak some Mandarin. Yeah, I’m weird.”
UPBEAT How is Michael like you—
or to rephrase this, is Michael like you? What kind of challenges do you
face in playing this character?
Hal Sparks “Well, no, he’s not like
me— and not just in the fact that he’s gay and I’m straight. There are other things, such as his
naiveté. I don’t have that and one of the hardest things as an actor is to wipe away your worldliness and kind of come at it from a blank slate point of view, which is very much what Michael is, and it’s very hard. He’s very forgiving and I’ve been through enough where I’m a little more
like a raised eyebrow going through life and that’s tough because I want him to have that purity. And sometimes he’s just in rotten situations that I, as Hal, really know the solution
to— but I can’t let him know that, I can’t make it look like I know that, so that’s pretty tough. There are moments where he can be dumb, and I don’t want him to be that. I just want him to be filled with hope. The love scenes are very difficult, but I think that’s no surprise to anybody. I think they’re very difficult even if its just a straight love scene.
I haven’t had one, but I’m looking forward to finding out.
UPBEAT Would you like to see Michael eventually change and develop a
bit more in the second season?
Hal Sparks “I certainly would like to see him grow up and become more his own man. Become sort of complete, not really having that interdependence with people that he loves, but having independence on his own. I think it’s the same thing you hope for everybody, I think it’s the same thing you would hope for your children. That’s kind of how I feel about Michael, it’s like he’s my gay son and I really want him to be happy and because of the situation that he’s in, it’s gonna get worse before it gets better. But that’s usually how it is in life.
UPBEAT Is there a reason that the show is set in Pittsburgh— rather than
say, a more cosmopolitan city?
Hal Sparks “I think if they made it New York or Los Angeles, there’d be too much of a support community around to make it
more like the broader experience of what gay people are like. Because you’ve got
huge— for lack of a better
phrase— gay ghettos in LA and New York. You’ve got these places where there’s governmental support and there’s social support and it makes
everything too handy. If we set the show in Los Angeles and we lived in West Hollywood, there’d be a
gay pride march every week and there wouldn’t really be any drama— other than our relationships with each other getting in a wrinkle. That is interesting to a certain point, but gets boring after a while if you’re not 16. There are a lot more issues you can deal
with— how characters feel about being in or out of the closet, those kind of things. I think it’s set in a more mainstream town like Pittsburgh that could be in many ways Cincinnati, Ohio or
Atlanta— well maybe not
Atlanta— but secondary big cities, not the main ones. I think Pittsburgh gives that. I’ve never been there; as I understand it— we really make Pittsburgh’s gay community look like West Hollywood, like it’s a big deal there and it isn’t. So to all the gay people who might be watching the show, young people who are just deciding that they’re gay and they want to go somewhere where they’ll be supported and loved, Pittsburgh is not necessarily the place to go. Just ‘cause we make it look so sweet.”
 UPBEAT How do you respond to
critics who call the show risqué and don’t really look beyond the sexual
content?
Hal Sparks “Insofar as being risqué, the one thing I can say about it that is that these characters are defined by their sexuality and defined by how they have sex, how often they have sex and who they have sex with. It’s an integral part of telling who they are. And to do that, to see that window into somebody’s soul, you have to show the sex. You have to show the relationship going on during the sex, you have to see that Brian has sex quite often and the look in his eyes is a dead one most of the time because he’s not connected to whomever he’s making
love to. Whereas if you look at Michael and David (his chiropractor lover) together or Michael when he looks at Brian— there’s a connection there, and that distinction is an important one to be made. Plus, I think
in America we’re just too freaked out about sexualized characters. We don’t want to see people gay or straight really delving into their sexuality. It’s okay to see them making love, as long as it doesn’t mean anything—
as long as we’re just seeing James Bond making love to a woman, it’s okay. But if we really see how he does it, and where the power play is, that gets a little too sticky for
everyone. And making it gay— people get really uncomfortable really fast. The other thing about it is that once people watch the show, usually after the first episode, it doesn’t faze them as much anymore. And it’s not that different from straight lovemaking, really. I always thought it was really different. I don’t know what I thought it was, but I know I thought it was really different, and it’s
not— that much. Except that it’s two men, or two women.
When you watch it, when you start forgetting they’re gay and just focusing on who they love, then the show is a success. And the show has done a huge
service to gay people. That’s pretty amazing. We don’t soapbox about making it happen. We don’t stand there and go, we’re just like everyone else! We slowly pull you in and go this is how these people are."
UPBEAT How important do you think that particular message is to the enjoyment of the show?
Hal Sparks “I think it’s an important sideline. The most important thing about the show is that we tell compelling dramatic stories about these seven people. Because the minute we think the show is going to be all things to the gay cause, then we’re screwed because then we’d be soapboxing every week and it becomes an agenda show-which it’s always in danger of becoming just because of the nature of its being the first show like it. And whenever you do that, it’s kind of like the Mike and Maddie ‘Moonlighting’
thing— ‘when are they gonna kiss?’ that becomes the focus of the show. It becomes just this running gag about soapboxing about the gay cause as opposed to just going, this is it, look at the life.”
UPBEAT Have you gotten some positive feedback about ‘Queer As Folk?’
Hal Sparks “Yeah, quite a bit. And its very nice, it’s very reassuring. People have called from all over the country, people I haven’t been in contact with for years. And people I knew in high school and whatever going, ‘I saw you and that was amazing.’ And they know I’m not gay and they always reiterate that, ‘it’s so weird that you’re not gay, cause that was great!’ Oh thanks, I hope so. I’m not a jewelry thief either but I can play one of those. I’m not tall but if you surround me by short actors I can look that way.”
UPBEAT Are you recognized by fans on a fairly regular basis now? Is it mostly from your time on ‘Talk Soup?’
Hal Sparks “Yeah, although it’s starting from this to grow a lot. And ‘Talk Soup’ didn’t air in Canada, so most of the people who recognize me up here recognize me from ‘Queer as Folk.’ And most of them are women, and interestingly enough most of them are young girls, like in their late teens or early 20s, which is an odd kind of demographic for the show. But it’s true, it’s there.”
UPBEAT Who’s the most famous person who ever recognized you?
Hal Sparks “My press person overheard Mike Myers say that he thought I was funny about 10 feet from me. I didn’t hear it, but my pressperson was like, ‘he just said you’re really funny.’ That was huge because I respect him a lot and I think he’s tremendously funny and talented so that was great. Most of the time I’ve been doing this, ever since I left ‘Talk Soup’ except when I was on the set of ‘Dude, Where’s My Car,’ I’ve been in Canada so I’ve been kind of isolated up
here— although there are more famous people up here right now than anywhere, because of this Hollywood North thing.”
UPBEAT Are there any other projects you’d really like to tackle?
Hal Sparks “I would love to be the next
'Buckaroo Banzai' if they make another one. I would like to do a lot of
comedy— action stuff because of my interest in the martial arts and because of my comedy background. I would love to do ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ with fighting instead of gunplay. That’s kind of my hope, that at least for a time I would be able to do that. I do. I don’t understand why it isn’t
happening— will you make some calls please?
(laughs) But it’s not happening because I’m working all the time already, I’ve already got a
job— but in the future that’s my goal. I’m also going to be doing a short film for Showtime, they have these things called ‘Quick Flicks’ and I’m
going to write and direct and star in one. It’s only 3 ½ to 5 minutes long so if I tell you anything about it blows the joke.”
UPBEAT Do you consider yourself to be more of an actor or a comedian?
Hal Sparks “I would hope that I’m more of a comedian because I think I have more value. I think people need to laugh more in life, and I think I have more value as someone who fills people with a little bit of joy and makes them forget their troubles for a time, or give a comedic take on their troubles so that they feel better about them or have a new perspective. That, I think, is a
gift— there are a lot of people who are better dramatic actors than I, but I would hope to
out comedy them at the drop of a hat, that’s my goal. So it’s nice to not really have to decide between the two because of the show. I get to do both and I feel strong about both abilities, but I think if I really had to boil it down, I’d feel more comfortable as a comedian.”
UB
Helen Lee's extensive writing, editing and webmastering credits include
MVP.com, UltimateTV.com (now Zap2It.com), Gamespot.com, Videogames.com,
noahsays.com, TVQuest.com, the Soapin’ with Soaprah website,
MovieQuest.com, Nuke.com, Cinescape magazine, Electronic Gaming Monthly
magazine and Lycos’ Women’s Wire Web Directory.
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