Captivating Couples: Movies That Made Us Gay Podcast with Pete & Scott

Lots of people love movies, but gay men LOVE movies. We quote them, even recite them. We reenact them. We rererererewatch them. We laugh at them, cry at them, and bitch about them.

We even believe that the greatest, funniest, gayest movies have a lot to do with making us the fabulous fairies we all are. This love of the cinema has become a great source of friendship for the gay community and even sometimes leads to true love like it did for Pete and Scott, who host the rapidly growing podcast, Movies That Made Us Gay!

Every week, Pete and Scott, and their cinephile friends discuss everything from the glamour of Auntie Mame to the bitchiness of The Devil Wears Prada, to the hunkiness of Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing!

Scott and Pete gave Fleshbot one of their first print interviews.

How did you two meet? 

We met through mutual friends in the real world—at a corporate holiday party no less! Some friends of mine worked for a company that threw epic holiday parties and one year I got myself included as a plus one.  Scott has just begun working there and made friends with my people. My best friend's girlfriend decided to play matchmaker and said I had to meet the new guy and the rest is history.

 

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How did your love of the movies begin? 

Pete: My dad took me and my sister to the movies every weekend without fail. I have memories going back to my early childhood of seeing all the major '80s blockbusters in the theater or at the drive-in: E.T., Indiana Jones, The Goonies. Then once we got a VCR, it was over. Recording movies off the TV, commercials and all, or just renting movies every weekend. My siblings and cousins would watch movies over and over again and I always had my favorites that I would revisit and recite every word.

Scott: As far as I remember, I always loved movies. My small town in Montana had only one movie theater, and it always felt like a special treat to go there. One movie usually played there every week, and I was always on the edge of my seat about what was going to be playing next. It’s still why to this day I still get excited seeing any movie in the theater. I never lost that excitement of walking into a theater lobby. My job in high school was working at the video store, and still to this day, it is one of the most fun I’ve ever had at a job.

What sparked the idea for the "Movies That Made Us Gay" Podcast?

Pete: We wanted to work on something that we could do together that would combine our interests. I worked on a short-lived podcast with some friends, which Scott was a guest on. Once that ended, we both had so much fun, we knew we could produce our own show and it had to be about movies since we both shared that passion. It was also little FOMO of listening to other podcasts and how much fun they were having. We wanted in on that. Podcasting is like the Wild West at this point. You can make it happen on your own, you just need the drive.

Could you tell those who are not yet familiar with your podcast what it is and what it all entails?

Movies That Made Us Gay is a podcast about the films that may not have been explicitly made FOR queer people, but the queer community has taken ownership of. The movies we watched over and over again as kids had an influence on our queerness. We don’t necessarily focus on queer-theme movies but the ones we all gravitated to before we even knew we were part of a community.  Typically cult or camp classics, these movies have taken on a life of their own within the LGBTQ+ community. Classics ranging from Whatever Happened to Baby Jane to Showgirls. If there is a diva having a mental breakdown, we are here to review it.

How does a movie make you gay? What makes a movie that makes you gay? 

We knew the title of our show was subversive. We don’t really take things too seriously on the podcast and if anyone questions the validity of a movie (or any outside force) “making” someone gay we always point out that the title is a parody and just as Mother Monster has told the world, we were born this way.

That being said, there is no way anyone can watch the Texas A&M Aggies dancing in their boxer shorts around a locker room in The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and not feel some type of way. Or the way Kurt Russell grabs his muscle tank in Overboard standing next to Goldie’s closet. It’s that flutter in your stomach that still doesn’t go away in rewatches.

The thing that most of the movies we cover have in common is—as Blockbuster Video would put it—a “Strong Female Lead”. They’re mostly female-centric movies, with a sometimes glamorous, sometimes unhinged, always relatable female protagonist.  There are entire college thesis papers written about the LGBT connection to horror movies because of their metaphorical rejection of the heteronormative status quo. The same can be said for the movies we review.

What are your picks for some of the gayest movies?

We think films like Can’t Stop the Music and Xanadu always feel like a calling card for the gayest movies of all time.

 

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What have been some of your favorite episodes so far? Why? 

We’ve done so many, but it’s like picking between your kids. We both loved our Rosemary’s Baby episode. Our guest Muffy Bolding is absolutely hilarious and her reading on the film was just so unique. Whenever we have a guest who is so singularly invested in a film it’s always a pleasure and Muffy knows that movie inside and out. The Clueless episode with Brad Liberti is also one of our favorites.

We also love the movies we cover without a guest. Titles like Misery and Gremlins 2: The New Batch were so much fun to record when it's just us and our personal banter. It’s why we knew the podcast could work because we can just sit down and talk about movies all the live long day so those episodes are always a blast.

What are a few titles you have disagreed on? Why?

Scott: We don’t disagree with a lot of the movies we’ve covered, but it’s around the time Oscar season comes around where we’re divided the most. Pete usually has no interest to see movies like Tar or Marriage Story. If he sees any of them it’s because I’ve dragged him to them.

Tell us about yourselves. Who are Scott and Peter? Both together and separately?

Scott: I’m the more outgoing of the both of us. It’s probably why I’m the one who reaches out to guests the most. I’m usually the planner of the two in the relationship. I always get the ball rolling on things.

Pete: I’m a little more technical-minded. I arrange all of the audio for the recordings. I like working with the equipment and setting up the computer for recording our out-of-town guests and solving any audio issues in the editing process. I work in customer/tech support for a tech company for my day job and I like solving problems when it comes to techie things like that. I’m also a gamer (gaymer) something that Scott has little to no interest in. So yeah I can be a bit more on the nerdy side.

 

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What do you do outside the Podcast? 

We love going to the movies—AMC Stubs A-Listers here! We are absolutely the people who cheer as soon as Nicole Kidman’s pump steps into that puddle before the movie starts.  We also love theme parks, we’re Universal annual pass holders and we did a Walt Disney World trip about a year and a half ago. We love seeing live music and enjoying a cocktail (or two) at our local gay bar. Shoutout Eagle L.A.

We’re also cat dads to three hellions Alfie, Bianca, and Thor. Occasionally their cries for food/attention can be heard in the background of our episodes.

What are some of your ambitions moving forward? With the podcast and beyond?  

We’re just starting to dip our toes into live events. We’re hosted a screening of Jawbreaker with Rooftop Cinema Club on June 29th at the Arts District Downtown LA venue with a Q&A with the director Darren Stein after the movie, and hopefully, we’ll be adding a couple more similar events this summer.

We would love to host live recordings of the podcast in front of an audience and possibly a web series—bringing the show to YouTube.

We’ve also considered a book on "Movies That Made Us Gay." Sort of a field guide on movies that the LGBT community has taken on as their own.

 

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What do you love most about each other?

Pete: I love Scott’s openness. He is always willing to make new friends, and experience new things whereas I may be a little more closed off at times. Sometimes I need Scott to nudge me to try something new that I might not have been so open to on my own.

Scott: I sometimes love the hardness of Pete’s personality. I sometimes balance how bubbly and open I can be sometimes. He never gives a $h#t what people think of him, and that’s always very admirable quality about someone. But, don’t worry he definitely has a softness about him.

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