Luke is Lydia, Keegan is “Kitty”, Max is Mary. That shifting that Joel did to the story was a really subtle but kind of radical thing to do.
As queer people, often our friendships are the most important relationships in our lives. To me that feels really fresh, modern, and queer. One thing I noticed immediately after reading Joel’s screenplay was how he shifted the emphasis away from the romantic and put the friendship at its center. What appealed to you about this film, which is very different from your previous features? “Fire Island” is not a raunchy comedy, but a comedy of manners. As the guys attend tea dances and underwear parties, visit backrooms and sing karaoke - while also saving possibly-sullied reputations - “Fire Island” is ultimately a love story about friends. Howie is interested in Charlie (James Scully), however, Noah is definitely not interested in Charlie’s friend Will (Conrad Ricamora). The film, written by Joel Kim Booster and directed by out gay filmmaker Andrew Ahn (“Spa Night”), is a riff on Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” as Noah (Booster) tries to be a matchmaker for his best friend Howie (Bowen Yang). “Fire Island,” available June 3 on Hulu, is the amiable comedy about a group of friends spending what may be their last summer together in the gay mecca.
