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THIS WEEK IN OUR HISTORY…CELEBRATING GROUNDBREAKING CINEMA

LONGTIME COMPANION MAKES A LASTING IMPACT

THE 1990 RELEASE OF Longtime Companion, the first major featurelength film about the AIDS epidemic, was a monumental moment in Hollywood history. Its honest tale of a group of friends affected by the disease resonated within the gay community and beyond, prompting a discussion that had not yet dominated the mainstream. In our May 18, 1990, issue, we explored the obstacles faced by director Norman René and writer Craig Lucas as they were preparing for production. “Studios just were not ready to do it at the time, and it was before a lot of actors were comfortable playing gay men,” says Margot Dougherty, who wrote the story for EW. The film’s eventual success can be attributed to its examination of the crisis from inside the LGBT community, says Matt Kane, programs director of entertainment media at GLAAD. “It was relatable to people who experienced that massive loss of friends,” he says. “It was like going through a war.”

Longtime Companion led the way for further representation in film and on TV (see sidebar), including Ryan Murphy’s 2014 adaptation of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, which paid homage to Companion with joyful scenes on the beaches of Fire Island, a pivotal setting of the 1990 movie.

As a medium, however, mainstream film has more work to do. “It’s still the independent scene where you’re going to find stories about us,” Kane says, though he adds that TV is breaking significant ground, citing Amazon’s Transparent and ABC’s How to Get Away With Murder as shows that feature fully formed LGBT characters. “We just ask that they are treated the same as straight characters, and on Murder, Connor [Jack Falahee] behaves just as questionably as the rest of them,” Kane says, laughing. “For him to be on par with his straight counterparts is a great achievement.”

Stephen Caffrey, Campbell Scott, and Dermot Mulroney in Longtime Companion

—DANA ROSE FALCONE

THE LONG ROAD

Longtime Companion bravely paved the way for these other influential projects

PHILADELPHIA

(1993)

ANGELS IN

AMERICA (2003)

MILK (2008)

DALLAS BUYERS

CLUB (2013)

WRITE TO US! 3 EW_LETTERS@EW.COM

Tom Hardy’s piercing gaze drove scads of readers Mad: “Why yes, Entertainment Weekly, I would like some Tom Hardy for my Saturday,” gushed Tess M on Twitter. But Cathy Clark of Decatur, Ga., was struck by the words of Hardy’s Mad Max: Fury Road compatriot Charlize Theron: “She says she wants her character’s story not to be about saving other women but to be about ‘her hurt and her not feeling good enough.’ Though your article claims Mad Max will be a ‘badass feminist action flick,’ having a female character kick ass is not enough to make a film feminist.” Another fierce female, Shonda Rhimes, riled up Melanie Jenkins of Rixeyville, Va., for bumping off Patrick Dempsey’s Grey’s Anatomy doc: “I spent 10 years falling in love with Derek Shepherd, and she ruined it for me. First she killed George, and I forgave her. Then Sloan, and I moved on. But McDreamy? That’s a deal breaker.”

CORRECTION

Little Earthquakes (1992) was Tori Amos’ debut album, followed by Under the Pink in 1994 (The Must List, #1359/1360).

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