28 | QSALTLAKE MAGAZINE | Q&A
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A threesome remedy for our times
Social Distance stars talk COVID-era series and pandemic dating BY CHRIS AZZOPARDI
File this
under 2020’s “Content We Lived” category: Social Distance , Netflix’s anthology series completely conceived, cast and shot in quarantine. Tucked into the show’s eight episodes is “Zero Feet Away,” which follows a gay couple suffering from cabin fever who give a threesome a shot after they’ve had enough of each other. “Zero Feet Away” stars Max Jenkins, who has a part on Dead to Me as Christina Applegate’s gay real-estate partner; Brian Jordan Alvarez, who portrays Jack’s husband, Estefan, on Will & Grace , and Mozart in the Jungle star Peter Vack. In October, they talked about their longtime friendship, filming during a pandemic and Funfetti.
Brian and I met and became basically best friends our freshman year of college.
Did you guys know each other beforehand? Had you crossed paths?
Was the script set?
Brian Jordan Alvarez: Very much so. Peter Vack: Max and I’s friendship goes back to childhood. We went to performing arts summer camp together, and then
Alvarez: When he met me he told me, “You should meet my friend Max, you would like him,” and it turned out to be true. We’ve all become friends now. Vack: I just want to underscore that these two are two of the people I love most in the world as friends. So often the job with acting is to become very close and intimate with people immediately; with this, it really felt like a party from moment one. It really was like a summer camp vibe. I think that is in part due to the fact that they allowed friends and, in fact, sought out friends to do this or people that had these deep, decades-long connections. Alvarez: It was set, we had nothing to do with it. It was a totally wonderfully written piece that was just given to us. They were great about – sorry, am I bulldozing? Max Jenkins: Shut up. Just talk. I love
ISSUE 320 | FEBRUARY, 2021
hearing you talk. Alvarez: They were really generous, which always helps me in letting us improv. We also had a lot of freedom to just say the line slightly differently or improv. It was just cool to have that freedom. Max, did you improv the line “zhuzh my crack”? Jenkins: I can’t believe they used that! You know, that was the moment that we really hit on something beautiful. I thought it was “zhuzh my taint.” Alvarez: That might’ve been a different take. Jenkins: Yeah. The director’s cut has “zhuzh my taint,” I believe. (Everyone laughs.) Did you actually shoot on April 17, the day the episode says it took place? Alvarez: No, no. I was gonna say it was funny that Peter called it summer camp because we were calling it that when we were doing it, but I don’t think we realized that it was also the dead middle of summer. Jenkins: The solstice. Alvarez: (Laughs.) It was like literally, what, mid July? Vack: I now have some handle on it
