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Monday, March 9, 2015

(OUTscene AMERICA) INTER-view: It's WTC View's 10th Anniversary and MK chats with Writer and Director, Brian Sloan!

Photo by Sloane

by MK Scott

Hard to believe it has been 10 years since the release of WTC View, starring a Pre-Ugly Betty, Michael Urie.

Now get ready for 10th anniversary re-release of post 9/11 film WTC VIEW, a film that is more timely and resonant than ever. Film was released digitally for the first time on March 3rd.

The film was inspired by a real incident from the writer/director Brian Sloan, who posted an an ad for a roommate on 9/11 and then received some unbelievable responses. WTC VIEW is as timely as ever, on it's 10th anniversary, in the wake of continued worldwide political instability, as a way to reflect on communal grief and loss and how a city and a nation can deal with it, collectively. I had a chance to email Sloane some questions.


MK: Congrats on the film version's 10th Anniversary. I Believe WTC View that was one of the first Plays and Queer Films to address 9/11, what was your inspiration for it?

Brian SLOAN: The original play on which the film is based was inspired by my own true story, which was that on the evening of September 10th I placed a roommate ad online for my apartment downtown. I left the apartment the next afternoon after everything happened and stayed in Brooklyn for almost a week. When I returned, there were all these phone messages about people wanting to come check the place out…some who had even called on September 12th! A few months later, when I started thinking about this odd situation and my lengthy roommate search, I thought it might be an interesting way to explore what life was like in city during that very unusual month.


MK: What attracted you to Michael Urie in the lead, and this was before his star role in Ugly Betty?

SLOAN: I had seen Michael in a play in western Massachusetts the previous summer that my friend Andrew Volkoff directed. When we were casting the play of “WTC View,” we were having trouble finding a stage actor who could handle the demanding lead role, which required being onstage for the entire 2-hour running time of the play. I asked Andrew about Michael as I remembered him from that show and recalled that he had been studying at Julliard as well. Andrew warned me that Michael might be a little young for the role but I asked him not to tell me his real age—and he didn’t, which was probably good. Michael was 23 and the role was supposed to be 33! But Michael came in and gave a great audition and I knew, giving his talent and training, that he would make it work…and he did.

MK: In the story, there were many potential roommates for Eric, were any of the characters based on real people?

SLOANE: I think all of them were inspired in general by the roommate search that I went through, which was actually about three times longer than Eric. So there were some details from the various people in that search that ended up in the play, like the guy who came to look at my apartment because he’d been displaced from him place in Battery Park City. So those details served as a sort of starting point for all the characters who then grew and changed along the way. I added new details as part of the creative process and then when the actors came in, they brought their own unique energy and talents to those roles. So in the end, it’s not really a documentary but more of what I call my “autobiography of New Yorkers" at an extraordinary moment in the city’s history.

Brian Sloan
MK: Where were you on 9/11?

SLOAN: I was in my apartment that day, which was located about 20 blocks from the World Trade Center in Soho. Actually, I was in bed when, I groggily heard my answering machine go off. Then I heard someone leaving me a message I couldn’t quite understand that sounded like they were saying there was a fire on my street. So I got up to play that message again to be sure but as I was walking to the answering machine, I heard all these sirens—an unusually large amount of sirens. So I turned around, went to the window and pulled open the shade and saw the first tower on fire. It looked like it had been burning for hours when it fact, it had been hit only a few minutes previously after the first plane flew over my apartment. And it was from that bedroom window that I watched everything else happen.

MK: and Finally, would there ever be a sequel with Eric feeling Hopeful with the new view of the Freedom tower?

SLOAN: I haven’t thought too seriously about a sequel as I’m not sure what it would be about. The play is so specific to that time period and what life was like in New York then. If there is a sequel, it’s maybe Eric and Will living in an increasingly gentrified Brooklyn and having trouble staying in their apartment as the rents go up! That would be capturing the truth of what’s happening in the city today, for sure.

For More WTC View, check Facebook. Get it on iTunes Here!



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