Last night on HBO’s reflection on Six Feet Under, In Memoriam, creator Alan Ball talked about the relationship between David and Keith and how every week the writers would discuss breaking the couple up. Ball said he refused every time, his reason being that watching this gay relationship from the inside would be far more interesting than having the single David go on a string of unsuccessful dates, which of course they had already done in the first two seasons.
I agree. Both David’s and Keith’s personality quirks could be equally as frustrating, but I see the same dynamics happening in most relationships. It will be sad to see this couple leave the small screen.
Here are some sound bites, in case you missed last night’s special:
Alan Ball: “Well the interesting thing for me, when we were casting David and Keith — even in this day and age, a lot of people didn’t want to play gay. I’m not a big subscriber to the idea that for a straight actor to play gay now is a huge act of bravery but I do believe that for a straight actor to not want to play a character because he’s gay is a huge act of cowardice and so I gotta applaud Michael and Mathew because neither one of them are remotely cowardly.”
Mathew St. Patrick: “I was cautious in the beginning, honestly. I didn’t want to do anything that was stereotypical. I know about stereotypes. I’m a black man, I live that life everyday, and I just think it wasn’t something that I wanted to participate in. I wanted to go to that place where the relationship is about love and that’s what I based my character in. I based my character in love. When you’re at a club and you see cats that are all tatted up or whatever and they’re like “You’re playing the hell out of that character and we love that.” It’s like, you know, it’s kind of crazy but it just goes to show it’s all about what’s in here (points to heart).”
Michael C. Hall: “I was in New York. I was playing the emcee in the Broadway production of Cabaret at the time, totally up for anything pansexual, partyboy, and I read the script for Six Feet Under and I said, oh, I know how to do this, I’ll just slam every single door shut that I’ve flown wide open to play this emcee character.”
