Tom Cullen and Chris New Break Through in Award-Winning Weekend

Tom, your character Russell is transformed pretty quickly by his weekend with Glen. What is it about Glen that changes Russell?

TC: There are a lot of things, I think. I think that Russell himself, he's very secure with who he is as a person and where he fits in the world. I think that Russell is very aware of who he is, on a work level, on an emotional level. I think that Glen allows him to see really who he is, and gives Russell permission to be bold and proud of who he is in person. Also, I think possibly Russell allows Glen to calm down a little bit, and tell him it's fine just to be him. I think they're perfect foils for each other.

Chris, there's a touching moment of intimacy where you talk to Russell about being a foster child, and you tell him something very moving while sort of pretending to be his father. I thought this was an incisive, gay-specific moment -- how the empathy between two gay male lovers can be both paternal and fraternal.

CN: Yeah. I suppose so. Strangely, that scene -- and a lot of people have talked about that scene to me, how it touched them, how it had a great effect on them -- weirdly for me, it didn't [have an effect] when I read it. It doesn't have a fat emotional tug to me, so I'm a bit envious, really, of what other people see in that scene. It doesn't do that to me. I don't know, perhaps it has something to do with my upbringing. I think in all our relationships, or in a lot of relationships, there are often situations where you have to heal or deal with a lot of things that you've kept in a box somewhere under the bed. You see a mirror of your actions, and if you get emotionally involved with someone, you see the effect of your actions, or pride, prejudices, and you see it in the other person. If you have any emotional empathy, you start to consider why it's having that effect. Hopefully you do something about it, or you both take a journey that will start to deal with some of those ghosts. It's a very interesting thing, but the specific "father" subject: I think in certain relationships you can see the Band-aids going on, the healing that's happening. It's quite magical, really.

The movie features a lot of unpretentious, seemingly very honest dialogue. Do you both have favorite lines?

TC: Great question. For an egocentric point of view, as an actor, this had pushed me to places I'd never been before -- so any time it's terribly vulnerable, or daunting or scary or it's a real challenge to "go there" -- like the post-coital stuff, the times when they're being completely honest with each other, I love that. When Glen pretends to be Russell's dad, that always moves me in a sentimental kind of way. But my favorite bit of dialogue in the whole piece -- not from an egotistical point of view -- it's when Glen is talking about his art project. I really enjoy watching that.

CN: What's my favorite? Hmm. There are quite a few, because every time we shot a scene, Andrew's instructions were, "Do it differently." We often came up with lines or shifted lines or added lines that were completely off the top of our own heads. So, watching the film back, I had no idea what Andrew had chosen out of all the takes. You're in the take, you say the line, then you do the next take, and forget about it. It was very strange to hear what we'd actually come out with! That's a really odd thing. But I think my favorite line is in the bar, which is in the trailer as well, when he says, "You look like you want to kiss me." It says something about Glen changing, but it's also challenging to Russell as well -- but not in the way that Glen would've challenged Russell in the first half hour of the film. You can see something opening up there.

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