Win a DVD copy of A.K.A - go on, you know you want to!

Scottish born director Duncan Roy knows all too well about the pleasures and pitfalls of leading a double life. In a desperate attempt to escape an abusive father, Roy ran away from home when he was a teenager and befriended the upper classes, masquerading as the son of a Lord. Although he ended up in prison for all his troubles, Roy turned his fascinating story into a film starring Diana Quick, Bill Nighy, Lindsay Coulson and Matthew Leitch. A.K.A. has just been released on DVD.

We caught up with Duncan to ask him more about A.K.A., toffs, how hard it is to make films for gay men and what he really thinks about Liz Hurley.

A.K.A. has been described as a modern day Pygmalion. Was it your intention to make a gay version of the classic story?
As it was a true story, I had no intention to rework a classic - as I am at the moment with my film version of Dorian - however, obviously this is a story familiar to many gay men who have had to maintain two personalities early on in life.  

Continually having to change your outward persona to fit in, is a familiar theme for a gay audience. What is it that drives Dean’s evolution from a shy working-class lad to a new life of deception and duplicity?
We learn that young, us gay guys. We learn - or are we blessed? - with the gift of re-invention. A desire to run from who he is is what drives the narrative. If we have to leave our own small communities in order to find others like us, then it would seem quite natural to evolve, rather than fit in with the gay tribe. What kind of gay man am I going to be? If indeed gay is how you want to describe yourself.

I meet so many young men who fuck other guys but are not interested in being ‘gay’. That isn’t anything to do with denial. The tribe is just evolving.

You’re based in America now. Have you found that Americans appreciate the theme of reinvention running through A.K.A. more than the Brits?
Reinvention in the US is a cultural staple and A.K.A. was a huge hit there. We have done a million dollars worth of DVD business since September, which is great for a $120,000 film!

Americans give me an opportunity to make the films I want to make and generally I’m appreciated here for the work I do. I am an unashamedly gay film-maker and I’m not interested in any other themes. Judging by the press I get in London most people seem to have a pretty low opinion of me. Of course, it upsets me that people in England seem to hate me. Fuck, making films for gay men is really tough!

When I went to film school they asked me what sort of films I wanted to make and when I told them they laughed. Who could have predicted that the gay market place would have exploded as it has?

Ang Lee’s gay film, Brokeback Mountain, will be marketed totally wrongly - as usual - at the gay market and then Hollywood will complain that gay films don’t work at the box office. You know what I learned about making gay films? You have to make them well, cheaply and expect a slow burn.

Gay men in the red states of the US are not going to go to the cinema. They become targets for all sorts of bad stuff.  That’s why we have gay and lesbian film festivals. To watch our work safely together.

Did you find making A.K.A. to be cathartic?
It was totally cathartic. However, I still have my problems!

From your own experiences, does the aristocracy treat homosexuality differently to the working classes?
Great question!  One of the best I have ever been asked. It really depends what kind of homo you are!  All the classes love a gay clown, and both are suspicious of them. I think that working class men have traditionally served the upper classes in all manner of ways and I know very grand homos who are still looking for wives to use as brood mares. Isn’t that absurd in 2005? 

Most of the upper class characters are extremely pompous. Were the people you met really like that?
I am afraid so. In fact they were worse.

The triple split screen effect is a clever way of catching the characters’ varying perspectives. What additional work is involved in using this technique?
It took hours and hours of editing and persuading other people that it would work.

How have your family reacted to the film?
Not terribly well. I have ten brothers and sisters and I only really speak to three of them. That says it all really, doesn’t it?

Lady Gryffon, who’s based on the now departed 1970s boutique owner Lady Clare Rendelsham, is portrayed as a terrible snob and an über-bitch. Did you encounter any opposition from her family and friends when trying to make the film?
Not really, I think that she was portrayed pretty much as she was. However, I really liked her. She was like a really good drag queen.

You’ve talked about making a prequel to A.K.A. based on the time you spent in a psychiatric hospital when you were 13. Can you tell us more about that?
I’m not going to do that film now as I’m sick of myself of late, but I’ll tell you this instead. I am flying through a terrible storm from NYC to LA and I am terrified. You know what I do when I am scared in an aeroplane? I listen to Joni Mitchell and say the serenity prayer.

Actually, now you have reminded me about it I unearthed the idea recently and it really is good. It is about a 13 year old boy who conquers an insane asylum – at least in his head.

Your follow-up to A.K.A. was Method, starring Liz Hurley. There were reports that the two of you didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things. Is this true?
Yes. It’s all over the internet. I can’t add much more than she had it coming. Nobody fucks with me for three months and escapes unscathed. First day of the shoot she tells me: “I’ve made lots of bad films, this will be your first.” Fucking bitch.

How is your film adaptation of Will Self’s novel Dorian coming along?
It’s not an adaptation of Will’s book. We decided that we could not work together on this script and I became far more interested in the Lipincott version of Dorian, published the year before it was published in London.

It’s very gay and will star teen star David Gallagher, Natassia Kinski and Stephen Fry. It is totally loyal to Oscar Wilde. I have introduced a character for myself - as a visitor from the New York streets of 1890. Visually it will be very, very different from A.K.A. but still innovative. We are using a lot of new technology and working with Norbert Shroener, the guy who made the last Prada campaign, to make the portrait, which of course, is a video installation.

Read our review of A.K.A.

A.K.A, a film by Duncan Roy
Released by: Millivres Multimedia
Release date: 4 April 2005
Catalogue Number: MMD038
Price: £19.99

Buy A.K.A online and revel in highlife with the beautiful A-gay people! Alternatively, why not take a peek at Duncan's other film, Method, starring Liz Hurley. Buy them online and save some money to put towards a DVD of the French rugby team stripping with all their friends (!) in Dieux du Stade.