Ever tell a little white lie that got slightly out of hand? In Out at the Wedding, New Yorker Alex gets embroiled in a farcical web of mistaken identities – and sexualities – when she decides to keep her mixed-raced boyfriend a secret from her family at her sister’s wedding.

All goes well until her loose-lipped gay best friend Fred inadvertently suggests Alex is actually in a loving relationship – with a woman. As the rumour-mill goes into overdrive, Alex keeps up the charade and enlists the help of red-hot Risa to act as her lesbian lover. But things go from complicated to crazy when Alex’s newly-wedded sister falls in love with Risa!

We caught up with openly gay actress Cathy DeBuono, who plays Risa, to find out more.

Tell me a bit about Out at the Wedding – what can we expect?
A fun romantic comedy with a lot of laughs. [Smiles].

What would you say are the main themes of the piece?
It’s a comedy, so the theme was to have fun.  But if we want to go deeper, you could say its theme has to do with lying and how one leads to another, and before you know it, you’ve found yourself stuck in a web of your own lies and what it means to your relationships.

So what was it that first attracted you to the film?
First of all, Paula Goldberg’s script made me laugh out loud. The character of Risa was not a proverbial, stereotypical, gay chick. She was a real person who happened to be gay and I was very drawn to that.

Is there a scene or moment in the film that you’re most proud of?
There is no particular moment of which I am more than the rest of the film, but I would say that the batting cage scene still makes me smile when I watch it.

I like the way you handle the scene where you meet Alex for a ‘trial run’. Did you enjoy doing that scene?
I enjoyed shooting this whole movie. Working with Andrea Marcellus (Alex) was always fun, honestly I can say that about everyone on this film. It was one of those times when everyone not only got along, but truly enjoyed one another.

I particularly like the twist in Out at the Wedding where a female pretends to be gay in order to hide her straight relationship. Is this the way forward for gay cinema – to subvert the hetero conventions?
Well, I think it does accomplish that in a way. It’s not normally what folks do, we are used to seeing people lie about not being gay, so it was fun to play with that. I think the way forward for gay cinema is where being gay is not the issue to be examined, but just a matter of fact.

There’s a great chemistry between Desi Lydic and yourself. What did you do to work on this?
I wouldn’t describe us having 'worked' for it - Desi and I really enjoyed each other and had fun not only while we were shooting, but between takes, and all along the way we just made each other laugh. That kind of fun with a person and a mutual respect for each other makes it easy to find the affection between you.

"Honestly, I never 'came out' professionally, I’ve just never made it a point to 'stay in', so to speak. I truly enjoy playing gay characters and giving voice to the community that I am a part of."

You're an out actress – quite a rare thing in the movie business. What was it that prompted you to be open about your sexuality?
Honestly, I never 'came out' professionally, I’ve just never made it a point to 'stay in', so to speak. I truly enjoy playing gay characters and giving voice to the community that I am a part of.

Were you ever pressured to stay closeted by people in the industry?
In acting school, we had some teachers warn us of the dangers of being openly gay in the industry, but I was not pressured to hide per se. I’ve just never been willing to live that way.

What do you think about the many gay Hollywood actors who remain in the closet?
I understand what they are up against, and it’s no one’s job to put themselves or their careers in jeopardy in order to be openly gay. That being said, I don’t have a lot of respect for people who lie about who they are. When you simply keep private, I can respect that. When you go out of your way to pretend to be straight, then I lose respect for you. And I also find it sad that people choose to sell a bit of their soul like that.

What do you think of the state of gay cinema at the moment?
I think it’s time for us to take gay cinema to the next level. It’s time or our stories to be told and represented beyond the coming out stories, beyond the anxiety of discovering our gayness and so on. We’ve told those stories over and over again - it’s been very important, but it’s time to go deeper.

Do you think it’s harder to get a lesbian themed film made than a film from the gay male perspective? 
Yes I do. I’ve seen it first hand, it’s just true. It’s a man’s world. Even when it’s a gay world, it’s still a man’s world. Only in the gay world we - as women - have the added obstacle of not only being women, but not being interesting to the men at all. At least in the mainstream, men have a specific interest in women, in the gay world, they don’t. And it’s men who still control the money and the decisions.

Finish the sentence: A good night out starts with…?
My friends.

And it ends with…?
Being alone with my girl.

What do you think is the secret of a good relationship?
Communication and compromise.

What’s next for you Cathy DeBuono?
Presently there is a feature film making the festival rounds called And Then Came Lola, in which I play a supporting lead role.

But I’m most excited about shooting the second season of my web series We Have To Stop Now that I co-produce and co-star in with my girlfriend and actress Jill Bennett. The show is about two therapists who are a couple in couples therapy and features comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer as our therapist. I am going to refrain from getting long winded here, because it’s easy for me to do that when it comes to this show. But I will say that we are very proud of what we’ve created.

We have been committed to the arc of these characters offering the gay community something new that goes beyond the surface issues of being gay and tells the stories of our lives in our relationships. And it’s pretty damn funny, too. You can still see season one on our website at www.WeHaveToStopNow.tv, but hurry because we recently signed with Wolfe Releasing and the DVD of season one will be available in 2010 and those will be removed from the web soon.

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Out at the Wedding [2006]
Studio: TLA Releasing
Released: 19 October 2009
ASIN: B002KM9UXO

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