18 JUN 2014 | BY NEIL TURITZ
If you are any kind of television viewer in the 21st century, odds are very good that you’ve seen something with Ryan Murphy’s name on it. The prolific creator of shows like Nip/Tuck, Glee, and American Horror Story has become one of the most respected writer/producers on TV. When he found that the rights to Larry Kramer’s award-winning play, The Normal Heart, were available, he spent his own money to secure them and years trying to get the movie made.
It eventually ended up at HBO, with a cast that includes Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts, Alfred Molina, Jim Parsons, and Matt Bomer. Heart debuted on May 25 to spectacular reviews, and became an instant Emmy frontrunner. Murphy, who directed the film and worked with Kramer on the adaptation, is being honored tomorrow with the Louis XIII Genius Award at this year’s Critics’ Choice Television Awards.
SSN: This was a real labor of love for you, wasn’t it?
Murphy: It was. It started from a place of being a fan of the piece for almost 25 years, and then waking up one day and feeling like, ‘why wasn’t this made?’ Such an important story, still so modern, and more than that, I thought it would inspire younger people who needed to hear that story. So I came from a place of complete passion. It was just one of those things that I put everything I had into. Everything I wanted it to be turned out to come through, and that’s a new experience for me in my career.
SSN: Matt Bomer and I were talking about how the love story between Ned and Felix resonated much more in the film than on the page. Was that something you developed for the movie?
Murphy: That love story was always my way into the piece. There’s a lot of hate and prejudice in the world, especially towards gay people, and I felt that if I could present a gay couple who you rooted for and loved and related to, then the message of the movie would land more. That’s something Larry and I spent a lot of time working on, and he agreed with me.
SSN: What about the amazing chemistry between Mark Ruffalo and Matt?
Murphy: You can never predict that; you can never control it. Two people you think will be hotter than hot can show up and not have that. They adored each other from the moment we started rehearsals, and I think they instinctively knew the scenes were going to be brutal, and more than that, they were really rooting for the other to succeed. I think you can see that in the performance in that they loved each other and worked hard at it, and that comes through in a very beautiful way.
SSN: As sad as the movie is, watching it made me just as angry as I was when I was in college in the ‘90s.
Murphy: Yeah. I was angry every day. It’s a classic play because it’s a real call to arms. It’s a different piece of art than it was when Larry wrote it in ‘84 or ’85, y’know? Obviously, you can now look at it through the lens of history, but I’m very proud of the fact, and I’ve seen this through social media, that a lot of young people didn’t know about the prejudice and injustice, and this movie taught them about that. I’ve read a lot of letters and a lot of tweets from young people saying that, ‘this movie is infuriating to me and it’s made me get involved.’
So the fact that the movie can create even one little Larry Kramer is amazing, but I’ve read so many heart swelling responses from young people asking about wanting to take action. That’s not something you can predict and it’s icing on the cake for me. At the same time, it’s very personal because that’s what I wanted it to do; that was my goal. I wanted to make people angry and I wanted it to move people and I wanted it to remind people that this campaign is not over and it’s still something people should be angry about and get involved with.
SSN: The amazing thing is to understand how far we’ve come as a society, but also know that there is still a long way to go.
Murphy: I think that’s completely accurate and scarily true.
SSN: Changing tack entirely, you’re being honored at the Critics’ Choice Television Awards with their genius award. Must be nice to be recognized in one’s own time, huh?
Murphy: (laughs) Well, it made me laugh, because nobody I work with and nobody in my life would ever call me that. I don’t think I’m a genius except about one thing: I do think I’ve been very smart about surrounding myself with incredibly talented collaborators. The other thing I’ve done really well is I’ve chosen some fantastic mentors. People who saw this kid from Indiana and said, ‘okay, you seem to have a lot of good ideas and you really work hard, so I’m going to help you out.’ I feel that what’s happened to me in my career is beyond my wildest dreams. I moved out here in 1989 and didn’t know a single soul. I’m just thrilled it all worked out, y’know?
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The Bazinga Cast 