Exclusive: First look at ‘Husbands’ behind-the-scenes video for episode 2×02
Via Hypable - By Selina Wilken - @SelinaWilken
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The hit sitcom Husbands released its second episode of season 2, “The Straightening,” last week, and today we’ve got an exclusive first look behind-the-scenes, featuring interviews with Jon Cryer, Mekhi Phifer, Brad Bell, Jane Espenson, Sean Hemeon, Alessandra Torresani, and director Jeff Greenstein!
http://www.hypable.com/2012/09/05/exclusive-first-look-at-husbands-behind-the-scenes-footage-for-episode-2x02/
In this behind-the-scenes video we get an insight into the production process of Husbands, as Espenson and Bell explain the social commentary and context of “The Straightening.”
The episode finds Cheeks (Brad Bell) and Brady (Sean Hemeon) essentially switching roles as they prepare for an interview, hosted by Two and a Half Men‘s Jon Cryer, who plays the Ryan Seacrest-ian character Vic Del Rey. The interview was intended to be damage control, after Cheeks’ “inappropriate” Instagramming – a simple snapshot of the smooching husbands – sparked outraged from the “Billion Moms” and generally jeopardized Brady’s public image as a heartland baseball hero.
“The Straightening” also marks the season 2 debut of Cheeks’ ever-intoxicated BFF Haley, played by Caprica‘s Alessandra Torresani. Haley presents a trainwreck of a mixed metaphor, albeit a compelling one, suggesting that a more conservative approach to self expression is a better strategy for mainstream acceptance and thus, long term social progress. Cheeks is sold. Butching it up for square America is the way to go.
Meanwhile, Brady’s ballplayer buddy Mark (White Collar actor Mekhi Phifer) draws a parallel between the bold activism of African American civil rights leaders (Rosa Parks refusing to get off the bus, for example) explaining that conformity will not foster change as quickly, bravely, or effectively as a radical “deal with it” attitude. “I get it!” Brady exclaims, ready to toss aside mores and not just push the envelope, but tear it open altogether.
The basic premise of Espenson and Bell’s Husbands follows the celebrity lives and tabloid aftermath following the drunk-nuptials of Cheeks and Brady. While the series is certainly a hilarious sitcom, it also delves much deeper. Husbands rejects, redefines, and embraces common stereotypes of homosexuality, and the depictions of homosexuality in various aspects of modern culture – from the demonized, to the fetishized.
The show’s refreshing spin, equal parts irreverent and passionate, isn’t afraid to use LGBT stereotypes and social taboos as vaudevillian fodder. Why? In the same way the characters regularly call out the sitcom cliches of their world (“If we weren’t gay, this would be a hackneyed premise!”), doing so is never just for laughs; it is done to support the show’s point of view. While the hackneyed premise line is funny, on further reflection, it also highlights the inequality of a society where accidental marriage between heterosexuals has become passé, but preaching from the pulpit about sanctity somehow has merit where gays are concerned.Husbands suggests that even if the paperwork were in place for civil rights, that wouldn’t bring about true social equality. Where does that even begin? That is the groundbreaking progressivism of Husbands.
The result is an instantly iconic couple, Cheeks and Brady. Though DNA fragments of Cheeks and Brady can be found in just about every traditional sitcom dating all the way back to I Love Lucy, they are wholly new characters when compared to any genre, even the most cutting edge alternative content. Husbands has created a couple with a a dynamic mixture of complexity, predictability, superficiality, vulnerability, fallibility, and universality. In short, humanity. These days, that kind of character development is hard to come by – gay, straight, or otherwise.
As as Bell explains in the video, the scene in which Cheeks is withholding sex from Brady is not only funny, it also makes a point that on television, gays aren’t allowed to be sexy, but in this show that’s exactly what they are.
Watch the second episode here, which also featured special guests John Hodgman, Aasha Davis, Magda Apanowicz and Joss Whedon:
http://www.hypable.com/2012/09/05/exclusive-first-look-at-husbands-behind-the-scenes-footage-for-episode-2x02/
Fans of Whedon’s shows have an extra reason to tune in: aside from the man himself, this season’s guest star roster brags names like Amber Benson, Emma Caulfield and Dichen Lachman.
Catch up on the first season of the show here, and tell us what you think about Husbands!
And if (like us!) you just can’t get enough of this show, Dark Horse Comics has announced that there’ll also be a comic book soon, which takes the concept even further as Cheeks and Brady embark on a hilarious adventure.
![Love this article - It mentions Joss Whedon’s acting role in “Husbands” - written by Jane Espenson and Brad Bell (aka Cheeks) !!!
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Toronto: When Joss Whedon Played Hamlet
By Kyle Buchanan
Up at the Toronto Film Festival, Joss Whedon’s low-budget film of Much Ado About Nothing has proved itself a surprise hit, winning a recent pick-up by Lionsgate. Still, to hear star Alexis Denisof tell it, Much Ado almost didn’t make it to the big screen. “We were about halfway through the shoot when Joss said, ‘This might be more than just an online release. There might be a movie here,’” recalled Denisof, who played Wesley on Whedon’s TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. The film was an outgrowth of Whedon’s weekend Shakespeare readings, which the director likes to sprinkle with cast members from his small-screen efforts; in addition to a reading of Much Ado that paired Denisof and Amy Acker and eventually inspired Whedon to retain the two stars for his adaptation, Denisof said that he’s taken part in a reading of Macbeth performed by James Marsters (Spike on Buffy), and even a run of Hamlet with Whedon himself in the title role.
Wait, what? The writer–director of The Avengers played one of Shakespeare’s most famous protagonists? “He was an amazing Hamlet!” raved Denisof. “He was the definitive melancholy Dane.”
When we later caught up with Whedon, he confirmed the story. “It was my devil’s bargain, that if I did this for two years, one day I would get to be play Hamlet,” laughed Whedon. “It was not only one of the greatest experiences of my life, but so instructive when it came from Shakespeare and directing and acting. The biggest thing, which really informed Much Ado, is that Hamlet really is an ensemble piece that people mistake for a one-man show. He needs everybody in that play to bounce off of, and you’ll see productions where they’ll get a star to play Hamlet and these workmanlike people for everybody else, and they don’t do the math to see that he’s exactly as good as everybody around him.”
In Whedon’s version, then, he surrounded himself with Acker as Ophelia, Denisof as Claudius, actress Amber Benson (Tara from Buffy) as Gertrude, and another writer, Tim Minear, as Polonius. “It gave me the insight that I really needed to see how much an actor can give to another actor,” said Whedon. “A lot of directors like myself, who let’s say are ‘control enthusiasts,’ might not be willing to accept that.”
Since then, Whedon has taped a guest spot on Husbands, a web series from his frequent collaborator Jane Espenson, confessing, “I’ve always had the [acting] bug. I do think it’s actually useful for a director or writer to be a wannabe actor, because then you’re thinking from that perspective when you’re writing for them or telling them what to do. You know what their needs are in a way that you might not otherwise.”
And will Whedon and Denisof work together again, now that Whedon is prepping a big-screen sequel to The Avengers (an unrecognizably masked Denisof had the small role of The Other in the first film) and a TV show about Marvel’s peace-keeping S.H.I.E.L.D. organization? Denisof sure hopes so, claiming that when he’s around Whedon, he likes to cough out, “S.H.I.E.L.D.AlexisDenisof.” Laughed the actor, “I just don’t want to push my luck, since he’s been so good to me.”](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ma9achZtde1r5rzuvo1_250.jpg)
