‘Bear City’ screenwriter and Voice contributor Lawrence Ferber turns novelist, and asks himself the tough questions
Editor’s note: When Dallas Voice gets the chance to interview a celebrity, we often turn to contributing writer Lawrence Ferber to hit them up with sassy and insightful questions. So when we heard that the hit gay rom-com BearCity — about a twink’s foray in the bear scene for a hairy daddy romance — had been fleshed out into the saucy, breezy book BearCity: The Novel (Bear Bones Books), we of course asked Ferber to speak with the author. And since Ferber himself is the author … well, we knew it was an interview op he couldn’t turn down.
Ferber, for Dallas Voice: You and Doug Langway co-wrote the film BearCity, which spawned a sequel. Why a novel? Ferber, BearCity author: Well, Ron Suresha, author of bear-y books like Fur and editor of the Lethe Press imprint Bear Bones Books, approached Doug and me about a series of books based on the films. It seemed a good idea to me as a writer. There are so many things that you have to change and lose in developing and streamlining a feature script and film, like whole subplots, dialogue and characters, so it seemed a great opportunity to return to the first film’s sandbox and get to share those finally. It’s a real treat to go back and spend time with characters you created and love, and even right some wrongs and flaws. Whit Stillman did it with Last Days of Disco, and Tina Fey has expressed regret that she didn’t do a novelization of Mean Girls because there was a lot of stuff she could have included.
So what are some of those additions that set the BearCity book apart from the movie? Well, the character of Carlos meets up with his ex-boyfriend, who wants him back. A scene in which Simon and Tyler first meet, scrapped from the film, is in the book, plus a funny, dirty first introduction to Roger, and a more serious look into his bear community activism. Indeed, there is insight not only into the characters’ pasts and minds, but also the bear community and issues within. The book is really a mix of both the moments people love from the film, and a whole new experience to boot.
There are pictures, too? Yes. Each of the 16 chapters is started with a still from the film, and there is a whole trove of behind-the-scenes shots and dishy captions.
Ooh dish! Dish girl! “OK. I am in the background of the conga line dancing scene, wearing a friggin’ leather harness. We were short of extras, so Doug pointed at me and said, “Larry, take off your shirt and get over there and dance.” I was like, “Doug, I’m the co-writer, I’m not taking off my shirt! I need to maintain some sort of professional decorum.” Doug replied, “Then you can wear a leather harness” … as if that was better. Then I look to my right and there’s a guy chained to a big cross in a kilt and nothing else, and to my left, a line of shirtless actors. So I felt like the guy in a bathing suit at a nudist colony. I opted for the leather harness.
Best reaction to the book so far? It hasn’t been out long, but Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields and Future Bible Heroes got a sneak peek and said this: “Bear City: The Novel transforms the charming indie flick into a zippy travel guide to bear New York, interlaced with enough sex scenes to put the ‘oft’ and ‘score’ back in ‘softcore.’ Um … woof!”
I heard from a little birdie that BearCity has quite the international following. Yes, and it’s amazing. I do a lot of travel writing, and I have about every gay social app under the sun — Growlr, Scruff, 9Monsters, Jack’d, u4Bear … the list goes on. Wherever I am around the world, folks message me to say they loved the film. Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, has threads of folks discussing the BearCity films every single day! In China!! I mean, this isn’t Batman or Brad Pitt-level fame, but it’s amazing that so many people around the world have seen and think about it (even if they illegally torrent the film — which sucks! Please buy it legally, folks!).
Will there be a second book? Depends on how this one does to begin with!
Are you a narcissist? No!
Why do bears say woof when animal kingdom bears don’t actually make that sound? I was dreading that question. Er … oh, damn, phone connection is getting … [click].
BearCity: The Novel is available via TLAgay.com, Amazon, Smashwords.com and BearCity2.com.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 26, 2013.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition July 26, 2013.