Andy Fidoten’s feature debut Something You Should Know About Me follows the awkward and earnest Al (EJ Marcus) as he moves through a weeklong queer cartooning residence, fumbling through finding his sense of self: both in his art and in himself.
Veronica had the pleasure of speaking to both writer-director Andy and star EJ about cartooning in cinema, the relationships formed through the process of transitioning, and the comedy found in taking oneself too seriously.
VERONICA: What was the launching point for this movie: Andy, for writing and directing it, and EJ, for joining as the lead?
ANDY: I was wanting to write a romcom. I actually went to a gay cartooning camp for a week at the Center for Cartoon Studies in Vermont. It was not like this [movie] at all, this is not an accurate depiction of what you do at the Center of Cartoon Studies, but I was thinking so much about how much it changed me as an artist to spend a week as an artist making art with other queer people. I think from that experience came the desire to investigate what it would feel like if someone was in this setting and also in the middle of a love triangle. I’ve had this conviction that the raunchy romantic comedy is a pretty good platform to throw a bunch of trans guys into. So through all of these ideas, this script emerged.
EJ: Yeah, and Andrew just emailed me. We went to college together. We didn’t really know each other, but Andy emailed me this script and I was like, “This is awesome.”
VERONICA: How did you go about adapting something as visually distinct as drawn, static comics into something cinematic?
ANDY: I’m a very amateur cartoonist, it’s a passion of mine and I love cartoons and I love horny gay trans cartoons. I think that reading cartoons as a filmmaker and understanding that there is this really idiosyncratic way to represent bodies was really inspiring to me. The floor of entry is really different in cartoons. It doesn’t really matter if you can draw a body if you have a style. I really related to that notion from a trans storytelling perspective. When I went to write this script I started thinking, “I want to tell a story about an artist, but is there also a way to talk about how crazy and weird it is to be in a body that is just starting to become your own in real time in this kind of non-traditional cartoon language?” So I was looking at a lot of underground cartoons from presses like Silver Sprocket to inspire that work. The cartoonist Leo Fox who does Boy Island — his art is in the movie — was a big inspiration.
VERONICA: EJ I know and love your stuff from online, and I feel this is much more of a dramatic turn than your usual content. What was the process like?
EJ: I love comedy, obviously, it’s like my safe space [laughs] I have never said that out loud. It’s my comfort zone for sure. But, like, I really just love people and I love acting. Al felt like such a real person to me that I felt so excited to really sit with him and get to know him a lot. I think the awesome thing about this movie and this role is that — I agree, I think Al is extremely dramatic. For the most part, he’s never trying to be funny, actually. He’s very serious. And I think that is what’s awesome about the movie, is that’s what makes him funny a lot of the time. He’s taking himself so seriously, but if you zoom out a little, you’re like, “Sweetie, it’s okay.” But I think that’s why I love him so much. Even though a lot of my characters are comedic, they’re taking themselves seriously a lot of the time.
VERONICA: This movie acknowledges a fluidity between the platonic, the romantic, and the sexual in queer communities. I’m thinking specifically of best friends Jesse and Al, and Al’s private pining for Jesse. What was the process of creating the chemistry between those two characters in terms of both writing them and performing them?
ANDY: It’s sort of a queer trope at this point that there’s a porous boundary between friends and lovers. I think it’s a well-earned one, because it is part of what is so confusing about being queer, it breaks down so many of our societal notions about how people are supposed to be in relation to one another. You know, as someone who is trans and has transitioned, there’s such a beautiful intensity in going through that process with someone else and seeing yourself in someone else, which obviously can really break down those barriers. […] It’s very well-intentioned. These are two people who love each other, who care about each other, who have seen each other through some very crazy moments and are now trying to celebrate living together. Whatever miscommunications arise between them about what kind of relationship they have, the love and care is real, even when someone is acting selfish or someone is being a little intense, you know?
EJ: In terms of chemistry I mean, like, Morgan Sullivan who plays Jesse is amazing. Before we had started shooting, the first time I met Morgan we had a really intense dance rehearsal for the dance sequence, and it really did feel like camp. It was like, “Okay, nice to meet you” and then it was like [mimes dance moves]. We were just both so excited to be part of the project that it felt like a really easy rapport to get into. A lot of the time these kinds of characters are so familiar. I have a million times been in love with my best friends. It feels so organic to me, like it’s not the time and place and yet these feelings won’t go away.
HIGH FEMME RAPID FIRE QUESTIONS:
HF: What’s your biggest time suck online?
AF: Oh my God, Reddit.
EJM: Right now, Pinterest.
HF: Favorite curse word?
AF: It’s fuck.
EJM: Mine’s ass. I think it’s so funny.
HF: Favorite perverted thing (it can be art, an object, a person, a sex act)?
AF: I love pervert cartoons. I love Boy Island.
EJM: All I can think of is sexual fanart. Like sexy Fiona from Shrek.
HF: A sex discourse you wish you could ban?
AF: I’m down with all sex parties, I just don’t want to hear about them in my email inbox.
EJM: I see this only online, never in real spaces: “Are trans guys allowed in lesbian spaces?”
HF: Favorite childhood book?
AF: I really liked Girl in Blue, like any book about a girl living through massive plague or Revolutionary War.
EJM: I was really into the Warrior Cats books.
HF: Do you call it a journal or a diary?
AF: Journal.
EJM: Journal. I’m not a child.
HF: Person dead or alive that you would ask to dinner with the sole purpose of getting to throw a drink in their face?
EJM: Right now, Elon Musk.
AF: I also want to throw a drink in Elon Musk’s face.
HF: Ideal nap length?
AF: An hour and a half.
EJM: Twenty-minute timer.
HF: Any opinion on any movie ever?
AF: I just saw [I Love] Boosters yesterday. I think he does such a good job of showing his brain playground in an authentic way.
EJM: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish is such a good movie. Genuinely.
