Chris Azzopardi
Best Albums of 2018
10. Jussie Smollett, "Sum of My Music" No way "Empire" star Jussie Smollett was about to let a label – in his case, not just any label but Sony – stifle his musical ambitions. So he walked. Then he independently produced a stunning soul [...]
Saoirse Ronan Rules: 'Mary Queen of Scots' Star on LGBTQ Allyship & Why It's 'Exciting' Her New Film Has Naked Men
Name a 24-year-old Oscar nominee more qualified to take the throne as a crown-donning, queer-friendly queen than Saoirse Ronan. The "Mary Queen of Scots" star's own life is rich in queer-adjacent roles and gay besties, and as powerful progressive [...]
Ellen Page Talks Queering 'Casablanca,' Starring in 'Tales of the City' & Why She Wants a 'Whip It' Sequel
Actress and social activist Ellen Page recently witnessed history repeating itself while revisiting acclaimed classic "Casablanca." Page noted the 1942 film's eerie modern-day relevance, "the Nazi presence, but the sort of neutrality of people," [...]
Q&A: Margot Robbie Talks Queen Elizabeth Drag, That Gay Orgy & Harley Quinn's Queerness in 'Birds of Prey'
After a fierce, Oscar-nominated turn as scandalous skater Tonya Harding in 2017's "I, Tonya," Margot Robbie is off the ice and holding royal court as Queen Elizabeth I in "Mary Queen of Scots." Exercising a power over Europe so great during the 16th [...]
Q&A: Michael Bublé Talks LGBTQ Youth Outreach, Teaching His Kids Self-Love & 'Sexist' Christmas Cover
"You're my first. Be gentle with me. Can we start with, like, a foreplay thing where you can just take it easy on me? Some gentle licking perhaps, and then we'll get into the heavy stuff." And so my interview with Michael Bublé, who has almost made [...]
Viola Davis Talks Journey to LGBTQ Acceptance, Finding Her Power & Why Her Favorite Role Was As a Man
Viola Davis taps my hand when she really means what she says. Each time the actress reaches over to make contact, the big bar in the big skyscraper in big Chicago where we are sitting diminishes. She has a way of making any space feel intimate. The [...]
Q&A: Actress Claire Foy Talks Objecting to Lesbian Sex Scene in Her New Film, All Those Dildos and Being Bi in 'Unsane'
A pansexual man-avenger returns – this time, with English actress Claire Foy sporting the Swedish computer-hacker Lisbeth Salander's leather gear and trademark dragon tattoo. Based on the novel from David Lagercrantz, written after original author [...]
Q&A: Melissa McCarthy on How She Got Her Drag Name, First Time in a Gay Bar & Emulating Lesbians
Melissa McCarthy knows her way around a woman who doesn't care what other people think. This is the foundation on which her bawdy and vanity-free slapstick characters are created. Anti-feminine hornball Megan in "Bridesmaids" dialed up dude-level [...]
Eric McCormack's Comedic Revolution: Actor on the Value of 'Will & Grace' Now & Why the Show 'Could've Backfired'
Eric McCormack auditioned for the role of gay lawyer Will on "Will & Grace" without realizing the effect he'd have on closeted teenagers. "I was worried about network executives and what the gay community would think," he says, "but when I was [...]
Q&A: Cher on Knowing When She Was a Gay Icon, 'Hope' Gleaned from LGBT Community & 'Breadcrumbs' of Her Legacy
Cher is so low-key about being Cher that calling her is like calling your mom. "Hi," she purrs with signature simplicity when I phone her presidential suite in late August. We are speaking matter-of-factly about gay things, political things, [...]
Q&A: Keira Knightley on Gay Directors, a Lesbian Sequel to 'Bend It Like Beckham' and Her Drag-Inspired Sugar Plum Fairy
You know what's to love, actually? How Keira Knightley has now played enough feminist roles to know her character, Juliet, in the bubbly holiday classic "Love Actually" doesn't exactly fall into that category. In the Christmas rom-com, Juliet is the [...]
Chloë Sevigny Talks Legacy of 'Boys Don't Cry,' Never Playing Trans Again
Chloë Sevigny knows the power of words, so she's very careful with them, warily tiptoeing to the end of an answer when asked about the influence of her seminal trans-landmark film "Boys Don't Cry." The 1999 dramatization of the murder of real-life [...]