Noam Ash was about 27 years old when he and his then-boyfriend called it quits. At the time, Ash didn’t have much money nor another place to live.
What did he do?
He moved in with his grandparents.
“I lived with them for over a year,” Ash tells me. “It was the best year, but honestly, I was so mortified and embarrassed by the whole thing. I did not want anyone to know that I lived with them. But my manager at the time thought it was hysterical. She said, ‘You have to write something about this.’ And then I did and this is the result of that.”
The this is “Bookends,” a rom-com written by and starring Ash as an aspiring novelist who finds romance with his grandparents’ doctor (Charlie Barnett) when he moves in with them after he finds out his boyfriend (Spencer Belko) is having an affair with their spin instructor (Jared Reinfeldt).
Ash’s grandparents passed away before the movie, directed by Mike Doyle, got made. “They did know that I was writing this, this piece, and that it was really a love letter to them,” Ash says.
Caroline Aaron and F. Murray Abraham play Nate’s grandparents. As the movie unfolds, the grandfather begins to show signs of dementia. “For my mom and my aunt, it’s their dad,” Ash says. “When they watched the movie, they were like, ‘Oh, my god, it’s dad.’ My mother asked if I showed Murray videos of grandpa. I was like, ‘No. It’s all in the writing, honey. My mom was like, ‘How does he know the mannerisms and the hand gestures and everything?’”
Not only is Ash openly gay but so is Barnett. Authentic casting was important to Ash and Doyle. “That was something Mike and I discussed a lot,” Ash says. “We also wanted to show that Jews come in all different shades, shapes and sizes and Charlie’s mom was actually Jewish. He was like, ‘I wasn’t raised Jewish. I was like, ‘That’s OK. We’ll claim you.’”
With an upswing in political attacks aimed at the queer community, Ash admits he initially worried that the movie would have trouble finding a distributor.
But then “Heated Rivalry” came along.
“I think they proved that in the absolute biggest way that you can have the steamiest, gayest, most homoerotic show probably ever made for television, and it could also have huge mainstream success,” Ash says. “That has put my mind at ease.”
“Bookends” premieres Feb. 9 at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.
English (US) ·