Brandon Judell
Happy Endings Supplies Jason Ritter with a Happy Beginning
By Brandon Judell
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| Jason Ritter (as Otis) and Maggie Gyllenhaal (as Jude) in "Happy Endings." Photo credit: Eric Lee |
Shyly holding court at Regency Hotel, the mop-headed Jason Ritter, 25, son of the late John Ritter, is doing his Three's Company dad's legacy proud. He's currently starring along with Lisa Kudrow, Jesse Bradford, and Maggie Gyllenhaal in one of the best black comedies of the year, Don Roos' Happy Endings. If you saw Roos's 1998 rip-roaring farce The Opposite Sex, be prepared for more of the same.
Ritter, best known for continuing role as a car-accident victim on Joan of Arcadia, here plays Otis, a closeted, incompetent drummer with his own band. The rest of the group's members only tolerate him because his dad (Tom Arnold) is a millionaire who keeps the gang well fed. As one guitar player notes: "Why do you think he's a drummer? So he can stare at our asses the whole time." When the band's lead singer has an overdose, Otis quickly discovers Jude (Gyllenhaal), a sexy homeless conniver, at a karaoke bar and brings her home, where she immediately takes away his heterosexual virginity before seducing the boy's pop.
This is only one thread of a multi-tale parable on the lunacy of trying to establish one's identity in a crazed America. There's also stepsibling copulation, lesbian motherhood, sex with a masseur, blackmail, and a film-school fanatic (Bradford) who has no morals when it comes to filming his documentary. Consider Happy Endings the lighter side of this year's hit ensemble drama Crash.
Ritter, by the way, was a founding member of The Irreputable Theater Company back in 2001, a group started by the graduating class of the Atlantic Theater Acting School. Its last show was Boys' Life back in 2004. As for his other credits, his resume boasts parts in MTV's Undressed, Swimfan (2002), and Freddy vs. Jason (2003).
NYTW: You're young sexy, sexy, and acting nonstop right now. Can you have
any complaints about any aspect of life?
JR: It's definitely great to be working as an actor. It's a very scary career move to do something as risky and dangerous as this-and to be able to continue to work has been a dream come true.
NYTW: Working for an openly gay director, did you get much feedback about your portrayal? Did Mr. Roos ever say you're being too gay or not gay enough?
JR: No, he felt comfortable with what was I bringing to the part, with what my interpretation of the character was. And you know I think it's so easy to characterize people as gay or straight, but there's a whole spectrum of different ways that homosexuality is manifested in people, and I think that for Otis, two things have to be believable. (A) that his father is still able to hold to hold onto the notion that Otis is straight without looking like a complete idiot, and (B) that the band members all go, "Obviously he's gay!"
I was trying to marry those two aspects of Otis while being this guy who is very uncomfortable in his own skin but trying as hard as he can to fit into the heterosexual world. He's just not feeling like it's working out, yet he's not really willing to jump into the other worlds. I think when Otis looks at Charley and Gil [an older, happily married gay couple], he feels a disconnect there, too. It's not like Otis thinks he can just jump into that world and be accepted. I feel like he doesn't know where he fits in. Otis knows he's attracted to men, but he doesn't feel comfortable at all with who he is until the end.
You could say Otis is a generally good person who means well. His big fault is that he's not being very brave, and he's not facing a lot of things about himself. You know you can internally be a good person and you can do bad things or morally questionable things out of fear or lack of self-confidence. As a human, you're constantly faced with decisions to either overcome or submit to all the negative things that are coming your way. That's being alive.
NYTW: What would your father think of your career?
JR: I think he would be proud. He saw the pilot presentation for Joan of Arcadia. That was the last thing he saw. He died fifteen days before the first episode actually aired. So he didn't get to see the whole level of that I was on a TV show that was doing well for a while. But he did get to see a switch.
I mean the thing he'd seen before that was Freddy vs. Jason which was fun, but it wasn't something as a father that he'd go, "Oh, you're on the right track." I think when he saw Joan of Arcadia, even just the 30-minute pilot presentation, he talked a lot about it with me. Like the week that he died. Right before this moment at the end, and he was really talking to me about it in a way that like he was excited by my performance. He was excited about what this would lead to. So I can't imagine that he'd be anything but proud and happy for me now.[Judell]
Copyright © Brandon Judell 2005
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