Atlanta sees the Del Shores’ Sordid Lives canon expand with A Very Sordid Wedding
By Matthew Holley
They say everything is bigger in Texas. Well it must be true, because Texas is the setting for the long awaited sequel to the cult classic, Sordid Lives.
Pop the champagne and get ready for a trip to the Lone Star state for a fabulous, A Very Sordid Wedding. The movie hits Atlanta June 28 and 29 courtesy Atlanta’s LGBT film fest Out on Film.
It has been 16 years since we caught up with the “black comedy about white trash,” and now the family at its center is back funnier, louder and changed. Writer-director Del Shores, along with his savvy partner in crime, actor and producer, Emerson Collins raised almost $60,000 on Indiegogo to have A Very Sordid Wedding made. Coming full-circle, the film premiered on March 10 in the exact Los Angeles theater where Sordid Lives ran for 96 weeks, skyrocketing to cult status and cementing its place in gay pop culture history.
The sequel takes us all back to the tiny, conservative Texas town following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on marriage equality in 2015. So how is our banded bunch faring after such a historical moment?
“For so many year,s fans have asked, ‘Where are the characters? What happened? How can we get more of Sordid Lives?,’” Collins tells David Atlanta. “Del wanted time to want to go back to it, not because of the characters or actors, but as we started being this national conversation about marriage equality, he sort of had the breakthrough idea of saying, ‘What happens if I bring the characters up to the present and really see how they’re struggling or not struggling or dealing with marriage equality?’”
With 32 cast members in tow, including a surprise cameo from Whoopi Goldberg and the man that never sleeps, Collins himself pulling double duty as a producer, A Sordid Wedding was born. They all join Sordid legends Bonnie Bedelia, Caroline Rhea and Leslie Jordan for a well-crafted journey of love, laughter and life.
“It’s sort of a balancing act making sure everybody has what they need to do their job being a producer,” Collins says. “Then when it’s my turn to step in the scene, stepping into the shoes of the character and while the camera’s rolling, all that matters is his world and his existence, and then they yell cut and I’m off to dealing with payroll and accounting and permits and the next thing.”
Collins’ character is over-the-top and has delicious scenes with the vivacious Leslie Jordan (photo this page).
“The role is hugely, hugely fun,” he says. “It’s a dynamic of [Shores’] Southern Baptist Sissies and having the opportunity to be in scenes with Leslie Jordan who is absolutely a genius. That sort of gave me the opportunity to flex and stretch and play a character that’s really, really far away from who I am. As an actor, the fun is getting to demonstrate what I can do.”
The film tour has been quite the whirlwind.
“We actually started the journey of the film outside of Palm Springs with screenings in four cities in Texas, from San Antonio to Waco and Austin up to Dallas, where we shot part of the movie,” Emerson says. “I grew up in Texas, so I will say it’s a very personal victory moment. I went to college at Baylor in Waco. That conflict of religion and sexuality that goes in our projects, it’s certainly been a theme in my life as well. Being on the morning news in Waco, Texas and getting to say, ‘As an openly gay man…’ I think the reward for a lot of Sordid Lives is that it plays so well universally.”
And fan reactions have been nothing short of limitless adoration from critics and audiences alike.
“We did it in Toronto last week, and the applause and laughter was as uproarious as it was in Texas,” Collins says. “There’s a special place in cities in the South where LGBT have to be defiantly out and proud against a lot of the dogmatics and conservative environment they live in. I think that’s why it’s so strongly embraced, particularly in the South – in Dallas and Birmingham and Atlanta, it’s always been one of our biggest fan bases and I think that’s why.
“To be gay in the South that’s out and proud, it’s still a giant statement.”
A Very Sordid Wedding premieres June 28-29 with Out on Film at Midtown Art Cinema. Visit outonfilm.org. Photo: Emerson Collins and Leslie Jordan by Steven K. Johnson