We love Pride! We love Queer Artists! We love Rom-Coms! We can not love a Queer Rom Com more & this one is just so freaking GOOD! Max Talisman makes his Roundtable debut to talk his journey to his feature film "Things Like This!"
"Things Like This" marks Max’s debut as a feature filmmaker and is the first release from his production company. The film follows two men named Zack whose unexpected connection forces them to navigate the long-term emotional aftermath of growing up queer. It is a romantic film, but not one defined by fantasy or formula.
Max stars opposite Joey Pollari ("American Crime," "Love, Victor"), Jackie Cruz ("Orange Is the New Black"), Nicholas Hamilton ("It," "Captain Fantastic"), Eric Roberts ("The Dark Knight," "Runaway Train"), and Cara Buono ("Stranger Things," "Mad Men").
Max wrote the script in 2017, after nearly a decade of working in film and television and realizing how infrequently someone like him was invited into the center of the frame. His credits include "Super Dark Times," "Search Party," "Orange Is the New Black," and "The Blacklist,” and while each of these roles contributed to a steady career, they rarely allowed for interiority, desire, or emotional complexity. "Things Like This" was his attempt to shift that dynamic, not only by writing himself into a story that felt lived-in and layered, but by taking ownership of every aspect of how that story would be told.
Max grew up in Washington, D.C., where he first fell in love with performance, onstage, in classrooms, anywhere someone would let him be a little too much. That early love of storytelling eventually led him to film and television, where he built a career across television. But as a queer, plus-size actor, Max quickly realized that the kinds of roles he was offered rarely reflected the full range of who he was. So he started writing. "Things Like This" is his response to years of being told, directly or indirectly, that people like him could be funny or supportive, but not the center of a love story. With this film, and through his production company Malibu, Bro Productions, Max is creating the kind of work he spent years waiting to be invited into.
Make sure to check out "Things Like This" in theatres & coming On-Demand!
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