Around the time of The Prince of Tides, the tabloids said that you married a male model.
It was a ridiculous story. It was funny in a way.
Where do you think they came up with that?
Oh, I don’t know. These people are ingenious with their imaginations.
Your dad, Elliott Gould, appears as your father in “Inside Out.” Did you ask him to be in it?
I originally asked another actor to be in the part, but he didn’t want to do it.
Was it weird to ask your dad to be in it, because it was autobiographical?
No, my father was happy to do it. I wasn’t even sure I was going to act in it. But I thought that playing the part would be provocative, and I liked that.
How did the film come to be?
Well, I actually began writing it as a feature-length script several years ago. A friend of mine produced a short film, and that inspired me to retool my own movie as a short since I couldn’t find enough feature-length material. It was still a very ambitious short. We shot it in a week, and there were so many actors and so many locations. It was creatively satisfying, but we were filming three to five scenes a day in totally different locations. So it was crazy. We’d have two hours to set up, shoot a scene, and get out.
You could have gone into a number of careers, but you decided to follow in your parents’ footsteps in the entertainment business.
I wouldn’t define myself as an actor or director, because I also write, and not just screenplays but little personal things. They haven’t been published yet, and they may never be, but I do other things too that are not about being in the public eye. I mean, of course, that’s all I know from both sides of my family, and like a lot of people, I’ve tended to follow what I know.
It’s also a seductive industry.
It may be to some people, but to me, it’s not. It’s not seductive at all. I don’t find adulation and fame appealing. I’ve paid a big cost for my parents’ fame. Do you think that your being gay makes it more complicated?
You know, the more I understand my own sexuality the more I…I mean I don’t mind being called gay, because I’m certainly attracted to men. But I also think that it’s limiting. I think that within the gay community—and as a member of the gay community—it’s limiting for us to stereotype ourselves. Attraction is more complex than the terms gay, straight, and bisexual. And I hope that eventually people will evolve into accepting a broader understanding of attraction. (like kids?)
Your mom must have been around gay people her whole life, right?
She certainly worked with gay people. But there were very few gay people around while I was a child.
How did your mom respond to your coming out to her?
I think she would love to have a grandchild, and I think that is probably the greatest disappointment to her. But you know, she may still get one. But I want to get a dog first. [Laughs]