Australia: It's not easy being Ted

Queer As Folk star Scott Lowell is shocked by Australian attitudes to Crystal and reveals how the show is secretly influenced by Sydney.

Actor Scott Lowell, who plays Ted on US TV series Queer As Folk, was amazed to hear there’s a debate in Sydney about whether there’s a link between crystal meth use and the rise in HIV.

While he admits he’s “no doctor”, in Lowell’s mind there’s a direct correlation between the drug and the disease. He did extensive research on crystal for his role on QAF when Ted became addicted to it in series three. In the upcoming fourth season of the hit show, starting on SBS next month, we find Ted still in rehab struggling to pull his shattered life back together.

“I think a big reason AIDS is back on the rise is because of this drug. I can’t see how you can’t see the connection,” Lowell told Sydney Star Observer from the QAF set in Toronto. “You’ve got people who are in this altered state of absolute euphoria and I would think the last thing they’re thinking about is condom use at that time. It’s such an immediate gratification kind of thing.

“So the health organisations in Sydney think it’s just a coincidence, and they don’t want to alienate crystal users?” he said. “I would tell them to take another look at that.”

He considers himself “the luckiest of all the cast members” in terms of the storylines he’s been given, such as when Ted started an internet porn company, and when he entered into a relationship with one of his best friends. But portraying crystal addiction was the most challenging and difficult thing Lowell has done to date. “The three or four months of filming those particular episodes were hard to do,” he said. “I was not a very pleasant person at all to be around when we were filming, but the end result is something I’m very, very proud of. I’m glad it’s over, but I’m glad we did it.”

Ted is a character Lowell never gets bored with playing because he’s constantly on a quest to find something – “probably a young, blonde boyfriend who he thinks will redeem him”. And with a character like this you can’t ever let him get what he wants or you’ll have nothing left to do with the character any more. “I open up each new script thinking, what humiliation will I face this week?” the actor laughed.

Lowell said it’s no coincidence the gay scene depicted in QAF, which is actually set in Pittsburgh, is reminiscent of Sydney’s scene. The first few episodes of the show were directed by Sydney-based Russell Mulcahy, who helped create the look and feel of the whole series. “So Australia was very much a part of the initial Queer As Folk look.”

Now a week into filming series five, Lowell admitted he’s surprised by the show’s longevity. “You would’ve thought someone would’ve gotten wise by now and thrown us off the air, but no we’re still here,” he said.

“We thought at first we’d get a lot of protest from right-wing, conservative people in the States, but we get many more members of the gay community upset about it because they felt it wasn’t realistic. Some people weren’t clever enough to realise we weren’t trying to represent every gay person’s life.”

And to those who don’t think what happens on the show is realistic, Lowell said: “Come and see what goes on in the extras’ holding area when we’re shooting one of our dance club scenes and see if you don’t think this world exists!”

In the States about half the show’s audience are straight and the majority of them are women. Lowell believes this is due in part to the fact many women get turned on by the sex scenes between men. The actor, who is straight, said he dated a woman during the first series who loved watching him get intimate with other guys.

So does he find it strange to regularly enact sex scenes with men? “It’s always odd to be stripping down naked in front of your friends,” he said. “But I’ve been fortunate that on the show I’ve been involved with some good-looking men, so it hasn’t been too difficult.”

Series four of Queer As Folk begins on Monday 1 November at 10pm on SBS.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: 14th October 2004
Source: Sydney Star Observer
Author: Tim Benzie
Website: http://www.ssonet.com.au/
Address: PO Box 939, Darlinghurst NSW 1300, Australia
Email: mail@ssonet.com.au
Copyright: 2004 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Community Publishing

Australia: Crystal forum draws mixed reaction

The first ACON crystal meth forum was held last week, sparking intense debate between researchers and community members.

The panel of researchers asserted there was no causal link between crystal use and unsafe sex and an insignificant proportion of the community use the drug.

“There are a lot of serious issues associated with crystal, but the sky’s not falling in,” Sean Slavin said, speaking on behalf of the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society.

However, one attendee spoke of his partner’s suicide after crystal meth addiction. Another recalled a boyfriend seeking to inject on the day he was released from hospital following a “crystal binge”.

Crystal was described as unusually addictive compared with other drugs, conducive to unsafe sex and responsible for uncontrollable psychotic episodes. Others spoke of users able to use crystal without becoming addicted.

When ACON president Adrian Lovney summed up “we shouldn’t be driving our response by anecdote”, however, some were unimpressed.

“Anecdotal evidence is a legitimate form of evidence,” community member Norrie May-Welby told the Star. May-Welby said a number of friends had attributed their recent HIV seroconversion to crystal use.

“I say there’s enough smoke coming from the hills for us to call the fire brigade, without us doing a research project just to check no-one is sending smoke signals,” May-Welby said.

Attendee Peter Dragicevich told the Star addiction problems, and not any possible HIV link, were of primary concern.

“I think ACON has been strangely reluctant to work on a hard-hitting campaign aimed solely at keeping people off the drug,” he said.

Stevie Clayton, CEO of ACON, told the Star the organisation “could have been clearer about the fact that we do value anecdote and people’s personal experiences” but that “clearly trashing the research doesn’t get us anywhere either”.

“Probably a lot of people feel a bit dissatisfied because we’ve had a whole lot of really different people … who had really different wants and needs from the forum,” she said.

Slavin said that talking about drug use in the gay and lesbian community had always been difficult.

“I don’t have a professional response. I have certain ideas about that as an individual. But what troubles me is when that discussion gets closed down and somehow if you’re somebody who wants to question illicit drug use and its role in the community, you’re seen as a wowser,” he told the Star.

Researcher Garrett Prestage agreed. “There’s a real reluctance to talk about recreational drugs in the community as a whole, because then what has to happen is you actually have to question your own usage,” he said.

The next forum will be held on Wednesday 3 November and is aimed at people affected by crystal and their friends. The forum will run from 6pm to 7:30pm at 9 Commonwealth Street, Surry Hills.

Newshawk: http://www.napnt.org/amphetablog.html
Pubdate: 7th October 2004
Source: Sydney Star Observer
Author: Tim Benzie
Website: http://www.ssonet.com.au/
Address: PO Box 939, Darlinghurst NSW 1300, Australia
Email: mail@ssonet.com.au
Copyright: 2004 Sydney Gay and Lesbian Community Publishing