Entertainment Weekly - February 24 - March 3, 2017



Judd

Apatow,

Pete

Holmes,

and

comedian

Dov

Davidoff



Dustin

Lance

Black on

set in San

Francisco’s

Castro

district

comedians like T.J. Miller, Sarah

Silverman, and Artie Lange. Is that

also based on true experiences?

HOLMESWhen I got divorced, the

first people I called were Nick Kroll

and John Mulaney and T.J. Miller—

all the pals. Like, T.J. was a big help

in healing his sad friend. He took

me to his movie set and we

smoked pot for the first time. All

these things started happening

[in real life], so we wanted to do a

dramatization of what that’s like,

when someone from a really kind

of ethical, more traditional world

is accepted by degenerates.

[Laughs] Like, people who sleep

all day and don’t think twice about

doing drugs or having casual sex.

So it sounds like people should

viewCrashingas an uplifting

love letter to comedy rather than

a sad show about divorce.

APATOW Pete loves comedy so

much that it’s infectious. This

show is about someone trying to

be very positive and hold on to

their morality while traveling in the

weird, dark world of comedians.

HOLMESIt’s very interesting to

find hope and something really

beautiful in that world. Judd and

I both enjoy stories about finding

unlikely grace and redemption,

and unexpected support

and love, and that’s what I found.

I THOUGHT, THAT’S AN

INTERESTING IDEA—

A RELIGIOUS GUY

GETS KICKED OUT OF

THE SHALLOW

END OF COMEDY INTO

THE DEEP END.”

—PETE HOLMES

EYES ON THERISE

Oscar winner and LGBT advocateDustin Lance Black brings the fight for equality to life with ABC’s

miniseriesWhen We Rise (debuting Feb. 27, 9 p.m.). Set in San Francisco more than 40 years ago and

starring Guy Pearce, Mary-Louise Parker, and Michael Kenneth Williams, the docudrama has acquired

an even greater relevance postelection. Here’s a look into Black’s vision of hope.BY MARC SNETIKER

As the country turns

primal, Dustin Lance

Black is turning to

prime time. The 42-year-old

screenwriter, catapulted

to fame for scripting 2008’s

Oscar-winning Harvey Milk

biopicMilk, is extending his

LGBT advocacy to TV with

ABC’s impactful miniseries

When We Rise. The four-part

docudrama charts the entan-

gled lives of real-life activists

in the gay, women’s, and black

civil rights movements in

1970s San Francisco.

“I would give anything in

the world for the series to be

less necessary and relevant,”

Black says on a call from Lon-

don, where he currently lives

with his fiancé, British Olympic

diver Tom Daley. “I know what

it feels like this year. ‘Leaders’

saying lives are less worthy of

protection. I hope this show

can be a road map for young

people, to know that they have

forefathers and foremothers

who faced backlash like this

before and pushed back and

won. In no way is this series a

history lesson. It’s a torch.”

Rise is not Black’s first foray

into TV—he wrote for HBO’s

Big Love—but it marks his

debut as a series creator, a

role demanding reconciliation

between one’s dreams and

network notes. After a “tough”

studio process onMilk, he

was understandably skeptical

when he heard ABC was seek-

ing LGBT history projects in

2013: “ABC was a network

I was allowed to watch, unat-

tended, as a child in a conser-

vative Mormon military home,

and now they’re optioning

LGBT books? I was really curi-

ous why, because onMilk, just

a few years before, I had to

charge every dime of develop-

ment on a credit card because

nobody was interested.”

But ABC was enthusiasti-

cally on board with his

ideas, perhaps an indication

that Hollywood may finally be

catching up. Black doesn’t

decry being labeled one of

the industry’s go-to gay rights

storytellers, but he says his

devotion to activism isn’t

born entirely from his relation-

ship to LGBT issues. “My

mom was paralyzed from the

age of 7, and the first anger

I felt at watching someone be

treated unfairly was when

I realized how people were

looking at her,” says Black.

“I turned that anger into pur-

pose. I think I dedicate my

life to moving the needle

towards the better treatment

of people who are different.

I called the showWhen

We Rise because that was my

main concern—we had

lost sight of the importance

of that middle word:we.”



Michael Kenneth Williams, Austin P.

McKenzie, and Mary-Louise Parker



.

r

A PIONEER FOR CHANGE

BLACK, PARKER: PHIL BRAY/ABC (2); WILLIAMS, MCKENZIE: EIKE SCHROTER/ABC (2)