So we hoped they might at least engage with us, and the ban was very disappointing.Īnd for Samuel, it was a hundred times worse. So it wasn’t us creating a story, but reflecting real life that just does exist. But what was different about “I Am Samuel” was that it was a documentary. We always knew this was a possibility, because the film board has banned films like this before, notably two recent feature films, “Rafiki” and “Stories of Our Lives.” So it would have been naive for us to think we were just going to get a smooth ride. They called it “a clear and deliberate attempt to promote same-sex marriage as an acceptable way of life.” What did you think of that? Kenya’s film board banned the film, saying it violates laws criminalizing homosexuality. Sammy's parents smile at each other in their rural home in Kenya. And it was a conversation we negotiated over and over with Samuel’s friends, his parents, and with Alex when Alex came into his life. But I would say it took a couple years for people to become comfortable with me. The short answer is that it takes a very long time for people to get used to you and be natural and just forget you’re there. You went with him to visit his family both before and just after he came out to them, which happened during the period you were following him. You spent a great deal of time with Sammy, and then later with Sammy and Alex. A lot of it is filmed inside people’s houses, at parties and family gatherings. So he wanted to make this film for people who come from the village, like him, so that those people know they are not alone. And he told me when he was growing up and coming to terms with who he was, he had not one grown person in his life or community who he knew was queer. He comes from the countryside, and he worked in Nairobi on a construction site. He had his own motivations for being involved. And he was interested almost from day one.
So I also wanted my film to be a more representative story in that sense, because it’s more true to what’s happening. But that more mainstream story has rarely been told. That means the majority of queer Kenyan men and women are poor. Miller’s letter comes after Bravo channel host and executive producer Andy Cohen told last week that he would not be co-hosting Donald Trump’s Miss Universe pageant this year in Moscow because he “didn’t feel right as a gay man stepping foot into Russia.Russian war’s ‘Phase 2’: How Ukraine troops adapt, giving little groundīut most people in Kenya are poorer than the middle class. Miller, who played incarcerated structural engineer Michael Scofield in “Prison Break” from 2005 to 2009, has recently turned his hand at screenwriting, penning the script for thriller “Stoker,” starring Nicole Kidman. Russia’s parliament banned the spread of gay “propaganda” among minors in a law passed in June, which includes imposing fines on those holding gay pride rallies, has attracted international condemnation. Miller wrote that he was “deeply troubled by the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government,” and did not want attend a festival in a country where “people like myself are being systematically denied their basic right to live and love openly.” However, as a gay man, I must decline,” Miller wrote to festival director Maria Averbakh. “As someone who has enjoyed visiting Russia in the past and can also claim a degree of Russian ancestry, it would make me happy to say yes. Petersburg International Film Festival as a “guest of honor” in a letter posted on the website of advocacy group GLAAD, which monitors media representation of gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people and issues. Miller, 41, turned down an offer to attend the St. 21 in a letter declining an invitation to attend a Russian film festival in light of Moscow’s recently adopted anti-gay laws. REUTERS photoĪctor and screenwriter Wentworth Miller, best known for his leading role in Fox television drama “Prison Break,” came out as a gay man on Aug.
Wentworth Miller, the leading actor of ‘Prison Break,’ declined an invitation to attend a Russian film festival in light of the country’s recent anti-gay laws. 'Prison Break' star Wentworth Miller reveals he is gay LOS ANGELES - Reuters