Openly gay actor Brian Hutchison, most recently seen in the 2018 Broadway revival of The Boys in the Band, as well as in its 2020 film version, is what is known in theater circles as a journeyman actor.
Though he never became a star, Hutchison has worked steadily over the years, "journeying" from one role to another. He's a familiar face not only in theater, but on television and in film. Hutchison is also well known for his recordings of audiobooks, lending his voice to more than one hundred of them.
Like many during the pandemic, Hutchison found himself in isolation, which gave him plenty of time to think. And what he thought of has emerged as I Still Think About You, a dark film noir-styled podcast done as a dramatic reading starring himself and featuring a number of his actor friends in supporting roles.
I Still Think About You tells the story of Adam (Hutchison), a gay actor in New York City who enters into a relationship with a slightly older bestselling novelist. All is well between the two, until an old friend from their past comes back into their lives in a most disturbing way.
The story is told in seven parts, with each chapter running slightly more than thirty minutes, and is presented in the style of the old-time radio dramas which were popular in the years before television. The series is dark, even spooky, and can be looked upon as a gay variation of film noir.
True fiction
In an interview, Hutchison admits that the story was taken from an experience he had in his own life some years ago.
"It starts off as a mystery memoir," Hutchison said. "We hear a version of myself, this young actor Adam McClure, starting off on his journey in New York, the people that he meets. A lot of it is based in truth. I had to change around a few things, I changed names and locations and a little bit of the timeline, but the basis of the story is true."
Recording the story was relatively easy, as Hutchison has all the equipment he needs in his voiceover recording studio. Many of his friends are actors, and they donated their time to play the story's various characters.
"The only thing that I really paid for out of my own pocket is to hire this amazing young sound designer from Melbourne, Australia," he said. "So I worked with him on what would be good in terms of each episode, because I don't really know much about the sound design element of it all. I was lucky to have a lot of really generous people, because I produced it myself and did all the creating of all the dialogue and putting it all together."
Hutchison noted that the story of the podcast comes fairly close to what had happened to him in real life some years ago. The story follows 25-year-old Adam upon his arrival in New York City and introduces listeners to the various people who come into his life.
Years later, some of these people come back into his life in distinct and very impressionable ways. One comes back into Adam's life in a kind and benevolent way, while another comes back in a dark way. The podcast focuses on these stories and how they affect Adam's life.
"I was in a relationship with a guy, an older writer several years ago," Hutchison recalls. "When we were out of town on a work trip, someone showed up on the street, someone I knew from the past, and it was a very strange encounter. This is someone I was friends with from a job that I had maybe ten years prior. He started questioning me about why I was there, who I was with, was I with this writer, and before he left he asked me, 'How well do you know him?'"
This friend proceeded to 'warn' Adam about his boyfriend.
"And that was the jumping off point of the whole series," Hutchison said. "It ended up becoming a sort of strange, dark, ominous, unsettling tale that stretched out over several months, which included more obsessive behavior, more stalking. There were some really dark elements. There was nothing necessarily criminal about it, so it wasn't about going to the police, so much as it was about my experiences in the psychological chipping away at what I was dealing with."
Memory or coincidence
Due to the pandemic, the cast recorded their roles remotely. Hutchison admits that he was concerned how his former partner might feel about their story being dramatized, but unfortunately his ex died of COVID-19 and was never told about the project. Feedback from people who have listened to the podcast has been uniformly positive. The audience, Hutchison reports, has been a mix of LGBTQs and straights.
"People are finding that it really is universal," he said. "If you're interested in human psychology, if you are interested in what happens to a relationship when outside forces are conspiring against it, if you're interested in what happens to an ordinary person in an extraordinary circumstance, I think all those things lend themselves to what the themes are in this.
"The universal themes of memory and faulty memory or coincidence, of the people me meet early on who come back in to affect our lives; I think all of those things are part of this. If those things are interesting to somebody it would be a great thing to take a chance on."
I Still Think About You can be heard free at Apple podcasts and other platforms.
Podcast website: www.istillthinkaboutyou.com
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