Gay Best Friend: Sterling (Patrick Stewart) in "Jeffrey" (1995)
Wednesday, May 5, 2021 at 9:57AM a series by Christopher James looking at the 'Gay Best Friend' trope
The gay comedy "Jeffrey" features a refreshingly fun and unbridled sendup of the "gay best friend" character.Of the few gay-centric movies made in the 90s, a large number of them were dramas centered around the AIDS crisis. Movies like Philadelphia were very important in making straight America identify and care about those suffering with the disease. However, they were just that. They were made for straight America with the goal of educating them and generating empathy. Sure, that is a worthy cause and many of those movies were incredibly successful in that regard. However, these weren’t movies specifically made FOR members of the gay community. That’s where a movie like Jeffrey comes in.
Director Christopher Ashley and screenwriter Paul Rudnick created an ambitious, irreverent AIDS-themed comedy that never turns any of its bitchy queens into sympathetic martyrs. It’s a film made by and for a community ravaged by a disease that was tired of crying and wanted hope, laughter and happiness. The 1995 comedy, now on Amazon Prime, doesn’t pass by current politically correct standards, but has a thorniness and candor that is shocking, authentic and delicious...
Our titular hero, Jeffrey (Steven Weber), is tired of all the added steps and anxiety that surround sex. Condoms, sharing testing results and shared anxiety have taken all the fun out of casual sex to him. Thus, he decides to become celibate as long as AIDS is a reality. His resolve becomes weakened when he falls for Steve (Michael T. Weiss), who is HIV positive. There’s certainly a lot of hair that could be raised at the premise. Why are we following a character who’s so scared of AIDS that he divorces himself from romantic life? Shouldn’t we dislike a character who treats people with HIV or AIDS as lepers? Rudnick’s script isn’t interested in reinforcing Jeffrey’s decisions, but rather interrogating it… and it sure has fun poking holes in Jeffrey’s ideas.
Category is: Pink Panther
Darius: Who's Martha Stewart?
Sterling: She writes picture books about gracious living. Martha says that nothing else matters if you can do a nice dried floral arrangement. I worship her.
Darius: And, um, who's Ann Miller?
Sterling: Leave this house.
The most fun the movie has is in Patrick Stewart’s joyously flamboyant performance as Sterling, Jeffrey’s best friend who is also HIV positive and dating Darius, a similarly positive member of the Cats company. Even as a film filled with gay characters, Sterling functions very much as the “gay best friend” stereotype, deliberately so. He can be seen prancing about as a “Pink Panther” (a patrol against gay bashing) and dropping one liners with every appearance. In terms of the narrative, he’s often relegated to being an “advice giver” to Jeffrey. Like many “gay best friends” before him, he’s the one with all the answers, serving as the audience surrogate trying to lead Jeffrey to a happy, functioning relationship with sex.
Unlike other movies, the tone of Jeffrey is completely in step with Sterling. Its structure recalls Annie Hall more than anything. Jeffrey breaks the fourth wall to address the audience about his struggle and often employs vignettes that enlist a star studded cast. If for no other reason, Jeffrey is a must-see thanks to Christine Baranski as a cowgirl throwing an AIDS benefit, Nathan Lane as a horny priest, the late and great Olympia Dukakis as the mother of a trans woman and Sigourney Weaver as a Marianne Williamson inspired inspirational speaker. There are many other famous cameos, plus repeated appearances from Mother Theresa. The absurdity is framed around Jeffrey’s mind, but all feels tonally connected to Sterling. A prime example is a Jeopardy inspired game show called “It’s Just Sex” that Sterling hilariously wins. The gay best friend isn’t just a laugh driver, he’s engrained into the movie’s cinematic language.
Which streaming network will be brave enough to air "It's Just Sex" the game show?
Jeffrey: I just hate that gay role models are supposed to be just like straight people. As if even straight people are like that!
Sterling: That is so true! I was watching these two guys on Nightline on Gay Pride Day, and one of them said "Hi. I'm Bob Wheeler, I'm an attorney. And this is my lover, and he's a surgeon. And we would like to show America that all gays are not limp-wristed, screaming queens. There are gay truck drivers and gay cops and gay lumberjacks," and I just thought, "Ooh! Get her!"
Respectability politics have no place in Jeffrey. As a portrait of gay life in the 90s, the film does a great job of dramatizing the thorniess of dating in the time of the AIDS crisis and finding a way to find laughs in it. It can be crass and tasteless, but so what? Life’s not perfect and people sure as hell are far from perfect.
Up to this point, Sterling has embodied many of the one-note tropes created by the “gay best friend.” However, that’s just who he is. He is one shade of the many colors of the rainbow (though yes, Jeffrey is frighteningly white). Also, the function of gay characters, especially those in movies like Philadelphia, were to ensure that gay people were nice, respectable people that resembled the average straight person. Sterling wants the world to know he is GAY in every way and will flounce about in the most feminine way possible. This is what takes a character from stereotypical to fully rounded. They can be as loud and flamboyant as they want, but they have to have a place within the narrative and have an inner life that exists outside of the frame of the film.
Patrick Stewart (right) is pictured with his Cats starring boyfriend Darius, played by Bryan Batt (aka Sal from "Mad Men").
Sterling: You know, Darius once said you were the saddest person he knew.
Jeffrey: Why did he say that?
Sterling: Because he was sick. He had a fatal disease. And he was a million times happier than you.
Speaking of that inner life, Sterling gets to deliver the emotional heavy lifting in the final act. Darius dies of AIDS, leaving Sterling alone. As Jeffrey comforts his friend, Sterling drops the truth bomb to set Jeffrey free. In fearing AIDS so much, Jeffrey made himself unhappy in order to survive, eschewing love and sex due to inconvenience. Darius may have died of AIDS, but he died a happier man than Jeffrey.
Jeffrey’s vow of celibacy stems from fear, but living in fear can’t make someone happy. Darius may have died, but his life was filled with love, a career as a dancer in Cats and lots of great memories and friends. What’s the point of living if you aren’t going to live it to the fullest. Sterling may be the “gay best friend,” but he’s also a template of an ideal life for Jeffrey. He has a successful relationship, tons of fun, great sex and a fully formed life. Sure, this life also involves losing his boyfriend to AIDS. Though heartbreak doesn’t negate the good times had during the relationship. Living life to the fullest sometimes means suffering great loss. Good times can only be had by also having great lows.
Jeffrey is a product of its time. That’s what makes it such a refreshing relic. There’s something liberating about watching a 90s movie that wants to have fun with such a serious time in queer history. Patrick Stewart’s performance as Sterling embodies what makes the film such an edifying watch. In spite of disease, death and persecution, gays just want to have fun.
Previously in Gay Best Friend
pre stonewall
- Plato (Sal Mineo) in Rebel Without a Cause (1955)
- Sebastian Venable in Suddenly Last Summer (1959)
- Calla Mackie (Estelle Parsons) in Rachel Rachel (1968)
post stonewall
- Erich (Norbert Weisser) in Midnight Express (1978)
- Toddy (Robert Preston) & Squash (Alex Karras) in Victor/Victoria (1982)
- Dolly Peliker (Cher) in Silkwood (1983)
1990s and the 2000s
- Tim (Nathan Lane) in Frankie & Johnny (1991)
- Hedy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) & Graham (Peter Friedman) in Single White Female (1992)
- Sammy Gray (Steve Zahn) in Reality Bites (1994)
- Gareth (Simon Callow) and Matthew (John Hannah) in Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
- Jane (Whoopi Goldberg) in Boys on the Side (1995)
- George Downs (Rupert Everett) in My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997)
- Simon (Greg Kinnear) in As Good As It Gets (1997)
- George Hanson (Paul Rudd) in The Object of My Affection (1998)
- Bill Truitt (Martin Donovan) in The Opposite of Sex (1998)
- Robert (Rupert Everett) in The Next Best Thing (2000)
- Patti (Sandra Oh) in Under the Tuscan Sun (2003)
- Damian (Daniel Franzese) in Mean Girls (2004)
- Nigel (Stanley Tucci) in The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
- Wallace Wells (Kieran Culkin) in Scott Pilgrim vs the World (2010)
the now
Reader Comments (8)
This comedy is a little dated but it's really funny and Patrick Stewart steals the picture (where is his honorary Oscar'), honorable mention to Sigourney Weaver.
I haven't seen this movie in ages, but I remember seeing it and appreciating all that it does to show the various stressors that men were living with pre-1996. There's so much history there, and this one presents a slice of it that's pretty fascinating.
I also remember thinking Patrick Stewart was great here - there's no hint of Picard.
Thanks for this post. Jeffrey was my first gay movie, and I was obsessed with it. Sadly, the pink panthers need a return to combat all sorts of hate, but trust I will be wearing a pink hat and shirt when the day comes!
This movie is such a gem! Definitely of its time, but really enjoyable, smart, sexy, and sweet. I saw it for the first time a couple of years ago and it's become a favorite to revisit.
It is a pity he wasn't a major star yet, because just imagine Ian McKellen in the same role...
Patrick Stewart was a fucking hoot in that film. "I look like a gay superhero".
He had the best one-liners and moments. Notably the Jeopardy scene. "Yoko Ono! To see the apartment!"
That was an awesome film. I first saw it when I was 16 as I was unsure to think of it but I do remember there's a scene where Jeffrey and Steve first kiss and it cuts to a couple of guys watching the movie as they went "BLECH!" while their girlfriends went... "Aw..." I had the same reaction like those guys then. Now, I'd be like "Aw" or... "all right. Go get yourself some boy!"
Whatever happened to Michael T. Weiss?
A good movie that should have been better