Actor Garrett Clayton seems poised to be the next former Disney Channel star (from the 2013 TEEN BEACH PARTY and TEEN BEACH 2 films) to break out into the mainstream, thanks to regular appearances on the ABC Family series “The Fosters,” his recent turn in “Hairspray Live” as Link Larkin (played by Zac Efron in the 2007 film version of HAIRSPRAY), and his latest film offering, KING COBRA, in which he plays real-life gay porn star Brent Corrigan (real name Sean Paul Lockhart). Trust me when I say that KING COBRA has Clayton about as far away from his Disney past as he possibly could have.
This fascinating film from writer-director Justin Kelly (I AM MICHAEL) tracks Lockhart’s entry into the adult film world (with the help of a creepy producer played wonderfully by Christian Slater), how he transforms into Corrigan, and how he gets mixed up with two cash-poor amateur porn stars (James Franco and Keegan Allen), whose plot to steal Corrigan away from Slater’s character goes horribly wrong. KING COBRA doesn’t shy away from certain explicit aspects of the porn world, but it also works as a crime drama and character study of Lockhart/Corrigan. The film is still making its way around the art-house circuit, is on demand on various platforms, and is set to hit home video on February 14. If for no other reason, check it out to fulfill your long-held fantasy to see James Franco as a narcissistic gay porn star—he’s phenomenal.
I got the chance to speak with Clayton late last year, and he was about as nice a guy as one could hope to meet. It’s undeniable that his career, his talents as an actor and singer, and his overall demeanor and appearance remind me of Efron. Whereas Efron seems to have settled into a career as a comic actor, Clayton seems poised to move in a more dramatic direction, with a role in the upcoming thriller DON’T HANG UP, set for release next month. With that, please enjoy my talk with Garrett Clayton…
Capone: Hey, Garrett. How are you?
Garrett Clayton: Good. How are you, Steve?
Capone: Excellent. What was it about this character, either when you first heard about him or when you first read the script, that hooked you and made you think “I think I could do something with this guy. I could work with this”?
GC: Well, first, finishing working with Disney, I was looking for—as a lot of us when we’re done working at Disney do—not dark for the sake of dark work, but interesting, challenging, fascinating work. And I think this was something that resonated with me, because I was looking for something that was not aggressive for the sake of aggressive, but something with an interesting story that had a message, and I think this was it. When I read it at first, obviously, I had some reservations because I was coming from Disney, but I was fortunate enough that they sent me I AM MICHAEL, so I could see some of Justin’s prior work, and I agreed maybe we could meet and talk about it, and if we had the same views on the story and what we should do with the characters then we could really make something. I guess the dominos fell into place and luckily that’s what happened.
Capone: I saw I AM MICHAEL at Sundance last year and was really impressed with it. Both films are fairly unconventional stories within the gay community, and the story seems more important to him than the fact that it’s set in this community, and I have to imagine that appealed to you too.
GC: The reason I met with Justin after reading the script and watching I AM MICHAEL is that he’s very fair handed with his movies. He doesn’t demonize people. He shows the good side and the bad side of them, and he shows really well-rounded characters that people can draw their own opinion from. He’s not a director that forces you or makes the dialogue so one character looks so much better than the other ones, and everyone’s left thinking “Wow, they’re amazing, everyone else sucks.” He takes the good and the bad of everyone.
Even on set, he would pull us all in when we run the scene, and he’d say, “That line, it’s too contrite. We’re pushing too hard for this. Let’s let the audience make their own opinion. What would you feel comfortable saying?” And he’s so open to collaboration, and I think that was something that we all really cared about. We didn’t run into a lot of ego on set. We ran into a lot of people who all wanted the same goal. We all wanted a good movie, we wanted a strong story, and we wanted interesting characters. Luckily, people are responding to it positively, because it’s such a harsh subject. A lot of times in the past, people have I think demonized movies like this, but we’re in a time when it’s not demonized; it’s looked at as fascinating, and why did this happen? And how did it happen? I think people are asking a lot better questions because of it.
Capone: Yeah, I didn’t know this story at all, and I certainly didn’t realize how it played out with a murder at the end. But even without that, it’s still a really interesting story. I think that’s a credit to the writing. Did you find your character’s rise to fame and being taken advantage of compelling as well?
GC: Yeah, I think we’ve all seen those Hollywood stories in the tabloids of people being taken advantage of. The one thing I liked about the story was that it’s a story about someone overcoming and finding your own strength within yourself. It says “based on a true story” because there’s obviously people in real life that weren’t included in the movie because Justin was trying to stick to a plotline. I think it’s interesting to see how the movie played out as a story of someone so young and being misled and life happens, and you have to make the best of it.
I think this is a story of someone who over came a lot of adversity and a hard upbringing. Especially looking into doing my research, Sean survived a lot. He made what he wanted of himself. Maybe he let people lead him when he was younger, but he took the reins and said, “No. This is who I want to be, and anybody who doesn’t like that, it doesn’t matter because it’s not your life.” And I really respected that because not everyone gets that chance, and not everyone takes a chance to do it either.”
Capone: You mentioned earlier about how a lot of actors that come out of, not just Disney, but any kid-oriented entertainment, they take one of two routes. They either do something where their young fans can grow older with them in a safe environment. Or they get shot out of a cannon into a universe that a lot of young fans can’t go because they’re too young. Were you concerned at all about taking this route, trying something that a lot of the younger fans aren’t going to be able to see and you’d have to start from scratch with an audience that isn’t familiar with your other work?
GC: It was interesting. Obviously, I was nervous or had reservations, but funny enough talking to my mom on the phone, I told her what the movie was about, what the opportunity was and who was in it. I guess I would describe my mom as my Jiminy Cricket; she’s my conscience. She’s always been the one who taught me not to judge, because you don’t know what’s going on with other people, right? And I was worried people were going to judge me for doing something so aggressive, but she said to me, “Honey, you took the chance and left your entire life behind.”
When I moved to L.A., I literally had a huge garage sale of everything I owned and I sold all of it. All I had was a couple of suitcases and I think a box I sent from FedEx. My parents were pulling furniture out of the house, because they wanted to make sure I had enough money at least for an extra month of rent so I didn’t have to move back home. So she said to me, “You took the risk moving out there and you took a chance with your life doing what you’re dong now. Why would you stop taking risks now? I support you with whatever your decision is and I love you. You’re looking for something interesting, and obviously you’re interested in it, so go with it. If that’s what your gut tells you to do, then do it.”
Capone: I don’t know how old your mom is exactly, but just guessing based on your age that one of the reasons she would have been excited about this movie is because she might have had a crush on Christian Slater when she was younger.
GC: She still has a crush on Christian Slater [laughs]. She kept saying, “Did you tell him I exist?” I was like, “Well, he knows I have a mother. He knows I came from something.” She said, “But no, did you say my name? Does Christian know my name? Does he know I exist?” And I was like, “Mom, I’m not just going to be sitting in the makeup chair next to him and go, ‘Hey. Did you know my mother’s name is Michelle Brooks and that she exists?’”
Capone: He’s done it all as an actor. I’m wondering, working so closely with him and observing him, what do you learn about the craft of acting from observing with him?
GC: I didn’t run into anybody who was off-putting. It was literally every iconic actor in this movie—going from Alicia [Silverstone, who plays his mother], James, Christian, Molly [Ringwald]—everybody was nothing but kind, cared about the work, had great work ethic, and I think I was really lucky, especially with Christian, because me and him were both a little nervous and we both really cared about the story and making sure that people could really sink their teeth into an interesting, fascinating piece of work, and that was the most important thing. Are we making a good story? Are we being as true to the lot as we can, because it’s based on a true story?
We wanted to really give people something that they haven’t seen before that wasn’t just smut for smut's sake. Every sexual act that happens in the movie promotes the plot. There’s not one sex scene in this movie that isn’t for a reason. All of it is for a reason, and that was our biggest thing is this is a story. Just because you have one butt shot in your contract doesn’t mean it matters. It kind of cheats the story if [that shot] just me getting out of the bed going to the bathroom, right? What’s the point? You’ve seen the movie, correct?
Capone: Definitely.
Even the ending when I have that tattoo, that was ownership of self. I can do what I want with my own body. I remember we were talking and discussing, because I had one butt shot in my contract. I agreed to that. I understood. It was a story about the adult industry, so shying away from that would just make the audience go, “Well why would he do a movie and not commit to it?” And I understood that. So we were talking about where it would be best, whether it was in the montage you saw or with Christian or whoever it was with. I pitched the end, and I said “You know he has this star tattoo on his butt,” and I bugged Justin to do it. I said, “Can we please do it at the very end as the pay off?”
This whole movie, we’re talking about this famous guy and his famous butt, and if at the very end, if we can figure out a way to pull my pants down and I have a star tattoo that he has in real life, it shows ownership of self. It’s just him being in the shower—the fifth time you see me in the shower—feeling comfortable and discovering my sexuality and feeling okay with it in the movie, because Sean had a harder upbringing. So I think to go into this foreign place and to be accepted by somebody, it was very empowering in the film for me as Sean in the film to be in the shower and feel my body and feel comfortable with me and “I am enough and I feel good about myself.” So each thing had a purpose, and that was very important to us.
Capone: How do you research and prepare for this role, because if I’m understanding it right, he was not available to you. Aside from just watching his movies, how else did you get into his headspace?
GC: Well it’s funny, because one of my managers called and they said, “Hey, these people want you to read this script. Tell us if you’re interested. It’s a little bit of an aggressive plot.” So I read the story, and I was like, “This is real?” And looked it up. When this all happened between 2004 and 2007, I was in middle school going into high school, so I was out of the loop. So it was interesting going from the YouTube channel that he was starting that I don’t think he’s continuing, to Wikipedia, to the Cobra Killer book. He was getting into short films later in his life. There were so many different things that I looked into, and we wanted to separate him a little bit from the story, because at first when I booked it, I wanted to embody him and try and learn his mannerisms and his speech pattern. I wanted to watch videos and learn, because some people when they kiss, do they bite someone’s upper lip, or do they use more tongue? Because he’s known from the adult industry, I wanted to be able to incorporate everything I knew about him.
When I spoke to Justin, I said “I want to meet him and I want to really be able to talk to him,” he said he wanted this story to be a little bit removed just to give that respect and to not make it seem like we were making fun of or making a mockery of his life. Taking it seriously and separating the character a little bit I think lets the audience remove it, and gives it its own plot so it’s not so aggressive to him and his life. I was trying to respect his life, is what I was getting at.
Capone: Do you understand to a degree why he is distancing himself a little from this. Do you sort of understand why he might not want to relive some of this?
GC: I don’t think anyone would want to relive it, but obviously to be able to do it, they had to get the rights to his name and likeness, and for whatever reason he signed off. Whether he wants to be close to the project or not close to it, it’s happened and he hasn’t stopped it, and I think we tired to be kind, as kind as possible. Just like I said, where Justin chose well-rounded characters, there’s the good with the bad, but I think the story we tell for Sean overall is one of perseverance and fight and getting through something really hard and taking charge of your own life. Whether he wants to be more involved or not, I hope he can see the message that I think is trying to be shown in the movie.
Capone: For the “Hairspray Live” event, you’re stepping into a role that, in the previous film version, Zach Efron played, and you two come from similar career backgrounds. Does that comparison bother you at all?
GC: I’m not bothered by it at all really. I understand. I get it a lot. People tell me that a lot. We look similar and we both come from Disney. He’s really been strategic to be able to maintain a really good career and continue working and doing what he loves, and to me, that’s all I really care about as well. So well be it if people compare me to somebody who’s doing well themselves and enjoying their life. I’m flattered to be able to be compared to somebody who’s doing well. It would suck if people were comparing me to someone who wasn’t doing very well [laughs].
Capone: I want ask you about a film you have coming up called DON’T HANG UP [ due February 10]. I just realized I met your costar not too long ago, Parker Sawyers. I don’t know if you actually have any scenes with him. I don’t know anything about the movie really, but what you can tell me about that?
GC: Parker is awesome. We shot that movie in London for about two months, and he was our… how do I say it? He was our bad guy in the movie. I don’t know if they’re continuing to use his voice or not, but he was awesome. He was really fun to work with. I think he had a lot of fun doing a killer’s voice in the whole thing. For me and my other co-star Gregg Sulkin, we had a lot of really emotional scenes, and so I had a lot of fun. I really enjoyed how respectful he was. And when I saw what he’s been doing [playing a young Barack Obama in SOIUTHSIDE WITH YOU], I was so excited for him. He was just really cool and fun to work with, and the fact that he’s doing so well is really awesome to hear, because he’s a really awesome guy.
Capone: You mentioned before, that you were trying to capture Sean’s movements and the way he did certain things, and you have this great pouting face that you’ve perfected, and I think there’s a scene where you’re looking at yourself in the mirror doing it Was that something you worked on a lot and picked up from Sean?
GC: That wasn’t planned. I think that was more, I had started trying to create mannerisms to separate the character from the actual Sean so he didn’t feel like I was trying to mimic or mock him with the role. So that was more something I thought “Well, in my fictional version of Sean Brent, when he wants to feel good and look in the mirror, he makes this pout.” So that’s what I started doing for him. It’s so funny that you noticed that, because nobody else has asked me that.
Capone: So it’s like his security blanket?
GC: I think it’s about feeling confident. My best friend has a confidence face when they’re looking in the mirror; my mom does it; it’s something that I’ve picked up on. Everyone has a face they make when they’re feeling good and they’re getting ready in the mirror, or when you go to fix your hair or brush something off your face when you have food, and then you feel good, or maybe you just finished getting dressed and you think you look good. Everyone makes a face, so that was the face I made for him when he felt good.
Capone: Garett, best of luck with this, and hopefully I’ll talk to you again soon.
GC: Thank you so much. It was really nice to talk to you.
