Caleb Hearon has a message for gay Midwesterners: Don’t move to New York
“If you don’t like my answer, you can say something,” joked Caleb Hearon right after we went back to talking on the phone. Due to technical difficulties, the 29-year-old comedian, actor and podcaster was cut off mid-sentence while recounting his coming out story. “In high school, in my very small Missouri town, I met another gay guy and we started falling in love. He said, ‘I want out.’ I said, ‘Man, I can’t get out of this town.’ I really envy him. I think he’s really brave. Ultimately, I didn’t come out until my freshman year of college, when I moved away. That’s my journey.”
That arc may be familiar to any queer person who grew up in a small, conservative town. It’s also extremely similar to the experience the character Hearon goes through in the romantic comedy Max. Loverdirector doll face creator Jordan Weiss and streamed on Thanksgiving. Hearon steals every scene as Palmer, a soon-to-be college freshman who returns home from a year off in Paris to show off his wonderful new life to his hometown pals, Jamie (Kiernan Shipka) and Ben (Nico Hiraga). Meanwhile, Jamie and Ben are in the process of breaking up with their significant others and are figuring out if their best friendship is really a relationship? When Harry met Sally situation.
Although Palmer initially seems like the stereotypical “gay best friend” role, Lover Subvert expectations and take Palmer on his own wild journey. “This character really feels like his own evolved self,” Hearon said. “It felt like they really cared about telling this gay story in an authentic way and I thought it was really special.”
Palmer’s dialogue isn’t all one-liners and funny one-liners, although he has plenty of both. “He wasn’t just a gay kid trying to figure out who he was in the world as a gay person — he was also fat,” Hearon said. In one clip, Palmer tries on a variety of outfits and accessories as he prepares himself for a party. “I don’t have the privilege of being a minimalist,” he said to his reflection. “That’s for skinny people.”
Cara Howe
“I really masked a lot of his insecurities and his movements and experiences through that lens,” Hearon said. “Growing up fat is really strange and difficult in a society that doesn’t like fat people very much.”
Body image isn’t the only thing Palmer is struggling with The love. “I think a lot of young gay men coming from places like Ohio or Missouri, one of the first things we tested for when we decided to come out was elitism,” Hearon said. “By being different from everyone else where I come from—but not believing that I’m worse than them—does that inherently mean I’m better than all of them? I think you have to go through the valley of the shadow of elitism on your way to becoming a healthy person.”
With the help of fairy gay moms due quit star Tramell Tillman And Fire island‘S Joel Kim Booster, Palmer was able to travel through that valley and find a gay community in his hometown. That’s something Hearon can personally relate to. “I come from a small town in rural Missouri. I went through my thoughts about Missouri being a bad place that I should quit.” After his father passed away a few years ago, Hearon reassessed his relationship with his homeland. “I fell in love with it again. I was like, ‘Wait, I love this place. It’s beautiful here. It’s easy.”
Hearon now has a home in Kansas City and divides his time between Missouri and New York. “There are actually gay people living very happy, interesting, successful, creative, artistic, interesting lives in the middle of the country,” he said. “I hope that some queer person in the middle of the country is wondering if they can have an interesting life where they are or if they have to move to extremely expensive places, as far away as New York and LA or not—I hope they see the movie and at least some of them feel like they don’t have to do it.”
