Jim Rash dishes on Gaga drag, returning to ‘Community’ & playing a diva director in ‘Fly Me To The Moon’
Greg Berlanti‘s new big-screen rom-com Fly Me To The Moon, Channing Tatum plays a NASA director and Scarlett Johansson a marketing specialist, who fall for one another against the backdrop of the 1960s Space Race.But, all due respect to Tatum and ScarJo, we’re most excited about the supporting character Lance Vespertine, the talented, sharply dressed, lightly egomaniacal, and openly gay director hired to help NASA fake the moon landing (if you didn’t already know, Fly Me To The Moon is having some fun with history here).That Lance Vespertine is played by the great Jim Rash makes him all the more appealing.
Rash is, after all, one of our greatest comedic character actors, with a mind-boggling array of film and television credits that include *deep breath* Will & Grace, Bros, Friends, That ’70s Show, Reno 911!, CSI, Family Guy, Glee, Lucifer, and many, many more.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.And then of course, there’s his best remembered screen role: The unforgettable Dean Craig Pelton on Community, whose frequent harebrained schemes, penchant for high-camp outfits, and love of Dalmatians made him a standout of the sitcom’s ensemble.
The Dean’s sexuality may have been intentionally unclear for more of the show’s run, but that just made him more of an icon of queer fluidity.On top of all of that, Rash is also an accomplished filmmaker in his own right, having co-written and directed 2013’s The Way Way Back and 2020’s Downhill alongside collaborator Nax Faxon, as well as penning the script for 2011’s The Descendants, which won the pair an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
That’s right, we’re talking to an Academy Award-winner here!Which, yes, makes it even funnier that he’s playing a preening diva director in Fly Me To The Moon.
