WATCH: A young writer moonlights as a male escort in the sexy, soulful ‘Sebastian’
is Sebastian, and it’s become clear that leading this secret double life isn’t just for book research.Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.By day, Max has to contend with deadlines, competitive colleagues, and meeting the expectations of a publisher eager to sell him as the hot-shot young author everyone’s going to be talking about.By night, as Sebastian, none of that matters, and he finds a new confidence indulging in others’ desires—clearly liberated from the pressures of who he thinks he’s supposed to be.As Sebastian’s sexual exploits become fodder for Max’s book, the lines between truth and fiction begin to blur, and the young writer navigates finds himself navigating not just his sexuality, but—for the first time—who he truly wants to be.However, the more Max’s profile rises, the greater the risk of being recognized by one of his clients.
Sooner or later, the walls he’s carefully built up between the two versions of himself are going to have to come crashing down.From emerging Finnish writer-director Mikko Mäkelä (who previously helmed the 2017 gay romance A Moment In The Reeds), Sebastian is a sensual and soulful drama that tackles not just the transmutability of identity, but also authorship, gay shame, and generation gaps in the queer community.As Max/Sebastian, Scottish-Italian actor Ruaridh Mollica gives a breakthrough performance that’s clearly only just that start of an exciting career (he’ll soon be seen in HBO’s blockbuster blockbuster satire The Franchise from Veep creator Armando Ianucci), as he puts all of him self—physically and emotionally—on the screen.A post shared by Ruaridh Mollica (@ruaridhmollica)Queerty had the chance to chat with Mollica at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and the star shared that working on the film helped him acknowledge and step into his own queerness:“[It] definitely feels like a journey that I’m still going on,” Mollica.
