#its shorthand for Guy You Play As if anybody was ever wondering

[pedrospal]

Blood splashes across the wall.

Denny staggers, his hand rushing to his face. Red seeps between his fingers as he clutches his nose, and he looks up at his assailant with wide teary eyes.

The elder teenager didn't seem to care. Another fist slammed into the side of Denny's jaw. Teeth clattered onto the asphalt, quickly followed by his skull. A knee presses hard against his back and a hand grips his neck too tight. Dull pain radiates through his body, the icy burn flooding from his bruised eye and split lips.

"Should've fucking paid up, bitchboy."

He can't fight it as his head is forced up only to be slammed back down into the ground. There's an audible crunch as his nose breaks. Pain lances through him and he cries aloud, only to be answered by the ground in another brutal whack. He can hear the other boys laughing around him, jeering and mocking.

The grip on his neck tightens and Denny tenses, prepared to be beaten down again; there is a scream from above him and the pressure on his back vanishes. 

He manages to raise his head slightly. The world whirls and blurs, colours oversaturated and painful. But he can make out two new silhouettes in the gang of people and feels hope and relief blossom through him.

Ophelia is twisting the black-haired teenager's arm behind his back. His face is crunched in agony as she continues to twist. Her face is stony and full of fire.

Guy stands between Denny and the rest of the gang, hands raised and legs apart, tense and coiled on the balls of his feet. A jaguar poised to pounce. 

The gang of teens seem equally as surprised as Denny, though their faces quickly regain their sneering expressions.

"Hey now!" 

One of the other teens called out. His chest was puffed in forced bravado as he stepped forward- the pained cry coming from his friend as Ophelia sharply pulled on his arm stopped him. 

"Uh, what I mean to say is, this guy refused to pay up! He betrayed us, so we're just teachin' him a lesson! That's all! We ain't doing nothing wrong! Gang business, y'know?"

"Turn around."

A voice so cold it froze the air. Its speaker remained stock still, barely even the rise and fall of his chest to indicate he was breathing. Guy hadn't even spared a glance towards the faux leader, brown eyes locked onto a girl who stood near the back of the gang.

"Hey, you can't just come into our territory and start bossin' us around! Who do you-" The teen that had stepped forward was silenced as the girl raised her hand.

"Huh? Boss, wh-"

"Why should we?" Her voice didn't quite match the coldness of Guy's,  but it certainly served the intended purpose.

She too stood tall, with an easy air that one could mistake for confidence, a gleam in her eyes that spoke of cruelty and domination. Wolf's eyes, and the role in her gang to match. 

It was Ophelia who answered the leader's question.

"Because we always give people three chances to run. Go, now."

Wolf Eyes moved forward a step. A wordless statement even the most foolish could read. Refusal.

A harsh crack akin to a gunshot rang out in the silence, accompanied by a scream. Ophelia dropped the black haired teen's now floppy arm. He stumbled forward then fled to safety out the street. 

"Last chance. Turn around and forget this ever happened." Each word was spoken with eerie frozen calm, Ophelia's expression unchanging. 

Wolf Eyes' face twisted in anger and hatred as she stepped forward. She seemed to consider something.

"You really dare to throw around threats when there's only two of you and twelve of us?" Wolf Eyes huffed a slight chuckle as she raised a hand. "Normally I'd be fair and only let two of my Wolves savage you, but since you've pissed me off, you don't get my mercy."

She flung her hand down at the same time that Guy finally moved. The words were barely out of her mouth when the first teen fell, blood pouring out of his nose and mouth and a shoe-shaped bruise already forming over his face.

Guy rebounded off the wall and leapt at another of the goons with leg outstretched. The teen darted out of the way just in time to meet a fist to the throat, and Guy used that momentum to swing around in a perfectly-executed spinning kick. Another kid stumbled down, winded, and Ophelia slammed his face into the concrete as she too joined the scramble. 

It was beautiful carnage. The duo wove and danced within the gang as if they were nought but wind, pouncing and striking with brutal precision.  Each movement was fluid as water and impassioned as fire. They complimented each other's moves in perfect predator's grace, a lioness and a jaguar verses a pack of mutts.

In the heat of it Wolf Eyes ran at Ophelia, nothing but rage burning in those wild wolfish eyes. Her first swing clipped Ophelia's head and sent her stumbling back out of the main crowd. Wolf Eyes leapt again. A sweeping kick threw her to the side, stumbling, but she recovered with the speed of an experienced street fighter and came back at Ophelia with an iron fist. 

There was a crunch. Blood arced into the air as Ophelia's nose was broken. She staggered back but managed to avoid the next kick and come forward with a strong left hook. Enamel spread across the floor. 

Wolf Eyes fell back, clutching her bloody mouth as she glared at Ophelia with pure hatred cut into every line of her face. But Ophelia could see the fear and faint respect in her body and let her retreat.

Guy has taken down the rest of the gang. They scramble and stagger and stumble, up and away, backing down with their metaphorical tails between their legs. Their leader fixes one last glare at the duo, spitting red on the ground in a final act of anger before turning and walking away with the rest of them.

They don't relax until the gang is gone.

Then Ophelia is by Denny's side, helping him sit up gently with careful hands. She seems not to care about her own injuries, instead worriedly checking over her younger brother.

"Open your mouth." Despite her short words her tone is soft and concerned. 

Denny obliges in his concussed daze. Blood drips down his chin, sticky and metallic.

"You're lucky. They only knocked out your baby teeth."

Ophelia squints at his swollen nose, before touching it lightly with the tips of her fingers. It's tender and Denny holds back a cry at the pain. She must have noticed the wetness in his eyes because she immediately retracted her hand. 

"It doesn't look too bad. Probably just fractured. It'll heal up fine."

Her own nose is twisted and smushed and rapidly swelling, blood dripping down her neck and onto her purple shirt. But she disregards it entirely, instead focusing on Denny.

Ophelia looks at his eyes for a minute, and the intensity that always burns deep in her brown eyes still intimidates Denny even though he's seen it a hundred times. Metaphors about deer in headlights and rabbit seeing an eagle spring to mind.

The predator's gaze breaks away from his as her forehead furrowed slightly, looking him over.

"You've got a minor concussion."

Guy crouches down beside them, making Denny jump although Ophelia doesn't react. He didn't even see his older brother approach, let alone hear him!

...Denny quietly admits to himself that he probably never will be able to tell when either of his siblings are approaching, knowing their incredible skills. 

A lukewarm wet flannel is pressed into his hand. He doesn't know when Guy brought- or found- a medkit, but he's grateful nonetheless when he presses the medicine-infused cloth against his nose and the pain dulls into nothing. He takes his brother's hand and allows him to help him up. Now he's closer he sees the state Guy is in- blood drips steadily from a deep looking gash across his lips and there's bruising and swelling already forming around his eyes and cheeks. Dark crimson stains his brother's torn black shirt, though whether it's his or the other teenagers' Denny doesn't know, and he sees the stiffness in his actions that indicate he's busted a few ribs. Ophelia stands too and the way she holds her left ankle slightly raised shows she's probably sprained it.

"Come on, let's get you home." Ophelia's tone is soft as she puts a hand on Denny's shoulder, supporting him. In turn he grips her arm back, offering himself as a walking aid. He feels Guy stumble slightly beside him and puts an arm out, holding the older teen's forearm. Guy tenses, but then allows Denny to help him balance.

Together the trio walk home, supporting each other the whole way back.

[hotspotsmagazine]

It’s Not Over Till It’s Over: Sean Hayes Talks ‘Will & Grace’

Where would our queer world be without Will & Grace?

That’s where my head was just before Sean Hayes phoned, recalling my lonely teen years, when gay white men on TV alone — here’s to evolved representation! — was unprecedented and life-changing for people like 15-year-old, closeted me.

It’s not enough, then, to say Hayes, 48, portrays Jack McFarland on the NBC sitcom, because some roles become legend, upstaging even the actor giving him life. Jack is one such character.

And so, a call from Hayes is like being a kid and spotting your fifth-grade teacher at the grocery store: It doesn’t quite feel real. And yet Hayes is a real man with a real life and even a real husband, music producer Scott Icenogle. But to the late-’90s TV landscape, it was the actor’s half-fiction as Jack and his exploding-rainbow persona that cut through heteronormative programming with gay jokes even your grandma could get down with.

And then, there’s Karen.

You obviously don’t need me to needlessly ramble on about Jack’s socialite best friend (played by Megan Mullally), who never met a martini she didn’t like. You know her, you love her. And together they truly make all of our friends out to be absolute fucking bores. The sitcom’s recent revival reinstated #friendshipgoals when the snarky pals, along with titular housemates Will (Eric McCormack) and Grace (Debra Messing), came swishing back to NBC in September 2017 for a ninth season after ending its initial 1998–2006 run.

Hayes isn’t Jack, exactly. But you might be fooled if he called you, too. His usually-unflashy voice sometimes picks up wind and takes on the kind of rapid-fire cadence his famous Cher-worshiping alter ego is known for. With Season 10 premiering October 4 and Season 9 now available on DVD and digital, I caught up with Hayes to talk about those who’ve long criticized Jack for being “stereotypically” gay, the history of the legendary Karen-Jack slap fights, and who helped him be OK with being gay.

It’s hard to put into words exactly what it feels like to talk to the man who gave me such an iconic gay character when I needed it most.

Oh my god. That’s so sweet. I really appreciate that. And you just answered the reason why when people ask me what’s the best part about playing it — that’s the best part.

Is it?

One-hundred percent.

When did you first realize Will & Grace had impacted the LGBTQ community the way it has?

Just a couple of weeks ago! [Laughs.] No, I’m joking. You know what’s so funny — first of all, you have no idea how much that means to me, you saying how much I mean to you. It means equally as much to me, so thank you.

So when did I know I had an impact? I think when I was young and doing the show I was so wrapped up in myself, in acting, in getting the part: “Am I going to get fired? Am I gonna learn my lines?” I was just happy to have a job.

It’s such a fascinating thing to discuss, and I’m so glad you asked. I felt normal growing up, so when I got a job, playing a gay character on a television sitcom I just thought, “Oh, I just have to be me, kind of, a heightened version of myself.” I didn’t think it would have that much of an impact because of the bubble I grew up in. I surround myself with people who are accepting of me, so naively I was like, “The rest of the world must be OK with it.”

I mean, I knew the stories [about homophobia] out there. I grew up and knew [being gay] wasn’t accepted, but I just didn’t think on any big level it was any big deal. So, that gave me the confidence to play Jack as outrageously as I could because, again, I’m surrounded by writers and actors — everybody else — who embrace this, so I felt loved, I felt supported and I felt confidence. So, I wasn’t heading to work thinking about how this is going to affect anybody.

[That] was a wonderful byproduct later, and I was like, “Oh, ohh!” And once it started, and all the press and blah blah blah, and we never got any backlash for being political in that sense, meaning how they politicized gay people, which is wrong. That’s another interview.

WILL & GRACE — “The Wedding” Episode 110 – Pictured: (l-r) Eric McCormack as Will Truman, Debra Messing as Grace Adler, Sean Hayes as Jack McFarland — (Photo by: Chris Haston/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank)

Over the years, people have criticized Jack for being “flamboyant.” How aware were you of that concern when the show returned for its revival season?

Oh, I never heard that. This is the first time hearing it. So, you’re saying people were worried, but I was playing him — I call it “outrageous” because “flamboyant” means a certain type of gay person, I think, and that’s another conversation to have. I was playing him as outrageously as I was before. So, people were concerned that I was playing him a certain way?

People wondered if Jack was too stereotypical for TV in 2018 and expressed some concern over what the straight community might think of us.

I think that’s [internalized] homophobia. Because I know people like Jack, because one part of me is like Jack, and so if you’re saying people in the gay community were concerned that I was playing Jack a certain way and people would “worry” that gay people act like that, they do act like that. And there’s people who act like Will. There are people on all spectrums of human behavior in the gay community, just like there are people on all spectrums of human behavior in the straight community, so I nix that, and I say “bye” to that — I say, “Bye, Felicia!” — because that doesn’t make any sense to me.

Similarly, the character of Cam on Modern Family was criticized for being an over-the-top and exaggerated version of what a gay person is. And I’m like, what exactly is a gay person supposed to be in 1998 or 2018?

Yeah, exactly. What are they supposed to be? And by the way, they are exaggerated, some of them. And so are straight people. Look at Jim Carrey, look at Robin Williams. There are lots of straight people who are exaggerated as well. I hate that argument — no, I’m glad you brought it up. I’m just saying I love talking about it, because it’s ridiculous.

As a kid coming to terms with being gay, who was your person?

If you’re talking about a famous person, Andy Bell [of Erasure]. Because I was in college and I was 17, 18, and I was shocked that somebody was out and proud, making a living in the arts or in pop culture by being who they are and not apologizing for it. I thought that was mind-blowing. “A Little Respect” was the No. 1 song on the radio, and I was like, “Wait, the guy is gay, and everybody is OK with that?”

The truth is, not a lot of people knew [Bell was gay] because we didn’t have the internet. But I knew, and all my gay friends knew. And I was like, “That’s amazing.” So that was inspiring to me, that you could be gay and make a living by singing, acting, whatever.

What has it been like to be a part of a show that has existed during two very different times, culturally and politically, for the LGBTQ community?

First, I feel very fortunate and lucky to be part of the chorus of the movement. I may not be a single voice, but I’m enjoying being a part of the chorus. And I think we’re lucky to have the voice and the representation for people to talk about it again, because I don’t think it should ever stop being talked about because everything is not OK. There are still gay kids being bullied. Look at that [gay] couple [that was assaulted] in Florida in the bathroom during [Miami Beach Gay] Pride. It just doesn’t end. The hate doesn’t end overnight.

So, we have to keep doing things, and again, my contribution may not be as an activist, because I just don’t feel comfortable doing that, it’s not who I am. It’s not in my blood, it’s not in my DNA to stand at a podium and speak in sound bites about how we need to prevail over the government and the system. I leave that to people who are good at it — I’m not good at it.

What I’m good at is being comfortable in my own skin and showing people that I have a husband, and we make stupid Facebook videos and try to show people that we’re as normal as any other human. I try to do my best at that.

So, I’m happy the show is back because there’s still tons of work to do. The power of comedy is so incredible; that’s why we broke so many boundaries the first time. And hopefully we can continue to do that.

Megan Mullally has said that you’re her “second husband,” after her real husband, Nick Offerman. How does your chemistry with Megan after all these years compare to the first time that you stepped onto set and shot the pilot?

It’s so funny that she calls me her second husband because Nick and I were born on the exact same day, same year, about 30 miles apart. Isn’t that hilarious?

But it’s like working with your sister. There’s a shorthand that nobody else would understand. So, it’s like, “I’m gonna do this,” and she’s like, “I’m gonna do that,” and then we just do it together. And there it is. So, we now know how to cut through all the stuff that you need to [cut through] to get to a comedic moment in a scene. And that’s what’s great about all this time that’s passed: I understand her, she understands me, we understand each other, so the chemistry has only gotten hotter.

Tell me the history of the slap fights between Karen and Jack.

There’s an episode called “Coffee and Commitment,” where Jack is trying to get off of coffee and Karen’s trying to quit alcohol. That was the first time we slapped each other. On paper, it was just, “Karen slaps Jack, Jack slaps Karen.” But of course, [Will & Grace Director] Jimmy Burrows, who is incredible at physical comedy, said, “Let’s make a dance out of this.”

So, we rehearsed the rhythm of it. I think that’s what makes you laugh — that’s what makes me laugh: the pauses and then the slapping again and then the pause and the slap-slap. It’s music, so you have to rehearse the beats and the rhythms in order to get that. [Laughs.] It makes me laugh even thinking about it.

What do you envision for Jack’s future?

Well, I don’t want him to change too much because our friends are our friends from high school because they never change, right? Maybe get married, but still remain Jack somehow, or find a long-term relationship. Or maybe — maybe! — there’s someone close in his own life that might be a suitable partner for life. Who knows?

Will?

I have no idea.

Could you see them together?

Could I see Will and Jack together? Maybe!

You’ve said you want to see him with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Just so you know, I’m here for it.

I think that would be a hilarious episode, and I hope Dwayne comes to his senses and comes to the Will & Grace [set] to play and have a good time.

from Hotspots! Magazine https://hotspotsmagazine.com/2018/07/12/its-not-over-till-its-over-sean-hayes-talks-will-grace/