‘Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed’ director Stephen Kijak on how the legendary star hid his closeted gay life [Exclusive Video Interview]
By the time he died at 59 on October 2, 1985 as the most famous early casualty of the AIDS crisis, Rock Hudson had unwittingly become more than just a tragic victim of a horrible disease; he was also one of the first star actors of his generation to be outed as gay. It was something he zealously guarded by necessity in order to remain a star. It’s at the center of the HBO/Max film documentary “Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed,” which paints a fascinating but bittersweet portrait of the film icon’s life in the closet. “It goes back to the ethics of the day,” believes the film’s director Stephen Kijak (pronounced “Kayak”). “One didn’t speak of those things.” But a code of silence also helped Hudson keep his secret across decades. “There was such goodwill around him,” he adds. “He was notoriously the nicest man in Hollywood. Very generous. On the set, from the director down to the PAs, everyone really adored him, and I think that built up another layer of protection around him.” Watch the exclusive video interview above.
In telling Hudson’s story, Kijak was able to draw on the recollections of a variety of Hudson’s friends and lovers from back in the day who sat for interviews nearly four decades. after his death. “We had a great partner in Mark Griffin, who wrote an excellent (2018) biography about Rock, ‘All That Heaven Allows.’ He introduced us to a lot of people, and then those people would suggest others. We had a slightly limited production budget, so the decision was made to film just a cross-section of friends, lovers, wingmen, co-stars, just these gay men who were in his life and really form a generational arc. You get guys who give you the pre-Stonewall life of Rock and his friends all the way to the other side of the AIDS crisis.”
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Speaking of AIDS, why did Hudson feel he needed to hold so tightly to his secret life, revealing nothing, even as he lay dying? Kijak maintains it was generational. “This is somebody who came of age in the studio system,” he says. “His entire life was about protecting the inner world and projecting something to his public. He was working right up until the end, so he never stopped being that public figure, and it just was never part of his DNA.” Indeed, novelist Armistead Maupin, writer of the “Tales of the City” series, is seen in the film saying that he discussed with Hudson crafting a plan to frame his coming out, but he never went for it. Maupin would receive a lot of negative feedback for outing Hudson on his deathbed in the era before social media.
For men like Hudson, “They didn’t think there was an option or didn’t care that there was an option to be out.” Kijak explains. “What would they gain from it? I mean, Rock was in any case protected by his privilege, his wealth and fame, and he was a conservative. He was a bit of a square. This wasn’t someone who was turned on by the new politics of gay liberation. It was like it was happening in another world.”
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The film, also serves as a reminder of the fact that the Reagan Administration refused to intervene in the burgeoning AIDS epidemic and how even Hudson’s friend, First Lady Nancy Reagan, turned her back on him in his hour of need. “It was for Reagan a wasted opportunity. People forget how significant he was in the culture, even in the Eighties, and how (his AIDS diagnosis) had a huge impact. One of my favorite interviews was with Bill Misenhimer, who was the head of AIDS Project L.A. He spoke to the real-world impact (of Hudson’s illness) on their fundraising, on awareness, on the way it helped get them money and sympathy for the cause that helped people directly on the ground – people that needed food and medicine and care. It really blew up.”
How does Kijak think Hudson himself would feel about a film that shines such a vivid life on his personal life and alters perceptions about who he really was?
“I can’t imagine he would have relished it, but maybe he finally wouldn’t said, ‘Oh, screw it. I’m out.’ He would’ve come out eventually. It’s hard to say. But I feel like the historical corrective that we provide is important, and we’re not going to shy away from it. There’s no denying it, and it doesn’t diminish the greatness of his work. When he was great, he was one of the best.”
“Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed” streams on Max.
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