Adopted by bears: filming Bear Cub, a movie set in Spain's gay bear culture, was an eye-opener for hunky straight actor Jose Luis Garcia-Perez.

The sexy, funny new Spanish film Bear Club (Cachorro) tackles pretty hairy subjects--and not just the unshaven members of the gay bear scene. Granted, the protagonist is a handsome, husky, and promiscuous bear chaser, and the film depicts hot hirsute sex. Yet the dramatic for really flies when it comes to gay parenting. Pedro (Jose Luis Garcia-Perez), a commitment phobic gay dentist, unexpectedly ends up as guardian of his 9-year-old nephew, Bernardo (David Castillo). His bear friends and neighbors are immediately welcoming, but frisky Pedro's paternal instinct takes a while to kick in. Eventually the pair forge a tight, happy family bond--until bitter estranged grandmother Dona Teresa (Empar Ferret) intrudes, going to cruel lengths to remove Bernardo from Pedro's house.

With the election this past March of progressive prime minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Spain's gays and lesbians are moving toward equality--legalized gay unions are on the horizon, as are adoptions by gays. Antigay laws on family matters are currently on the books, although some regions have recently made exceptions or, like Catalonia, begun to modify existing laws.

"There are two different kinds of laws: the state laws and regional laws," explains Garcia-Perez. "In my region, Andalusia, they have prepared a new law for adoption if you are a homosexual couple. And across the whole state there's a new law [in the works] to permit homosexual couples to have a child. We're beginning to feel once again like a progressive country."

As with his fellow heterosexual countryman Antonio Banderas, playing a gay role has launched Garcia Perez's movie career back home and even attracted the attention of American agents. "They tell me, 'You look like Antonio but different,'" the Seville-based actor, who has trimmed down from his Bear Cub weight, says with a laugh.

Unfamiliar with the bear scene until director Miguel Albaladejo cast him, Garcia Perez was introduced to and adopted by a clan of bears and cubs. They took him out to Madrid's Hot Club, which also served as a shooting location, where he met new friends, some of whom were themselves adoptive or biological dads. While the film's sexually explicit scenes--including two filmed at real-life cruising zones at a sauna and under a bridge--briefly gave Garcia-Perez pause, he feels they were ultimately critical in depicting "the mixture of how Pedro tried to be with a child and care for him, and his normal life, his sexual life. Without this there is no film. But of course at the beginning, the first time I read it, I went, 'Come on, this is me?'"

Director Albaladejo wanted to have Garcia Perez in the role early on, and he's thrilled with his performance. "I don't like to audition a lot of actors because I hate having to turn them down," says the out filmmaker via phone from Madrid. "I make it a point to watch their films and theater work so that I have a clear picture by the time they come in. When I called Jose Luis in to audition, it was more to see whether he would take the role than to hear him read. And he was amazing; his first reading was even better than I thought it would be."

As for how young Castillo responded to gay cast, crew, and subject matter, Garcia-Perez proffers that "he's a very open-minded person. I think Miguel explained to him a lot of things that happen in the film, but in any case he arrived on the set asking everyone, with no problem, 'Have you got a girlfriend or a boyfriend?'"

Ultimately, Garcia-Perez sees Pedro to be just as contradictory and morally complex as the wicked Dona Teresa and Bernardo's irresponsible mother, Violeta (Elvira Lindo). "I think there are no heroes in the film," he muses. "In the case of [Violeta], she did something wrong, but this wrong gave Pedro something good. I think my character also has problems with his way of life. What I think is good in the film is that it says you can choose whichever road is yours to take."--Additional reporting by Alonso Duralde

Ferber has written for Entertainment Weekly and Time Out New York.