Stone in love: Sarah Jessica Parker joins the out director of Big Eden to talk about their gay-inclusive holiday comedy, The Family Stone.

Four years after Big Eden enchanted queer and straight audiences alike, writer-director Thomas Bezucha returns with another ensemble piece about love and family. Only this time the central character is a straight woman trying--and failing--to make a good impression on her fiance's family, including his gay brother. With comedy diva Sarah Jessica Parker in the lead, gay audiences are guaranteed to descend on The Family Stone in hordes when it hits theaters December 16. The Advocate joined a conference call between Parker (in Manhattan) and Bezucha (in Los Angeles) as the duo enthusiastically discussed their work together on the film.

Tom, you have a huge, adoring following from Big Eden, and we've all been waiting for the follow-up. What accounted for the lag time?

Thomas Bezucha: [Laughs] You tell me. I set out after Big Eden--I thought, Well, what was successful in that that I can extrapolate? I figured, Ensemble. And boy, they really don't like 'em out here. And while people have always loved the script of The Family Stone, you put it in front of executives and there's this need to categorize everything. Is it a comedy? Is it a drama? Maybe there was a "feathered fish" aspect that caused some of the delay.

For both of you: Why do you think Sarah Jessica has such a rabid following among gay men?

Sarah Jessica Parker: I think my lawyer has advised me not to answer. [Laughs] It would be unsightly of me to ponder that out loud.

Bezucha: It's her strength as a woman. She is that delicious combination of extremely ladylike but there's a tomboy element. Where you know she's just ready te roll up her sleeves and get in there.

Tom, you have a background in the fashion industry. Was that a bonding thing for you two?

Parker: I wouldn't say there was a lot of time spent on that conversation, but it was wonderful to have Tom's extraordinary eye for detail not just his aesthetic, which is impeccable, but his desire to be part of every detail of the set and the costumes and the hair and the makeup, because it's all one, it's all part of the same story. The details could only have come from somebody who has either learned or developed a desire and interest for detail.

Tom, was it markedly different to be working with a larger budget and under the auspices of a studio after making an indie feature?

Bezucha: Weirdly, the only difference that I'm aware of is what it bought me in terms of time. It felt luxurious to me in terms of our schedule. Big Eden was, you know, 17 days--it's like running through a burning house. You just try to get out alive.

Sarah, having worked for years with Barren Star and Michael Patrick Kin8 and now with Tom, is there something that gay men bring to the table, creatively speaking, that maybe other filmmakers don't?

Parker: You mean "filmmakers with different lifestyle choices"? [Laughs] I would hate to generalize, but I will say this: It's the kind of emotional experience that's so important to an actor--I think; I don't want to sound like a jackass--it's the way somebody makes you feel about yourself that makes the work. It's somebody that believes in you in a way that doesn't have to be verbalized all day long. And I think that's because guys dating men tend to be more comfortable being demonstrative in certain ways.

Bezucha: That's interesting.

Parker: But I don't want to say that I haven't liked working for straight directors! [Laughs] They can be helpful and kind and committed, but it's a different kind of communication. Outside of that, this is something I'm very excited to tell you that's completely unrelated to Tom's "lifestyle choices" [Bezucha laughs], and I mean this--I think Tom is one of the most special directors I've ever worked with, gay or straight, man or woman. And I'm happy and proud and thrilled for him, but I'm also sad, because I know his life is about to change.

Bezucha: [Laughs] "That gay boy, he can direct!" Now I'm gonna toll a story on you.

Parker: Uh-oh.

Bezucha: I always suspected I loved Sarah Jessica. When I knew it for sure was ... We had shot all of the exterior stuff back East, and we were back on the soundstage in Culver [City, Calif.], and I noticed her knee was all scabbed over. She wouldn't talk about it. It took me about 30 seconds to realize what it was: When we had been back East, we shot a scene where she had to load a suitcase into a car trunk. And [she told] the prop person to fill it up, to make it heavy, because that was part of the joke. So she lifted this suitcase onto her knee and into the trunk maybe 15 times--never said a word about it being painful. And then three weeks later you look down and she's got this scabby knee. [Parker giggles] It just says so much about her work ethic.

Parker: You know why I did it, Tom?

Bezucha: Why?

Parker: 'Cause I think bruises are hot. [All laugh]

One of the Stone siblings is gay, right?

Parker: The youngest baby brother.

Bezucha: There's this big thing with Sarah's character stumbling through a dinner conversation where she inadvertently ... I mean, the issue really is nature versus nurture, and she begins to describe a position that's other than the family's. It is interesting for somebody who has maybe a large gay following.

Parker: Meredith's great flaw is that she doesn't know how to extricate herself from things where other people might skillfully navigate through. She's really asking this question about what parents want and if they could plan to have a child who is gay or not gay--or in her words, "normal or not normal"--and with the challenges faced by the gay community, why would a parent want any child to find themselves facing those particular challenges. And she just keeps going, and as people try to help her, the family becomes much more hostile, as you can imagine, during this lovely Christmas Eve dinner. She just keeps trying to explain it and in doing so is really more and more insulting and offensive. Not only that, but he's deaf and his boyfriend is black and they're about to adopt a baby! [All laugh]

It's a minefield there.

Bezucha: It is, you're right. Meredith is set loose in a minefield. And that becomes her Waterloo. It's funny: One of the things about this film: You meet [the gay couple] very early in the film, before you know a lot of the other characters. And in test screenings there is a segment of the audience that does not realize that they are a couple until that dinner table scene, which is the halfway point of the movie.

Parker: Well, some people, you discover, also didn't want to get it.

Bezucha: Yeah, there were some pretty ugly comments [at test screenings]. The one that was the most disturbing to me was some, body writing on a card, "Gays shouldn't have families. The goo news is, of course, how incredibly supportive the studio was. It'll be fun to see how the movie ultimately plays. I can't think of a recent film that better promotes family values. The true value of family.