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Director's Tale
How Joe Somodi Helped Esera Tuaolo
Go Public
By
Jim Buzinski
Outsports.com
Joe Somodi is more familiar with theater plays than football plays,
but he is the man most responsible for the timing of Esera Tuaolo's
coming out as a gay ex-NFL player.
Tuaolo will be appearing on a television show, and in a newspaper or magazine
near you with his tale as a closeted gay man in the macho world of the
NFL. HBO, the New York Times, Good Morning America, Fox and ESPN the
Magazine are among the outlets that will tell Tuaolo's story.
The media campaign has been coordinated by well-known Hollywood
publicist
Howard Bragman, who has made a specialty out of bringing gay
celebrities out of the closet. It has been skillfully planned to gain
maximum exposure while allowing Tuaolo to tell his story at his own
pace. While Somodi has had nothing to do with this campaign, it may
never had gotten started without him.
At the urging of a friend, Somodi, a producer-director in New York
City, went to a nightclub this past winter to watch Tuaolo sing. "I
was really taken aback by how good his singing was," Somodi said. "He
was really amazing and had great stage presence."
 Somodi and
his life partner, the theater director
Kurt Stamm, immediately hit it off with Tuaolo, a professional
singer. The couple visited Tuaolo and his partner, Mitchell Wherley,
in Minnesota and began building a relationship.
On another visit alone to Minnesota in March, Somodi, 31, broached the
subject of doing a documentary on Tuaolo and his life. "He said to me,
'I really want to do this with you. I want to make this happen,' ''
Somodi recalls.
Somodi filmed Tuaolo and eventually produced a seven-minute
promotional video that included interviews and footage of Tuaolo both
playing and singing. But not having many industry connections, Somodi
wound up knocking on a lot of doors. Showtime, MTV and PBS all passed.
HBO's documentary unit was intrigued, but a producer told Somodi the
timing wasn't right.
Somodi, however, thought the timing was ideal. Mike Piazza of the New
York Mets declared himself straight this spring and the media went
into overdrive discussing gays in sports. A hit Broadway play, "Take
Me Out," further thrust the issue in the limelight. "I needed to
capitalize on the public interest," Somodi said.
Eventually, "Real Sports," a monthly HBO sports series bought Somodi's
idea (he won't disclose what or whether he was paid) and gave him an
associate producer credit. The network basically took over the project
and brought in its own film crew, editors and producers. Somodi's
plans for a 90-minute documentary were boiled down to 13 minutes on
HBO.
Somodi admits to some disappointment that the project hasn't been
developed as fully as he would like, but he remains interested in
doing a full-length documentary on Tuaolo.
"Real Sports" focuses (as it should) on the player's relationship to
football and his sexuality, but Somodi's vision entails telling
Tuaolo's life story, which the filmmaker calls "rich and robust." He
sees Tuaolo's story as resonating with young gay athletes, many of
whom wrestle with the conflict between their sport and their
sexuality.
"I want to show that [athletes] are ordinary people with extraordinary
skills and being gay is just a part of it," Somodi says.
From Joe Somodi: "I am
producing a documentary project, "The Last Closet" and I am actively
seeking any high school or college athletes who are presently in the
closet and would like to use video as a way of telling their story.
Esera's story will hopefully inspire others to come out, but you don't
have to be at the professional athlete level to have your story heard.
Your story can also inspire those professional athletes who are
struggling with this issue."
Somodi can be reached
via e-mail
Related:
--Esera
Tuaolo comes out
--Players
react to Tuaolo coming out
Oct. 27, 2002 |
