In the summer of 2001, everybody in the East Village was talking about Bully, starring 22-year old Nick Stahl. The South Florida teenager beats his friend Marty (Brad Renfro) until he is unconscious, sexually assaults him, and humiliates him by forcing him to become a hustler (charging gay men to have sex with him). They even make a porn video to sell at adult bookstores.
Bobby also rapes Marty's girlfriend Ali, while forcing her to watch gay porn, and when his own girlfriend Lisa announces that she is pregnant with Marty's child, watch out! The three friends set out to murder him, with the help of Ali's new girlfriend (Michael Pitt).
It was not a pretty movie -- girl parts outnumber boy part ten to one, and the gay world is portrayed as unfailingly sordid and decadent. Nevertheless, every gay magazine -- In Touch, XY, The Advocate -- gave it a favorable review as a cautionary tale about the effects of internalized homophobia. If only Bobby had the guts to come out...
Nick was born in Harlingen, Texas, in 1979 (Texas...ugh!), moved to L.A. in 1992, and was cast in a few small roles before his big break, playing opposite the then-famous Mel Gibson in The Man Without a Face (1993). The Man and the boy are both gay in the original novel (but they don't have a s*xual relationship). They are straight in the movie, of course.
My Son is Innocent (1996), Eye of God (1997), Promised Land (1997), and Disturbing Behavior (1998) cast Nick as scarred, traumatized, victimized, violent teenagers, leading to Bully. Afterwards he did a horror movie (Taboo, 2002) and a true crime (Bookies, 2003), but found himself being schtupped by manipulative older women (in Taboo and In the Bedroom), having sex with men but denying being gay (Twist), or raping and murdering young girls (Sin City). Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) must have come as a welcome relief.
In the Terminator mythos, John Connor manages to save the human world after it is destroyed by a sentient internet, so Arnold Schwarzenegger is sent back in time (naked) to kill him. In T3, he returns (naked) as an ally, to protect young adult John and his future wife Kate (who is unfortunately engaged to someone else).
Nick was the second actor to play John Connor. There have been several others, including Thomas Dekker (left) and Christian Bale.
Carnivale (2023-25) features paranormal beings working in a carnival during the Dust Bowl of Depression-era Oklahoma. Nick plays Ben Hawkins, a farmer, chain gang fugitive, and healer who joins the carnival and eventually becomes an Avatar of Light. He's heterosexual, but one of his girlfriends, Sofie, is a lesbian.
Tim DeKay (left) plays Jonesy, who runs the ferris wheel, and Michael J. Anderson, the backwards-talking dwarf on Twin Peaks, his boss, Samson.
More after the break. Caution: Explicit.
.jpg)
