Adam Stevenson: Vampire's boyfriend, sailor's husband, ghillie dancer, possible bondage bottom, true Scotsman

 

When I reviewed A Discovery of Witches, I was impressed by the overwhelming cuteness and strong gay vibe of Adam Stevenson, who plays the gay-tease boyfriend of the vampire Marcus.  He is killed off two minutes after he is introduced, and Marcus is turned straight, but that two minutes is loaded down with erotic and romantic moments.  So of course I had to do a profile.

Born in Glasgow in 1990, Adam is a major proponent of Scottish independence: "If we are truly heading into a society of tolerance and democracy, if we are moving in the direction of equality and harmony...then I see one obstacle in our way, and that is being bound to the United Kingdom."

Super-cute, and a political activist.  What else do you need?  

Oh, right -- nude photos.

After high school, Adam worked in the hospitality industry, engaged in political activism, and discovered an interest in acting.  He performed in Bordering on Shakespeare with the National Theater of Scotland, and started the theater company Little Bohems, bringing "modern and contemporary plays to small audiences in  unique settings throughout the Central Belt and Borders."  That's the region between Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Adam's passion for acting led him to the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where he received his degree in 2017.  He was immediately cast in Episode 2.5 of  The Crown: the Queen attends the traditional Ghillies Ball at Balmoral Castle. "Ghillie" means "Gameskeeper" in Scots Gaelic; you perform Scottish Highland dances.  In a kilt, of course.

Next came the gay-tease buddy in A Discovery of Witches, 2018

And a role as Urie Campbell, a young soldier who has a gay-subtext bond with his buddy Hector in Mary, Queen of Scots, 2018.  He has some lines in Scots Gaelic.

Andrew Rothney, left, plays King James I. 

In 2019, COVID hit, and with the lockdown the acting roles dried up.

In 2021, Adam started a Kickstarter campaign to fund My Friend Jame,  a COVID-era film about the relationship between a homeless man and an autistic boy,  written by Marina McQueer, his boyfriend Paul's sister (not pictured).

Yes, McQueer is a real name. 

More Adam and Paul after the break.  Caution: explicit.

Pain and Glory: An aging director recalls his first crush and his first boyfriend, with nostalgia and nudity

For forty years, Pedro Almodóvar has been giving us raucous, irreverent, sometimes funny glimpses into the sexual and social freedom of post-Franco Spain: Bad Education; Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!; A Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown; What Have I Done to Deserve This? He's not exactly a proponent of essentialist gay identity: his gay men are usually there to have affairs with the female focus character, when she's not busy seducing her stepson.  Or maybe she'll seduce her stepson and his boyfriend, or join her sister in having the affair with the gay man.  There will be male nudity, urination, pop culture references, and kitsch. And these aren't comedies. 

Pedro went through similar machinations in his private life, being closeted, then stating that he was bisexual, and finally coming out as gay.  He's been with his partner, Fernando Iglesias, since 2002.

Dolor y gloria, Pain and Glory, is the 74-year old director's swan song, a summary and perhaps a justification of his work, touching on all of his major themes:  "sentimientos, costumbrismo, reencuentros, homosexualidad, sensibilidad, pasión, familia, drogas… "

Almodóvar stand-in Salvador, played by regular star Antonio Banderas, is an aging director, in physical and mental decline.  His chronic pain has kept him from new projects for several years.

Left: A misty memory of Banderas, fully nude in his first film appearance in 1982.

Asked to speak at the restoration of one of his old films, Flavor, he decides to look up the star, Alberto (Asier Etxeandia, left), whom he hasn't seen since the filming.  They had a falling out over Alberto's use of heroin on the set.

While reconciling, and trying heroin himself to ease his chronic pain, he tells the story of his first boyfriend.  

His First Boyfriend:  Director Salvador was in a relationship with Federico, played by Leonardo Sbaraglia, in the 1980s, but ended it due to his heroin use.  

Federico turned out to be one of Almodovar's temporary gay men: he left the "lifestyle" behind, moved to Argentina, married a woman, and had children.

Flavor star Alberto turns this story into a play that draws the attention of the real life Federico.  He returns to Madrid and wants to start the relationship again, but Director Salvador wants to keep the past in the past. 

More after the break

Alberto Ferreira: Not the gay guy in "The Other Side" or "Bad Education," but at least he has a big one

 

Do you want a profile of Alberto Ferreiro, star of the gay classic Bad Education, 2003?

How about now?

The guy is very difficult to research: no Instagram, no Facebook, no Twitter, a Wikipedia page in Spanish that only goes to 2006. 

Alberto Ferreiro, a professor at Seattle Pacific University, has just died and dominates Google searches with memorials.

Getty Images promises 31 pictures of Alberto, but delivers two.  The others are of a semi-naked woman gyrating.

So we'll have to make do with the IMDB.  

Alberto was born in Madrid in 1983, and began his acting career in 2000 with El Otro Barrio, "The Other Neighborhood" or "The Other Side," about the bond between a delinquent boy and a lawyer. Alberto stars in a boy-meets-girl subplot.

The frontal nudity comes from Nito, 2003, a 17-minute short about a bullied kid with learning disabilities.  He figures that the best way to fight back is to have sex with a lady.

Mala Educacion, Bad Education, 2004, has a filmmaker interviewing a trans woman, who tells the story of two boys, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Fele Martinez, falling in love in a Catholic school in the 1960s.  Torment, torture, angst, despair, and tragedy follow, as was common in gay relationships in movies in those days.  You gotta punish those gays.

Alberto shows his butt while sexing a lady.  I swear, until this moment, I thought he played the boy who fell in love with Gabriel Garcia Bernal.

Segundo asalto, 2005, released in the U.S. as The Good Boy, features the relationship between a failed boxer and a bank robber.  Alberto has a minor role Dienteputo.

Recurring or starring TV roles followed: Un lugar en el mundo, "A place in the world"

Mis adorables vecinos, "My lovely neighbors"

More after the break