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Writer-director Mikko Mäkelä and actor Ruaridh Mollica don’t mind if audiences seek out their new movie, “Sebastian,” for its abundance of steamy love scenes ― so long as those folks are willing to engage with the film’s coming-of-age story, too.
“Sebastian,” which hit theaters Friday after being screened at the Provincetown Film Festival in Massachusetts and the Sundance Film Festival in Utah, follows Max (played by Mollica), a 25-year-old journalist at a hip London publication who is enjoying a streak of professional success. After lining up a dream interview with “American Psycho” author Bret Easton Ellis, Max is ready for his next big project: a novel set in the underworld of queer sex workers.
When a publisher suggests that the book would work better as a first-person narrative, Max takes the plunge into sex work firsthand and moonlights as “Sebastian,” an escort on a gay hookup app.
To his surprise, Max enjoys his new side hustle, and strikes up a tender friendship with Nicholas (Jonathan Hyde), an older client and retired professor. But as Max eases into a life of evening trysts, he finds it challenging to maintain his straight-laced persona by day.
“Sebastian” is Mäkelä’s second feature, arriving in theaters about seven years after “A Moment in the Reeds.” He wrote the movie’s screenplay after relocating to London from his native Finland.
Upon settling in the British capital, Mäkelä noticed the ways that sex workers were thriving in the so-called gig economy, with their newfound ability to connect with clients on apps and subscription-based sites like OnlyFans.
“There’s a misconception that sex workers are always the victims of exploitation, that no one can truly feel liberated or in control of their life, and that they can’t actually enjoy their work,” he told HuffPost in an interview. “I wanted to create a character for whom sex work was an empowered choice rather than a last resort.”
Watch a trailer for “Sebastian” below.
“Of course there’s always the risk of exploitation,” he added. “But I wanted to work against those old-fashioned biases.”
It wasn’t long before Mollica signed on. The actor, who is Italian and Scottish, saw the film as an opportunity to play a character experiencing a “moment of identity change and shift” that mirrored his own.
“I’d just moved to London, and found it to be a place where I could embrace my queerness freely and figure out who I am,” he said. “I love that the film is a story of self-acceptance and overcoming fears, whether they are fears put upon you by your own psyche or external fears.”
When it came time for the movie’s sex scenes, Mollica worked closely with an intimacy coordinator. Still, he said the “choreography” for heating up those sequences was present in the script.
“You’re practically naked the whole time, so being comfortable in your own skin is a hurdle you have to get over quickly,” he said. “But they ended up being really fun and some of the easier scenes to shoot. You get into a zenlike state, your breathing syncs up [with your co-star] and you lose yourself in the moment. Everything felt very safe.”
Whether “Sebastian” resonates with audiences remains to be seen, as early reviews have been mixed. Still, the film is poised to boost the Hollywood profiles of its principal star and director. Mollica has already lined up a spate of forthcoming projects, including the HBO comedy “The Franchise” and “A Thousand Blows,” a Disney+ drama.
As for Mäkelä, he plans to begin work on a film by writer David Turpin next year that’s set in 1980s London at the peak of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“I’m very interested in queer history and uncovering stories that couldn’t be told at the time,” he said. “I never want to go in with a thesis statement, but I want [viewers] to discover that we have the same fears and passions today as we did at other points in our history.”
