Catching up with Dustin Lance Black

Dustin Lance Black, who won the Academy Award for his Milk screenplay, adds a touch of class to just about any event he shows up at so it was so good to see him front-and-center at Saturday night’s GLAAD Media Awards in LA where he and Cleve Jones teamed up to present an award to Rev. Gene Robinson.

Lance later returned to the stage with Milk director Gus Van Sant and the film’s producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks.

I chatted with Lance just before he went into the VIP cocktail party outside the Nokia Theatre. I wanted to know how life has gone since he won the Oscar and gave a speech that no one, gay or straight, will ever forget.

“I’m back to work,” he said. “You know, the thing that changed the most is the opportunity to get to speak across the country. That’s been great to be able to continue to spread the message. I was able to spread it with you all over two months was fantastic, but that opportunity (to spread it further) has been so good.

“Other than that,” he added, “it’s back to work.”

I may have been projecting how I would feel if I won and Oscar and gave that kind of speech and got to be on Oprah and all that. So I pressed Lance a bit: “Do you feel different?”

He had perfect answer: “Uh, no. I don’t.”

“I feel overwhelmed with work right now,” he added. “And that’s really good.”

I also asked Lance: “Do you ever watch your Oscar speech and think, ‘How did I do that?'”

Lance replied: “Yes. I have done that a couple of times. (laughs) It was a great moment. I was channeling Harvey I think or something like that.”

And finally, where does he keep that gold statue?

“He’s just in my house,” Lance said, “In a bookcase, hanging out.”

Here’s video of Lance’s Oscar speech to remind you of how damned extraordinary it was:

Here is video of his backstage press conference moments after winning the Oscar. The second question comes from me: