My chat with the stars of “Prayers for Bobby”

When I saw actor Ryan Kelley on the red carpet at the Emmy Awards on Sunday, I just wanted to give him a hug.

I don’t know him but felt like I did from the outstanding film Prayers for Bobby. He played a gay teenager trying to come to terms with his sexuality whose mother, played by Sigourney Weaver, desperately tries to pray the gay out of him.

In the end, Bobby jumps off of a freeway overpass and leaves the viewer heartbroken that he wasn’t able to make it through. At this point, his mother starts to question her faith and ends up becoming a gay rights crusader. It’s a true story, a very sad one, but one a lot of people can hopefully learn from.

Miss Weaver was nominated for an Emmy for her performance with many predicting a win. But Jessica Lange took home the award for Grey Gardens. Still  it’s some of the best work of Miss Weaver’s career.

“The response has been amazing,” he said. “I’ve heard from kids who have written in with similar stories or they have shown their parents the film and it’s changed their parents perspective on it. It’s been amazing. You even get the occasional story where kids will tell you that it saved their life. I mean, that’s powerful.”

For the 23-year-old actor, the opportunity to play opposite Sigourney Weaver was a gift.

“She is amazing,” he said, “She taught me so much.  She was so professional and super nice even though she plays uptight and mean in the film, Thst’s not her personality at all. She was actually a blast to work with.”

Ryan, who has been acting in movies and television shows since his teens, was wearing the White Knot for marriage equality on his tuxedo and I asked him about it: “Equality is equality. You can’t slice that up and say it works for these people and not for these people. I don’t understand how it’s even an issue.”

Ryan recently had a role in the TV movie Mending Fences and will is in the November release Ben 10: Alien Swarm.

We were soon joined by Ryan’s co-star in the film, Scott Bailey, who played his boyfriend David. Scott is a familiar (and very handsome) face from his three years on Guiding Light, a role on the TV series Saints and Sinners and Kamen Rider: Dragon Knight.

Of Prayers for Bobby he said: “Everyone who has seen it, it has either enlightened them or changed their mind or opened their hearts in some way, shape or form. I think thzt’s what telling stories and making movies is about. I’m honored to be a part of it and to play someone who is sort of a bright light in a tragic story, who shows how things can be. How a young gay man can be proud and have a loving and accepting family.”

When we spoke, Scott was still awaiting word on two possible movies and couldn’t talk about them yet. But he has completed  roles in the films Backlight and 379.

How great to talk to two articulate and mature young actors with such great futures ahead of them.