Ron Nyswaner, screenwriter of the acclaimed Showtime series Fellow Travelers, which takes LGBTQ+ characters from the homophobic hysteria of the 1950s through the AIDS crisis, says it drew partly on his life.
Nyswaner adapted the series from Thomas Mallon’s novel of the same name, adding Black characters and making some other changes. But it reflects his experience as well, he recently told The Hollywood Reporter.
In the seventh episode of the series (spoiler alert) protagonist Hawk Fuller, who married a woman in hopes of hiding his homosexuality, is mourning the death of his son, Jackson, who overdosed on heroin. “The grief that Hawk feels in episode seven has a lot to do with how I responded with drugs and alcohol to the grief of my friend’s death that I write about in my memoir,” Nyswaner said.
The memoir, Blue Days, Black Nights, has been reissued for its 20th anniversary. Matt Bomer, who played Hawk in the series,“very kindly wrote a beautiful introduction to the reissue, and I’ve written an epilogue to the reissue that talks about Fellow Travelers in relation to my experiences from that period of my life,” Nyswaner told the Reporter.
“It was a moment when I almost destroyed myself with drugs and alcohol,” he said. “It’s also the story of a tragic love affair. … But I am glad I am no longer that person, that I am no longer a slave to alcohol and drugs. I mean, I wouldn’t be here. I didn’t have much longer to live if I hadn’t stopped when I did. But I love the young man that it’s about — the book is about my relationship with this young man, and I still miss him.”
Nyswaner also talked about how important it was to feature Black characters in Fellow Travelers. “In my research into that era, the ’50s, to see that there was this really vital Black journalism — that really inspired me to have a Black journalist character,” he said. That is Marcus Gaines, played by Jelani Alladin. “And because of Stormé DeLarverie, who was this famous drag performer, drag king, which I’d never known existed, she inspired me to create Frankie,” portrayed by Noah J. Ricketts, Nyswaner noted.
“I had a little bit of nervousness about it because, obviously, I’m not Black and there is something about a white creator creating Black characters,” he said. “But I really worked hard to connect with Black collaborators.” He and the rest of the Fellow Travelers team are pitching a spin-off about Marcus and Frankie.
Nyswaner, who was Oscar-nominated for writing the AIDS-focused feature film Philadelphia, is nominated for an Emmy for his work on Fellow Travelers. Bomer and Jonathan Bailey, who played Hawk’s lover Tim, are nominees as well. Nyswaner was nominated in 2016 for Homeland, but, he said, “This nomination feels different in the sense that there’s so much of my life that is in and woven through the story of Fellow Travelers.”
