Trivia / In & Out

• Approval of God: Barbra Streisand said she laughed at the movie having a Running Gag regarding her.
• Corpsing: During the graduation scene near the end when everyone "comes out" in support of Howard, his pupil Meredith (Alexandra Holden) announces that she's "discovered" she's gay by rubbing her hands all over her body and screaming "Oh my God! Oh my God!" in an overexaggerated manner. While she's doing this, further down the row, you can see Lauren Ambrose (Vicky) just laughing her ass off and trying to hide her face. She even laughs as she stands up to say "Me too!"
• Dawson Casting: 17 year old high schooler Mike is played by a 27 year old actor who isn't fooling anyone.
• Dyeing for Your Art: Tom Selleck shaved off his iconic moustache for the film.
• Inspiration for the Work: The film was inspired by Tom Hanks' tearful speech when he won the Best Actor Oscar for Philadelphia in 1994 in which he credited his high school drama teacher Rawley Farnsworth and a former classmate John Gilkerson as "two of the finest gay Americans, two wonderful men that I had the good fortune to be associated with." Farnsworth was closeted about his sexuality throughout his life right up until that point, although unlike in the film, Hanks did ask for and receive his permission to single him out in the speech.
• Starring a Star as a Star: Big star Matt Dillon plays actor Cameron Drake, who kicks off the story by winning an Oscar for his role as a homosexual soldier, and declaring his inspiration to be his regular-guy drama teacher (played by Kevin Kline), who Drake announces is gay; Dillon himself has never won an Oscar, but got his first nom a few years later
• Technology Marches On:
  • In-Universe example: A scene has Cameron's supermodel girlfriend befuddled by a rotary-dial telephone in her motel room.
  • At Howards bachelor party they stick a LaserDisc of Funny Girl in Howard's hands. Modern viewers are forgiven if they mistook it for a LP of the soundtrack.

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