David Hyde Pierce, Who Stars In The New HBO Max Series “Julia”, Calls Julia Child’s Homophobia “Confusing”

March 30, 2022 / Posted by:

Oh good, an excuse to write about David Hyde Pierce, my first ever celebrity crush. The 62-year-old sex symbol stars in the new HBO Max series Julia, which is based on the life of Julia Child. David plays Julia’s husband, Paul Cushing Child, and his Frasier co-star, Bebe Neuwirth, plays Julia’s best friend. The pair sat down for a joint interview with Page Six, and they discussed the fact that Julie and Paul were homophobic. David says it’s “confusing,” especially since Julia was an icon to the gay community.

The new show, which premieres tomorrow, “does not shy away” from portraying Julia and Paul’s homophobic attitudes. According to this article from Boston magazine, Julia believed that people belonged in pairs: one man and one woman. Once she married Paul in 1946, she became “one piece of a two-part jigsaw puzzle.” And it was this Noah’s Ark attitude that led her to believe homosexuality was ridiculous. Her letters are littered with disapproving references to “pansies,” “homovipers, “pedals,” and “fags.” She particularly disliked effeminate men.

David Hyde Pierce tells Page Six that he was aware of Julia’s homophobia when he joined the HBO Max show, cuz he has a “dear friend who is gay who worked with Julia and experienced that.”  But he says it was “confusing,” because “she’s an icon, or was an icon, to the gay community.” And he adds:

“And it’s also important to note that, in my opinion, that is something that she was part of, the culture they both grew up in, in spite of their being also involved in artistic pursuits.”

David says that Julia and Paul had “plenty of gay and lesbian people in their lives,” in both the U.S. and Paris, and their homophobia seemed to be “a sort of unconscious prejudice.” Bebe, 63, added:

“Knowing enough about her to know that she was a real good leftie, she was a very strong liberal. And then I’ll read her letters, and she’ll say something about “fairies,” or something like that, and it jumps off the page! And it’s really shocking. And then you have to put it in context, think about the time, think about all of these things. It’s very confusing.”

In one scene of the show the Paul character refers to gay men as “fairies,” and David says the moment was important to include:

“It’s important for me that hopefully people are watching and loving this relationship, and then that’s a speed bump because that’s what we’re all like,” he explains. “People all have these, you know, works and bumps, and sometimes we change and sometimes we don’t. But if we were going to demand that people be accepting, we have to be accepting, and say, ‘OK, I understand that’s where you were coming from.’”

David emphasizes that Julia eventually changed her views on homosexuality after losing a friend to AIDS. She eventually became a passionate AIDS activist. David says it’s important that the chef “had the ability to change and see us as human beings,” but he doesn’t know if Paul ever stopped being homophobic.

Well, I had no clue Julia Child was homophobic. What a bummer! That being said, I find myself drawn to Julia’s use of the term “homoviper.” I googled, and I can’t find an instance of anyone else using it. This leads me to believe that the French Chef was literally making up her own gay slurs. Wrong? Yes. Creative? Also yes.

Here’s a trailer for Julia:

Pic: YouTube

SHARE
Our commenting rules: Don't be racist or bigoted, or post comments like "Who cares?", or have multiple accounts, or repost a comment that was deleted by a mod, or post NSFW pics/videos/GIFs, or go off topic when not in an Open Post, or post paparazzi/event/red carpet pics from photo agencies due to copyright infringement issues. Also, promoting adblockers, your website, or your forum is not allowed. Breaking a rule may result in your Disqus account getting permanently or temporarily banned. New commenters must go through a period of pre-moderation. And some posts may be pre-moderated so it could take a minute for your comment to appear if it's approved. If you have a question or an issue with comments, email: michaelk@dlisted.com

src="https://c.statcounter.com/922697/0/f674ac4a/1/"
alt="drupal analytics" >