CHAPTER ONE #2
Filming ‘Need to Know’ was, without being too dramatic, an emotional journey—a life-changing experience.
When we wrapped I’d gone from feeling joyful about completing the project, to feeling unsettled by my transition back to my normal life.
You see, I’d done something I never usually did while working with Jack—I kinda lost myself in the character of Gabriel Baker, the married CIA sleeper agent hiding in plain sight as a realtor.
Jack played Aden Baker, Gabe’s husband who Gabe believed was a college sports teacher, but he was actually an undercover MI6 agent.
Neither knew of their partners covert activities until they both became targets.
The prep and filming for this movie took us six months—with three months of intensive training to ensure we were both at the peak of physical fitness for the demands of our roles.
We performed our own stunts; we learned spy-craft from real ex-spies, along with close quarter’s combat, Krav Maga, and so many other fun things to get us into shape.
Throughout the months of training rehearsals and filming, I’d revelled in spending each intense day with Jack.
And in living apart from Erik, I’d realized that our relationship was in big trouble.
I married Erik Thorne ten years ago, but we’ve been together for eleven years in total.
In the year before we met I’d graduated from Julliard, lost my father, and done what all thirsty actors do to get a break—I’d moved from New York to LA, throwing myself into hundreds of auditions for everything from an aftershave commercial, to playing a murder victim on a crime show.
I’d met Erik at the Santa Monica Playhouse after scoring the lead in a Chekhov play, The Seagull.
Erik was a major donor at the theatre, and so he was given access-all-areas.
He’d come backstage to congratulate me on my performance, and then invited me to dinner.
I was twenty-three, wide-eyed and naive.
Erik was forty-three, outrageously wealthy and a silver fox.
Despite our twenty-year age difference, a slow-burn romance followed.
Meeting Erik helped me understand why I’d never taken to the gay hook-up scene like so many of my queer friends.
Call it innocence, or ignorance, but I’d never heard the word demisexual before Erik explained that attraction isn’t the same for everyone.
It was a revelation and a relief to know I wasn’t weird; I just needed to develop a close emotional bond before sexual attraction blossomed.
Erik came into my life like a storm and shook me up.
He was unlike any man I’d met at that point in my life.
He was attentive, he took his time to date me, romance me, and we finally fell in love.
The memory of his consideration of me during those first months was an ocean away from where we currently stood.
“So, Nate, ‘Need to Know’ will be released in the US on the first of August, can you tell us about the movie?”
I’d been asked this question a hundred times by now. I delivered my easy-going, open smile and launched into my reply.
“Thanks so much for the question,” I began, “Need to Know is a high-octane gay romantic thriller. I know that I speak for Jack too in saying that we’re proud to be a part of such a stellar project.
It was a joy to work on.” I turned and glanced at Jack for reassurance.
He was watching me like an attentive pup, hanging on my every word.
Gah, his undivided attention made me feel like a goddamn king!
“The story focuses on the relationship between Gabriel Baker, that’s me, and his husband Aden Baker,”
“That’s me!” Jack parroted adorably.
“They’re a newlywed couple who appear to have a comfortable, average life.
But all married couples have secrets they keep from their other-halves.
I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but during the movie we see secrets exposed and we follow the couple as they work through the lies and deceit to find a deeper understanding of one another…
all while fending off some very bad people with wicked weapons and tech. ”
“Sounds amazing! What was it like playing secret agents?”
“Isn’t it every kid’s dream to play a secret agent? Or was that just me?” I chuckled before Jack excitedly said,
“I played James Bond games when I was a kid. I had this fake plastic gun that fired potato pellets, and wore a little bow tie on elastic. I asked my mum to make sure my juice box in my packed lunch was shaken too.”
I couldn’t hold in my laugh. “You had a gun that fired potato? Like, mashed potato? Are you for real?” I asked, confused.
“No not mash, it was a spud gun. Oh, come on, you must have spud gun’s in the US…you’ve got every other kind!”
The thought of Jack playing Bond games as a kid with a gun firing potato was frickin’ adorable and the urge to laugh harder nearly wrecked my composure. But I took a breath, remembered that we were on camera, and held it together.