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Aug 3, 2007 01:54 PM
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Fri Mar 12
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The near-constant attention that's accompanying the imminent opening of Rush Hour 3 seems to have turned the already unedited Brett Ratner into something of a chronic oversharer. A couple of days ago, Ratner offhandedly informed the audience at Chinese Theatre know that he lost his virginity at a precocious 13, and in an interview posted on The Advocate's website today, the director deflects accusations that his new movie features some cheap, homophobic jokes by falling back on the time-worn defense [along the lines of—see clarification immediately following!], "Some of the best blowjobs I've ever gotten were by dudes pretending to be chicks." [Ed.note—Allow us to clarify that we are not saying that Mr. Ratner ever spoke these words. They are an apparently confusing attempt to parody the "Some of my best friends "are of x race/sexual persuasion/religion" defense used when an open-minded individual is accused of bias. Also, we in no way mean to imply that the act described to the Advocate below was among the best he's received. Thanks for staying with us during this joke-killing Defamer Clarification.] Wait, what? Ratner explains:
What about when the girl takes off her wig and Chris Tucker becomes angry and accuses her of being a man? No, no! That's from my personal experience. My first blow job was from a man, but I didn't know it was a man. That's where that comes from. It's based on personal experience. It happens to a lot of people.
Is that common knowledge? No! Well, among my friends, but I'm not homophobic or uptight about it. That happens to a lot of heterosexuals. You meet a girl in a bar, and it turns out she's not a girl. I think a girl should tell you if she's a girl or a man—that way it's your preference. It's comedy. Look, in this movie we don't pull any punches. We make fun of black people. We make fun of Chinese people. We make fun of French people. We make fun of gay situations. We make fun of whites. It doesn't matter. It's the type of movie it is. It's a fish-out-of-water comedy. You have to have those types of situations to have the comedy. That specific idea was because it's happened to me. It's happened to my friends. We'll get together with a girl, and it'll turn out to be a guy. The reaction is "Oh, shit!" if you're not gay, which is funny, I think. Getting into the situation is funny. I laugh whenever I see one of my friends talking to a girl, and I'll ask, "Is that a man or a woman?" It's funny, especially if you don't know about it. If you know about it, fine. If that's your preference...
Given Ratner's refreshing open-mindedness about the issue, one wonders if New Line is to blame for changing what could have been a scene with a groundbreaking message of tolerance into one that ends with an easy gay gag. Maybe the studio balked at a version that hewed much closer to the director's hilarious real-life experience with gotcha! fellatio, with a nervous executive returning the note, "Can we have the tranny that blows Chris be, you know, just a girl in a wig? We're not sure the Rush Hour audience is quite as progressive as you are, Brett. Also, we'll have to probably lose the hummer. We're shooting PG-13."
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