The Mattachine Family, now available on digital platforms, is a feel-good comedy-drama about gay photographer Thomas (Nico Tortorella) choosing the family he wants. It goes beyond having married his husband, Oscar (Juan Pablo Di Pace), or having supportive friends Leah (Emily Hampshire), her partner Sonia (Cloie Wyatt Taylor), and Jamie (Jake Choi); its about having a child. After Thomas and Oscar foster Arthur (Matthew Jacob Ocampo) for a year, Thomas is bereft when Arthur is returned to his birth mother. While Oscar, a former child actor, takes a job in Michigan, Thomas mopes around L.A. trying to find purpose in his life. He is wary about being a dad again, but he also wants to fill the void Arthur created.

This warm film, directed by Andy Vallentine and written by his husband Danny Vallentine (based on their experiences), deftly examines gay parenthood from various angles, including surrogacy and fertility clinics. The films bittersweet nature as Thomas poignant voiceovers and photographs consider what family and friends mean will melt the hearts of sentimental viewers.

The nonbinary Tortorella spoke with Philadelphia Gay News about making the film and being a parent.

The Mattachine Family addresses identity politics coming out, being gay, as well as the politics of being a gay husband and a father. Can you talk about what being queer means to both you and your character, Thomas?
This movie came across my desk at a time when my partner and I were trying to get pregnant, and we were dealing with infertility for just about a year when I got this script. The ways my wife and I were going about trying to create life may, on paper, seem traditional, but given our relationship and who we are, it was very queer to us. We understand not everyone would see it that way. Getting this script at that time was one of those art imitating life moments. So much of myself and my current experiences were in this script. Theres a line, What does it mean to be a gay parent? and I posed that question to the Vallentines, as they were dealing with their own fertility [issues] and their own journey [to parenthood]. We had this conversation about creating life at a time when life seemed most fragile. Our experiences were more similar than different. For both myself and Thomas, we are dealing with the unconventional and the nontraditional. Every parent has a different journey bringing a child into the world, whether they are straight, gay, or anything in between. I was excited to bring a piece of myself to the story and to better understand what it meant to be a gay father through Thomas.

Read the full interview at Philadelphia Gay News

For Nico Tortorella, starring in The Mattachine Family was more than just a job it was therapy.

Directed by Andrew Vallentine, the film follows Thomas (Tortorella) and Oscar (Juan Pablo Di Pace), a happily married gay couple who find themselves at a crossroads after their first foster child returns to his birth mother. Thomas initially somewhat disinterested in parenthood grapples with saying goodbye which leads him to realize how much he wants to be a father. Oscar, meanwhile, finds himself more focused on his budding career.

It is a personal story of Vallentines, born out of real conversations the director had with his own husband around fatherhood and what it looks like for two gay men. Tortorella also found himself surprisingly drawn to Thomas story, if not for a slightly different reason; it allowed him to process the infertility struggles he was facing with his wife, Bethany Meyers.

I read the script and it was really emotional for me. I saw so much of myself in this story. My own experience, my own journey, Tortorella, 35, exclusively told Us Weekly while discussing the film. And at home I was the rock in so many ways, just having to hold down the fort while Bethany was able to experience the emotional upheaval of infertility. I was very much the big picture dreamer. Like, Its going to happen no matter what. No questions asked. And when I got onto set for this movie, I was able to experience everything that I was closeting, so to speak, at home. I got to cry like over and over and over again and long for this spirit of this child that I had been channeling for the last year plus.

Read the full interview at Us Magazine

As Wilmette-born actor Nico Tortorella and his partner were trying to have their first baby, he was getting ready to make a queer indie film with fatherhood at its center.

The Mattachine Family, available for sale or rent Tuesday on streaming platforms, shares the story of a gay couple dealing with loss after their foster child is returned to his birth mother.

Thomas and Oscar played by Tortorella and Juan Pablo Di Pace adjust in different ways, with Oscar diving into his career and moving to Michigan to film a new show while Tortorellas character struggles to figure out whats next.

Tortorella said working on the film was a healing experience that taught him about parenthood. Tortorellas first child was born in 2023, and the couple recently announced theyre expecting another.

There was some divine timing in action here, Tortorella said. And I am forever grateful. Thomas prepared me in so many ways to be a father.

Read the full interview at Sun-Times

Nico Tortorella first album, Born, is coming soon, and the new single, “Grapefruit,” is available now. (see below) Announced their latest venture on social media, stating that the album “is my heart and soul laid bare, tracing the path of fatherhood through lyric and melody.”

The album can be pre-saved or pre-ordered here and watch the music video produced by Rocco Tortorella bellow.

If you dont live in Los Angeles, you might never have heard of the Mattachine Steps. In 2012, the outdoor staircase in Silver Lake was dedicated to the late Harry Hay, who co-founded the Mattachine Society an early gay rights organization in 1950.

In Andy Vallentines feature directorial debut The Mattachine Family, Thomas (Nico Tortorella) considers the steps, and later how his own group of friends, or more found family, connects to that history. The options and the lives available to queer people in 2023 are much more diverse and varied than they were in 1950, but finding the answers youre looking for can still be just as complex.

The film follows Thomas and his friends as they navigate their relationships, but specifically focuses on the issue of fertility and the paths to parenthood that exist for LGBTQ+ people. When Arthur, Thomas and his husband Oscars (Juan Pablo Di Pace) foster son, returns to his birth mother, Thomas decides he wants to give fatherhood another try. But, after watching how the loss of Arthur affected Thomas, Oscar isnt so sure.

Wow. Doing a chemistry read over Zoom must be surreal. I guess weve all gotten used to it at this point, but it still feels surreal.

Tortorella: There isnt that real energetic exchange. You can play it as an actor, right? But I cant feel your waves. I cant feel your heart over this. And thats so much of what being an actor is. It really sucks that weve gotten to this point. I cant remember the last time I auditioned in a room for anything. The last handful of things Ive gotten cast for have been over [Zoom]. You show up to work, and all of these people are cast off of a camera at the house, and you get to meet them for the first time in person. Its not just the actors meeting each other, its the directors meeting the actors for the first time. Its everybody meeting everybody together for the first time. It either works or it does not at all, and Ive been on sets where both of those things are true. Its weird. Its a weird time.

READ THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE

Nico Tortorella talk about City On Fire on AppleTV+

EXCLUSIVE: Nico Tortorella (Younger, The Walking Dead: World Beyond), Juan Pablo Di Pace (Fuller House, Mamma Mia!), Emmy nominee Carl Clemons-Hopkins (Hacks, Candyman) and Emily Hampshire (Schitts Creek, Chapelwaite) have signed on to star in The Mattachine Family, a drama executive produced by Zach Braff (Going in Style, Garden State). The film is currently in production.

The first feature from video and commercial director Andy Vallentine centers on the relationship between Thomas (Tortorella) and Oscar (Di Pace). While the pair are very much in love, they find, after their first foster child returns to his birth mother, that they have different ideas about what it means to make a family.

Vallentine is directing from a script by his husband Danny Vallentine, which is based on a story by the pair.

Jake Choi (Lust Life Love, Single Parents), Annie Funke (This Is Us, Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders), Heather Matarazzo (The Princess Diaries, Welcome to the Dollhouse) and Cloie Wyatt Taylor (Yes Day, Shameless) will round out the cast of the film, which Andy Vallentine is producing with Mike Diaz, Scot Boland, Siddharth Ganji and Cameron Hutchison.

Source: Deadline

AMCs Untitled Third Walking Dead Series is untitled no more. Franchise overlord Scott M. Gimple announced on social media Sunday that the latest offshoot will be called The Walking Dead: World Beyond.

Ive been working with a lot of talented people to bring you a brand new world of the Walking Dead, Gimple shared on Instagram alongside a photo of the cover of the script for the premiere episode (which bears the title Brave.)

AMC also revealed that Julia Ormond has joined the cast as Elizabeth, the charismatic leader of a large, sophisticated and formidable force (get a first look at her in the new trailer below).

The newest TWD drama, co-created by Gimple and showrunner Matt Negrete and Scott M. Gimple, takes place a decade after the start of the zombie apocalypse and focuses on two young female protagonists, a pair of survivors played by Alexa Mansour (The Resident) and Aliyah Royale (The Red Line).