How new gay film Departures finds comedy in trauma: ‘I used humour to deflect from sexual assault’

The opening credit of new British gay film Departures opens with a heartfelt credit. “This film is inspired by all the d**kheads that f**ked us over,” a text overlay reads. “You know who you are.”

It’s a message that sets the scene for all Departures encompasses. While at the airport en route to Amsterdam, Benji (EastEnders director Lloyd Eyre-Morgan) spots mercurial, macho hunk Jake (Hollyoaks‘ David Tag), and prays to the Gay Gods that he’s fruity. Turns out, he is. It also turns out, though, that he’s an a**hole.

Across monthly trips to Amsterdam, the pair are fuelled by frequent yet unfeeling sex and hedonistic nights out in the city’s vibrant queer scene. Yet it becomes clear that Jake is weighed down by gay shame, which he exercises through aggressive put-downs and pushing Benji away.

Benji, evidently infatuated, is crushed when Jake calls things off and returns to the heterosexual life he leads above ground. With his heart broken, he relives the past with trips back to Amsterdam which are consumed by casual sex and substance abuse. Things take a turn for the traumatic when Benji’s mental health plummets, and his nihilism leads him into some dark and dangerous situations.

Despite the heavy subject matter, Departures manages to inject enough caustic Northern humour to add a lot of light to the shade. It’s gritty, poignant, occasionally absurd but consistently entertaining: think Big Boys meets Trainspotting.

Ahead of Departures screening at BFI Flare: LGBTQ+ Film Festival this weekend (23 March), PinkNews caught up with stars Lloyd Eyre-Morgan, David Tag, and Liam Boyle, plus director Neil Ely.

Lloyd, you’re the writer, co-director, star and narrator of Departures, so how true to your life experience is the film?

Lloyd: I was definitely in a bad place when I came to Neil with the idea. Me and Neil have known each other for 12 years; we used to go out with each other 12 years ago. We both know about each other’s experiences. We put a lot of Neil’s experiences alongside my experiences and molded them together. But the first weekend we started shooting, which is the opening 10 minutes of the film, I was in a really bad place and a lot of it came from feelings I was having at the time. It was quite therapeutic, I suppose. Obviously we’ve also put it into a narrative package and made it into a story, but there’s a lot of truth in our experiences of being gay men in the 21st century.

Neil: We may have lived the experiences, but then obviously it’s taking that experience and turning it into a story and creating these characters that have their own life. There’s so many films that you watch that don’t come from authentic experiences and for me, I can spot them out and be like, yeah, the writer or the director has never really experienced that.

Obviously Departures touches on some incredibly dark themes, but it’s also very, very funny. Why did you decide to inject so much comedy into subject matter that’s so dark?

Lloyd: The comedy aspect came from Neil, because that first weekend we shot stuff, Neil was like: ‘This is so depressing!’

Neil: I do think that that comes with being – and I don’t want to create a South/North divide – but I come from a lower working class background. I still live in a council house. I think there’s a lot of humor in Northern working class people. Some of the more dark moments that happen in the film, it’s my lived experience of being sexually assaulted, but I found humor in that. Sometimes it’s the humor that gets you through. I was very grateful to find a charity called Survivors Manchester, who I’ve worked with for a long time as a survivor, but now I work for them.

I used humour to deflect from the experience for so long, but that whole experience is what happened: I did go into my own mind at the time, and had all these flashes and images that took me out of the realities of what was happening. So we discussed that and said, let’s add a comic edge to it, but without it going too far, where all of a sudden this is happening then people are going to start laughing. Originally, [a] musical number was put in there and it went from him being basically raped on a bed to it turning into a big, camp musical. We was a bit like… there is a line. We played around with it and then put the musical number on the end, and it worked much better.

At the core of Departures is a toxic, emotionally abusive relationship, which are prevalent in the LGBTQ+ community. How did you prepare to take on a role that weighty and intense?

David: I have seen a lot of toxic relationships, and I think we all are a little bit guilty of that to a certain extent. I know in the past, I could have been quite controlling and things like that, things that I’ve worked on a lot, obviously, but I almost brought my own experiences to that. I just amplified it on screen. I’ve never been in a relationship with a man before, but… when we’re on screen, a lot of this stuff that we were doing is improvised, so we almost felt like we were there, like it was real. So in those situations and with the guideline of the scripts, I didn’t really need to try that hard to be abusive – I know that sounds terrible! – but it just really flowed. 

Lloyd: I’ve been in toxic, abusive relationships, so a lot of it on the page came from real experience for me.

Neil: I will openly admit I’ve been in a relationship where I probably have been seen as the toxic person, and it’s about growing up and being accountable for your actions and making that change and working on yourself. I think we’re at a time now where to openly talk about that seems really scary, because you’re scared of people jumping on you but it’s really important to look back and to work on yourself. 

Liam, your character Kieran comes in as the sort of sweet to the bitter. No spoilers, but he offers Benji a different path. Talk to me about the necessity of your character in the film.

Liam: With Kieran, he definitely suffered with addiction problems, relationship problems. It contrasted a bit to David Tag’s character, to Jake, but it was the fact that there is freedom on the other side. Kieran looked at himself and he looked at Benji as someone who’s suffering for some reason and he just understood him without getting too protective of him. They naturally had a bond which was not through sex.

With the lived experience of using alcohol to heal the pain, it’s always nice to be able to be involved with something where we’re showing the damage that you can do when you’re in a really low place. I really appreciated the fact that we could build on that as a team and try to show everyone’s suffering in some way.

David and Lloyd, you knew each other before filming Departures. In that sense, did you need a chemistry read? The sex scenes are in abundance. 

David: We did – just off the cuff, [we] were a bit flirty, touchy-feely. Even though [Lloyd is] my friend, it just didn’t really feel weird. I bruised [him] a couple times with my fingers… my fingers were on his chest, nowhere else!

Lloyd: We did self tapes for the role and then David just smashed it out the park, and there was no one else that could do it. It wasn’t a stress or a worry.  It really helped the on-screen chemistry that we’re already mates, and [we] got each other. It felt really relaxed. We had a really good intimacy coordinator on set, Aimee Cross, [so] it all felt quite relaxed and safe.

David, you’re straight and have never played a queer role before. How was that?

David: It’s the first time I’ve ever done a role where I’ve had to kiss a man, be in a relationship with a man, so [I’m] not going to lie, going into it I felt a little bit nervous. I didn’t really know what to expect. But when it actually came down to it, it really didn’t feel any different to having an intimate scene with a girl or anything. We did our scenes, I railed the sh*t out of him, and then we [were] just like, ‘Oh, so what you having for tea tonight?’ So it was fine. It just felt really natural to be honest.

Jake doesn’t exactly come across as a redeemable character. Are there any positives you’d hope the audience can take away from him?

David: He obviously has severe abandonment issues and I’m hoping that comes across in the film. [His] and [Benji’s] relationship is: he doesn’t really know whether he wants him there or he wants him to go away, but he doesn’t want him to leave. There’s a constant battle going on in [his] head and I just want that to come across that it’s not really his fault. He had a really sh*t upbringing, and this is the way it comes out as a 40-year-old man.

Lloyd, you’ve been making queer films for well over a decade (S.A.M, Closets, Dream On). What’s the biggest change you’ve seen in LGBTQ+ cinema in that time?

Lloyd: I did my first LGBT short at university 16-17 years ago, and there was very little LGBT cinema being made. It really was niche and it was a lot harder to break into mainstream film festivals whereas now I think there’s a space for it. It’’s much more accepted on a wider scale because of things like Heartstopper. It’s not just a niche genre anymore, and it shouldn’t be hidden away. We’ll always want to make LGBT films.

Departures is playing at BFI Flare: London LGBTQ+ Film Festival on 23, 29 and 30 March.

This interview has been condensed for clarity.

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