βOf course, one wants orgasmic lifeβ: Bruce Joel Rubin on Ghost, gay identity and goldfish
The Oscar-winning screenwriter says he has always been gay, but is only now going public. At 81, he reflects on LSD, gurus and falling out with Whoopi Goldberg
When Bruce Joel Rubin was writing Ghost, he didnβt think about the Oscars it might win (two, including one for him) or the money it would make (more than $500m). Instead, he drew on an intimate moment from his past. When Molly, played by Demi Moore, tells her boyfriend Sam (Patrick Swayze) that she loves him, all he can say in return is: βDitto.β Back in his college days, Rubin was the ditto guy, unable to echo his then-girlfriendβs heartfelt sentiment. But for an unusual reason: he was gay.
βIβve never not been gay,β says the genial 81-year-old from his home in a leafy part of upstate New York, where the trees are crowding at the window behind him. βI am fully gay, and I always knew it.β This will not come as a shock to his wife, Blanche, who has known about his sexuality for more than 50 years, nor to their children and grandchildren, to whom Rubin came out more recently. Now he is making it public in his memoir, Itβs Only a Movie. βI donβt like that I was closeted for so long,β he says. βBut it would just have confused people.β Why spill the beans at all? βI didnβt want to leave this world with any secrets.ββ
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