The long-awaited James Dean biopic about his alleged gay relationship with his roommate has finally cast the lead role.
Last year, it was reported that actor Brandon Flynn would take on the role of the Rebel Without a Cause actor, and now The Hollywood Reporter has announced that Half Man star Mitchell Robertson will star as Dean’s purported lover, Bill Bast.
The film is titled One Hand Tied, a reference to the only time Dean responded to a question about his sexuality by saying, “I’m not a homosexual. But I’m not going through life with one hand tied behind my back.”
Dean’s short-lived career before his untimely death at 24 only included three films, but his life had an outsized cultural impact that can still be felt today. Dean will always be remembered for his beloved films — Rebel Without a Cause, East of Eden and Giant — and the gay rumors that have persisted long after his death despite Hollywood positioning him as a rugged heartthrob for women to lust after and men to idolize.
The film will be the first time in more than 70 years that Dean’s alleged sexuality will be explored in a film, a fact that Flynn says is explained by people still being uncomfortable with homosexuality. “The short answer is I just think the whole world is just so fucking homophobic,” Flynn, an openly gay actor himself, told Variety. “He really became the ideal masculine icon. Like hardcore, James Dean is what a real man is. But he was also emotional. I think that shakes people, especially people’s fragile heterosexuality. I think it’s important that we reveal these stories because Jimmy wasn’t the only one.”
Who is starring in ‘One Hand Tied’?
So far, only two roles have been cast for One Hand Tied: Flynn is starring as James Dean, and Robertson will play Bill Bast, Dean’s one-time college roommate and supposed lover.
The indie film will also be written and directed by Guy Guido, who previously directed the Hulu feature Madonna and the Breakfast Club.
What is ‘One Hand Tied’ about?
One Hand Tied is based on Bast’s 2006 memoir Surviving James Dean and Guido’s interview with Bast in 2011, just four years before his death. According to Bast, he met Dean at the UCLA theater program when he was 19, and the two became friends, roommates, and eventually lovers. Bast claimed that they were forced to keep their affair private to avoid hurting Dean’s career, which was plagued by gay rumors — including rumors that he had sexual relationships with closeted stars Rock Hudson and Marlon Brando — despite public relationships with female stars.
Bast and Dean’s first meeting will be the starting point for the film that will follow their relationship through to the actor’s death on Sept. 30, 1955. One Hand Tied will mainly focus on how the pair navigated their complex relationship and Bast coming to terms with his own sexuality.
“James Dean has been romanticized and mythologized for more than 70 years, and I think people have become very attached to a particular image of him: the rebellious, brooding, heterosexual heartthrob with a cigarette dangling from his mouth,” Guido told THR. “For some, the suggestion that his sexuality may have been more complex than that challenges a fantasy they’ve held onto for decades.
Still, the director said that other people are excited about seeing a more complicated version of the mysterious Hollywood heartthrob. “And that’s what really interests me,” Guido said. “I’m not looking to completely redefine him, but I am looking to explore the human being who existed beyond the mythology.”
