Part of This Boy’s Life

Jason Gould doesn’t like to talk about himself. Shy, nervous and circumspect, he is more than a bit ill at ease on the working-to-promote-my-movie trail. Fortunately, his latest half-hour film, “Inside Out,” a chapter in the new “Boys Life 3” series of gay-themed shorts, does some of the talking for him. The comedy-drama, which he wrote and directed, and in which he also stars, is about the difficulties of a young gay man who is the child of two celebrities and how he comes to terms with his own identity. Any resemblance to the real Jason Gould is not completely coincidental. “It’s not about me,” he insists, slyly, though he admits that a couple of the incidents in the film are based on his life.

The subject matter is certainly one about which he has firsthand experience. For those who don’t ingest infotainment shows or scan the tabloids on a regular basis, the 33-year-old Gould is the only child of a short marriage between actor Elliott Gould and the multiple hyphenate Barbra Streisand. Having grown up in the Los Angeles pop culture goldfish bowl, Gould has done his best to maintain as low a profile as is possible when one is the sole offspring of an international star whose every breath seemingly is monitored by the media.

Despite his best efforts, Gould has, over the years, found himself inadvertently drawn into the circle of unceasing attention around his mother. Around the time he co-starred in Streisand’s film “Prince of Tides,” his picture popped up in the tabloids under the headline “Jason Gould to Marry Male Model”--an incident that is documented in his film. When it’s suggested that that’s not the worst thing that could be said about him--how about “Jason Gould to Marry Chiropractor”?--he snorts. “At least I’d have some use for a chiropractor.”

While he maintains that his mother is by now inured to the floating of totally fictitious stories about herself, he was not prepared “to have that [media obsession] projected onto me,” he says. Not only was he being publicly outed, but it was in a story he says had absolutely no merit. “I’ve never been in the closet,” he says. But neither was he interested in making a formal declaration of his orientation. “Even if the story had been true, I felt like I’d been invaded.” He contemplated a lawsuit, “but it’s hard to prove malicious intent,” says Gould. So he decided to just move forward with his life--that is, until he confronted the subject head-on in “Inside Out.”

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At the time he was making the film, he says, “I didn’t consciously realize what I was doing. I wasn’t sure what the film was about, though I knew it was provocative and a little dangerous to be playing a part similar to myself--and that was exciting.”

Gould has been behind a camera since he was a child, he says, shooting 8-millimeter films and, gradually, graduating to 16-millimeter shorts. “Inside Out” was his first attempt at working in 35 millimeter. “I’ve always loved film because it’s such an expressive medium, and making this film was so much fun--every single aspect, the details, the choices.”

Shot in just a week in 17 locations on a virtually nonexistent budget, Gould says “Inside Out” was quite an ambitious undertaking, but he is satisfied with the results. “I think the story’s original and not at all cynical. It’s raw and rough in some places, and I didn’t get all the shots I wanted. Still, the story comes through. It has heart.”

Originally he was neither going to appear in the film nor ask Elliott Gould to play his father. “Then I thought that since it was going to be projected onto me anyway, it would have more impact if I was in the film as well.” He doesn’t regret the decision but confides that “I so love directing that I hated getting in front of the camera. It was hard not being able to see what was going on. It’s very demanding and quite alien not to watch the scene as it’s being played.”

One of the more amusing sequences in “Inside Out” is a fictitious encounter group of the children of celebrity moderated by Christina Crawford, the author of “Mommie Dearest,” a frank depiction of her relationship with her adoptive mother, Joan Crawford. There is no such organization, Gould says, “though there probably should be. It’s a lot of pressure to grow up in the shadow of someone who is world-famous.”

And while he is evasive about the effect it’s had on his life, he admits that when he was younger “it disturbed me deeply. I tried to avoid it as much as possible.”

A few years ago, he made a clean break, moving to New York. “I don’t find the Hollywood lifestyle compelling, and living here, one way or another, everyone’s attached to show business. It got really boring. There’s more to life, guys. There’s more to my life.”

In New York he is rarely recognized, and even if he is, “most people could [not] care less. I love the anonymity. It’s quite an asset.”

In trying to have a creative career, he realizes he’s placed himself in a double bind--he plans to move into directing features and continues to study acting. His lineage hasn’t helped him land an agent or financing. The few acting roles he’s offered are mostly gay characters, in films and on stage. The difference, he says, is that the stage roles are less stereotyped and better written.

But he’s willing to accept the downside “as long as I can continue to learn. Whatever journey I’m on, I love finding my own voice, and with this film I feel that I have, finally. For the first time, my voice comes through.”