Actor Brandon Flynn, best known for his roles in 13 Reasons Why, True Detective, and Manhunt, has been cast as a closeted James Dean in Willie & Jimmy Dean, based on William Bast’s memoir “Surviving James Dean.”
The memoir recounts Bast’s first meeting with Dean at UCLA, where the two became roommates and, eventually, secret lovers during the early years of Dean’s stardom.
While Dean maintained public relationships with women, Bast claimed they kept their romance private to protect Dean’s career, remaining hopeful they’d one day build a life together, hopes that ended abruptly when Dean died in a car crash in 1955 at just 24.
The film will explore Bast and Dean’s five-year love affair set against the backdrop of Hollywood’s golden age.
The Double Life of Hollywood Legends
Willie & Jimmy Dean explores the shadowed desires of Dean, whose sexuality is often the subject of debate amongst film buffs, Hollywood historians, and biographers.
While we may never have confirmation of Dean’s intimate affairs, his contemporaries included other closeted icons, such as Rock Hudson, Tab Hunter, Anthony Perkins, and Montgomery Clift.
Portraying a real-life icon might be daunting, but this isn’t Flynn’s first time stepping into a role that blurs the line between public and private persona. He recently portrayed Marlon Brando, another 1950s legend with a complicated sexual history, in the stage production of “Kowalski.”
But unlike Dean, Brando openly identified as bisexual and admitted to same-sex relationships. He said, “Homosexuality is so much in fashion, it no longer makes news. Like a large number of men, I, too, have had homosexual experiences, and I am not ashamed. I have never paid much attention to what people think about me.”
James Dean 2.0
This isn’t the first time Dean’s life has been retold through a queer lens.
In 2012, the independent film Joshua Tree, 1951: A Portrait of James Dean explored the actors’ bisexual experiences. Documentaries like James Dean: The Final Day and James Dean: Outside the Lines reveal details about the possibility of his secret romances.
But the Guy Guido‑directed project will be the first and fullest exploration of Dean’s intimate relationships, directly retelling his romantic entanglement with Bast in a way we’ve never seen before.
Guido told The Hollywood Reporter, “It’s a tender and sometimes tragic story about two young men who found each other in a time and place where being seen, truly seen, came at a cost.”
As an out gay actor, Flynn will bring a unique and authentic voice to one of Hollywood’s most famous leading men who might never have been able to speak his truth.
