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For LGBTQ+ people, going home for the holidays can be especially daunting. That’s the premise of a new holiday rom-com from Netflix, Single All the Way, which offers a refreshing take on the queer Christmas story.
In the film, a character named Peter, played by Michael Urie, is going home to see his parents and is dreading the question he knows they’ll inevitably ask: whether he’s in a relationship. Peter plans to take his best friend, Nick (Philemon Chambers) and convince them they are now dating – an ideal pairing for Peter’s family, who already loves Nick.
These plans are immediately foiled when Peter’s mother (Kathy Najimy) tells Peter that she’s set him up on a blind date. Throughout the holiday season, though, Nick and Peter realize they actually have feelings for each other. (We would’ve warned you about that spoiler, but it’s a rom-com, so you should know by now.)
Urie, who is openly from Plano, oh, and queer, has played several queer characters over the course of his career, including Marc St. James on Ugly Betty and Louis McManus on the short-lived CBS original series Partners. But what drew him to Single All the Way was the fact that Peter didn’t have a traumatic backstory, nor did his family attempt to set him up with a woman.
“This guy’s problem was not that he was gay,” Urie says. “The problem was that he is single, and he’s going home for Christmas single. It’s not that his family wishes he was with a woman; his family wishes he was with a man. His family is desperate for him to find the man of my dreams. I thought that was so refreshing and so charming.”
“These are people who have been dancing with the queer community forever. … They belong in the movie. They’re breaking down boundaries, and I love it.” – Michael Urie on his costars
Single All the Way marks Netflix’s first Christmas rom-com with a story about a same sex couple, following Hulu’s cue after the success of “gay Christmas” movie Happiest Season, which centered on a couple played by Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis. But in that film, Davis’ character is in the closet, and Stewart has to pose as her roommate. The characters in Single All the Way are out and proud and simply navigating the world of holiday singlehood like the rest of us.
For Urie, it was important to show “radical queer joy” on screen, recalling how director Michael Mayer noted Netflix wanted “Christmas in every frame” during production. Urie was also elated to work as queer actor playing a queer character among other queer actors playing queer characters.
Single All the Way is also stacked with long-time outspoken LGBTQ+ allies, including Najimy, Barry Bostwick (who plays Peter’s dad) and Jennifer Coolidge, who plays the exuberant Aunt Sandy.
“These are people who have been dancing with the queer community forever,” Urie says. “They belong in the movie. They’re breaking down boundaries, and I love it.”
Whether queer, straight, trans or cis, the holidays can be a lonely time of year for single people. And repeatedly being asked for a relationship status update doesn’t help alleviate feelings of loneliness.
Urie has some advice on getting through the holidays single.
“I think single people can either lean on their chosen family or lean on their friend circle,” Urie says, “or find a couple that doesn’t make them feel single. [My partner and I] have friends who are single, and I think part of why they like hanging out with us is because we don’t make them feel like a third wheel. They’re just one of our friends.”
