Kevin James Thornton on ‘Stranger Hearts’

Stranger Hearts, a new original series from filmmaker Kevin James Thornton, is now available on Dekkoo for your viewing pleasure during these difficult times of quarantine. Thoughtful, sexy, and deeply heartfelt, this series follows three queer characters from wildly different backgrounds: Andre, a young, shy, black man struggling with his identity, Luka, a gender nonconforming photographer who has fallen on hard times, and Billy, a smooth-talking, media mogul who finds his life turned upside down when he is diagnosed with an incurable heart disease.

Though they do not know it, they will soon be connected through fate, work, family love, and of course, donuts. OUT FRONT had the opportunity to chat more with Thornton about the series and how he created a story about interconnection. 

Hi, Kevin! Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me, and congrats on the release of Stranger Hearts! Without giving too much away, can you tell us more about the show and the concept behind it?
Thank you! Yes, it is a six-part series about three, pretty diverse characters within the LGBTQ community. They are complete strangers, but throughout the story, their lives start to intertwine in hopefully profound and unexpected ways. I wanted to write something within the LGBTQ community about diversity and the different types of people within that community.

Is that the primary reason why you wanted to make this series?
It’s one of the reasons, sure. Whereas the other reasons, you know, I am a queer filmmaker who is in a constant state of thinking about what I can create next. On a completely different side of it, I just reached out in my community and looked at the actors that I have willing to do something with me. So, I sort of reached out and contacted the people I knew with who I had on board, and I sort of wrote the story around them. There was a 90s movie called Crash that was kind of a light inspiration of all these different storylines that start to mix together, and I wanted to do something like that. When the cast here in Nashville started to sort of emerge, I just got excited, and I wrote it around the actors. 

So, all of these characters are based on the people that you know?
I wouldn’t say super literally. It’s a complete work of fiction, but the types of people who sort of emerged in Nashville who wanted to do something. Like one of the characters who is sort of like the wealthy businessman. Matt, who’s playing that role just kind of has that vibe. I don’t think think that’s necessarily who he is in real life. I just sort of looked at the faces and dreamed up a story.  

What do you hope people gain by watching Stranger Hearts?
I hope that people are touched and entertained. You know, I definitely am not trying to make a public service announcement about diversity or anything like that. Ultimately, I love film and TV shows that engage and move people. It is important to me to tell queer stories, but ultimately, I hope people are touched and engaged. 

You wanted to tell a story about interconnection. Have you explored this topic with your filmmaking before?
No, I haven’t. It is definitely a first.

So, why did you want to go down this road?
I think it is an important concept. Right now, the world is in a strange, strange place. There is an awareness of treating people from communities that are not our own with kindness and compassion. It’s just something that has been on my mind. It’s been important to me, so that is probably where the motivation for it comes from for me.

And a good majority of the characters are minorities. This isn’t a show focused on cis, white gay men.
It is definitely not. The three main characters, one is a sort of wealthy, cisgender, white gay man. There is another character who is throughout the show questioning their gender identity and eventually comes out as nonbinary  and trans in the show. Then, the third character is a young, African-American man who is sort of questioning his sexuality. 

Do you think the LGBTQ media focuses too much on cis, white gay men?
Yes, for sure. I mean, we are changing and learning so fast, which is a good thing, but maybe not fast enough. That’s the way it goes. For those of us, who like myself,  I am a cis, gay, white man, and I try to be as aware and in touch as I possibly can. I try to keep myself in a constant state of learning. I mean, I think that is the way it goes with progress. It’s like one group gains acceptance, and then it is time for the next people to kind of make change as well. Gay, cis, white men have sort of fought the fight 20 years ago, and it has a different face now. 

Throughout the entire process of filming Stranger Hearts, what was the number one thing you have learned?
That I need to delegate responsibility more. I don’t want to make it out like I’m a control freak; I’m definitely not, but making stuff like this is an insane undertaking. It is so much work. We definitely made it on limited resources, so I found myself, even just on set, just doing too much. The next season, I am going to do my best to get more hands involved.

But as far as like what I learned from the story, Amo, who plays the trans character, is a trans person in real life. So, I was very careful to … I did not want to be a white man trying to tell other people’s stories. It was very important to me that I did not do that because that is kind of gross. I really listened to Amo, and Amo really made that story their own. I told them what I had in mind, but they added all the truthfulness to it about that actual experience, not me. So, that was a learning experience to go through and probably the most valuable one that I think that I had in the making of the show. 

What else do you hope to accomplish with your platform as a queer filmmaker?
I want to keep telling queer stories, but also, it is important to me to tell a different kind of queer story. It is definitely happening now, but if you looked at maybe what was available in queer movies and shows 10 to 15 years ago, it was a lot of a similar kind of story, and maybe it was a lot about the struggle of coming out or the struggle of living with HIV or something. I really want to tell stories that fill out the rest of the experience. I want to tell joyful stories and love stories. The next project I am working on is sort of a weird, gay thriller. It has sort of dispensable storylines. So, I want to tell queer stories, but the kind that have not been told yet. 

Nice! Can you tell us more about this upcoming thriller we should be on the lookout for?
We plan on shooting in the summer, and it is called Monday Midnight. It has a couple of the same characters from Stranger Hearts in it.

And we can expect a season two of Stranger Hearts?
Definitely. My plan is to shoot it this coming fall. 

All episodes of Stranger Hearts are available on Dekkoo. Dekkoo is available internationally via iTunes, Google Play, Xbox, AppleTV, Xfinity X1, and Roku. In the U.S. and U.K., Dekkoo is also available via Prime Channels.