#ryanaim

I'm the same anon 👋🏻, thank you for the response. I was thinking about this earlier after I sent you the ask. I know they had to cut scenes so it would fit Sundance run time and stuff but do you think Adrian went with a 'softer' ryan in the final cut because he wasn't sure if the audience would find nuance in it or like you mentioned he trusted the audience to pick up on it without having to write it out for them. Also it makes me wonder what film people were watching when they say that could never be my ryan...cause that's the same ryan who threw rocks at Hunter (and had rocks thrown at him in return) i don't think him calling naim a slur (which in rural Australia is sadly to common) is so out of left field.

hey anon sorry for replying so late. i think it's a bit of both? i remember adrian specifically saying the bullying/more cruel scenes were cut because test audiences didn't respond to them well, but he did want some of the cruelty to linger and be picked up on. i think we get that from their first scene together where ryan mocks naim and has no problem shoving him around. honestly it's no surprise to me general audiences wouldn't respond well to the pov character's love interest participating in bullying him when leviticus' premise hinges on the strength of their connection, so it makes sense adrian would ease up on it. but also more generally i think adrian was comfortable scrapping a lot and being liberal with cuts because he's an experienced editor. he's spoken about how he wanted viewers to fill in the gaps between scenes with our own experiences. that's exactly why leviticus feels so deeply personal for so many of us--it's designed to.

and yeah oh my god. any of youse ever met an australian teenage boy?? those cunts love a slur. i'm around teenage boys a lot for work and slurs just roll off the tongue for those guys. homophobia is alive and well among the under 18 male australian demographic i can assure you. i can accept people don't want their queer film to contain slurs, but to argue it's unrealistic or out of character is just silly. but im not going to knock anyone for being happy ryan wasn't throwing the f slur around. i can appreciate it's not nice to hear, especially if you have personal trauma surrouding bullying and slurs.

I hope you enjoy!

Thank you sweetheart!!