Ep 194: Abdi Nazemian

First Draft Episode #194: Abdi Nazemian

Abdi Nazemian, TV writer, producer of films like Call Me By Your
Name, and author of Like a Love Story, The Authentics, and The
Walk-In Closet, talks about discovering gay icons in the time
before the internet, putting all your obsessions in your work,
crying in coffee shops, and writing about history from an
emotional standpoint, so we can repeat the best of it.
Links and Topics Mentioned In This Episode



Abdi’s daughter has a PJ Harvey poster in her bedroom, which
makes her the coolest seven-year-old on the block




Archie comics were what turned Abdi into a voracious reader




Andy Hardy, Christmas, and movies from the 30s and 40s were
some of the Americana that made Abdi drawn to the U.S.
culturally




Tahereh Mafi, author of the Shatter Me series, A Very Large
Expanse of Sea, Furthermore, and Whichwood (listen to
Tahereh’s episode of First Draft here)




Old TV shows like I Love Lucy were deliberately sexless




Judy Garland and Joan Crawford were two women who had public
personas, but were hiding their interior lives. Abdi was
drawn to that as a young, closeted gay man




The book How to Be Gay by David M. Halperin dives into how
certain films and people become gay icons




Tori Amos’s Boys for Pele (33 ⅓) by Amy Gentry, a book that
dives into the making of Tori Amos’s iconic album




One of Abdi’s first jobs was as an assistant in the company
founded by director Alan J. Pakula, director of Sophie’s
Choice and All the President’s Men, among other films




Abdi spent so much time reading scripts in his first jobs, he
achieved Malcolm Gladwell’s theory of becoming an expert
after spending 10,000 hours doing a thing (which Gladwell
outlines in his book, Outliers)




Abdi is obsessed with Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City
series, and feels that Maupin’s books have had the most
influence over him as a writer




Reading James Baldwin makes Abdi “want to do something else,”
because Baldwin is so intimidatingly good




Sarah suggests writing a couple pages of your finest Flannery
O’Connor rip-off and see how it feels to mimic someone else’s
voice




Tehrangeles is the word for the huge community of Iranians in
Los Angeles




Alessandra Balzer was Abdi’s editor for The Authentics, and
he knew he wanted to keep working with her




Abdi shares a quote from Hedwig and the Angry Inch writer and
star John Cameron Mitchell about putting your obsessions into
your work




The Act Up movement was pivotal to drawing attention to the
AIDS crisis




Right from “Lucky Star,” Madonna’s first song and video, Abdi
was obsessed with her




Two O.J. Simpson-focused films: O.J. Simpson: Made in America
(documentary), and The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime
Story is a good example of Abdi’s dedication to revisiting
history




Truth or Dare, the documentary about Madonna’s 1990 Blonde
Ambition tour




Some queer works that Madonna led Abdi to explore include the
historic documentary Paris is Burning, Spanish filmmaker
Pedro Almodóvar, known for Women on the Verge of a Nervous
Breakdown and Talk to Her




Abdi is obsessed with RuPaul’s Drag Race




Mommy Dearest is one of the films that RuPaul supposedly
gives contestants before they come on RuPaul’s Drag Race




Abdi is a huge fan of The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron, a
12-week program of creative exercises meant to unblock




Tidying Up with Marie Kondo, the Netflix series based on the
massively popular book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
by Marie Kondo


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