Photo Credit: Jacob Yakob, courtesy of Strand Releasing

For Marco Calvani, making the Provincetown-set drama High Tide was nothing short of a sea change.

The intimate, evocative film—Calvani’s feature directorial debut—follows undocumented Brazilian immigrant Lourenço (Marco Pigossi) who’s been ghosted by his partner and his now searching for purpose in P-town, living in America on borrowed time. It’s not until an unexpected romance with vacationer Maurice (James Bland) that he begins to realize their might be something worth sticking around for.

Refreshingly direct and small-scale (Marisa Tomei, Bill Irwin, and Mya Taylor play the few other characters in Lourenço’s orbit), High Tide isn’t trying to lure audiences with a big concept—it’s simply the story of two strangers connecting in a strange paradise. There are no plot twists here.

In fact, the movie’s biggest “plot twist” might be how it completely changed Calvani’s life. At least, that’s how he sees it. Born in Tuscany, the Italian multi-hyphenate trained to be an actor from a young age, but soon found his passion in writing and directing, specifically for the stage. As his theater career took off—earning accolades and acclaim across the international scene—he eventually moved to the NYC, and acting fell by the wayside.

Then 2020 came along and Calvani wasn’t sure he’d ever get the chance to make theater again. Already tinkering with a film idea that could speak to his experiences as a gay immigrant in America, inspiration struck when he took a trip to Provincetown without a return date, eager to escape the claustrophobic feeling of the city.

In his view, the historic queer mecca—largely a vacation town where folks are always coming and going—was the perfect setting for his story: A place where connections with others come easy, but with a sequestered and ever-shifting culture that can make it difficult to take root with anyone, or anything.

Then, Calvani met Pigossi, a Brazilian actor who made a name for himself playing a gay character in popular telenovela Caras & Bocas, but who wasn’t publicly out himself. As the two began to fall in love, the filmmaker was just waiting for the right time to ask if Pigossi would want to star in his movie.

A few years later, Calvani and Pigossi are happily married, and are ready to share High Tide—their “baby”—with the world. But more than just bringing him closer to the love of his life, the writer-director also believes the film helped him fully accept himself, both as a gay man and as an artist with something to say.

As High Tide begins its rollout in U.S. theaters (courtesy of Strand Releasing) Queerty spoke with Marco Calvani about pouring himself—his full, queer self—into High Tide, how he popped the question to Pigossi on the final day on set, and how his journey with the film made it possible for him to return to acting in a big way: Opposite Colman Domingo in Tina Fey and Netflix‘s highly anticipated TV adaptation of The Four Seasons.

With High Tide now playing in select theaters, read our interview with Calvani below:

Image Credit: ‘High Tide,’ Strand Releasing

Marco, it’s so lovely to meet you—you’re an accomplished playwright, director, actor, and you’ve previously made a few short films, too. Considering the breadth of your experience, can you tell me about the genesis of High Tide and why this felt right to explore as your first feature film?

I didn’t know this was going to be my first feature, and that is the most beautiful surprise. I have always loved cinema, and I knew that I was going to make a movie at some point, but for many, many reasons—after 20 years of playwriting and directing for theater—the things you’re used to just feel more comfortable and more accessible. So, every new story that I was conceiving, it was immediately for the stage.

And then, one day… I got bit by the filmmaking bug. I made a short film, and then I got offered to write one feature film in France and another one here while I was still working on a play—so it was a lot and nothing at the same time! And I couldn’t really finish anything until the pandemic hit. After the first month, I realized theater wasn’t happening. And that’s when this idea of High Tide came to me.

I believe, because of the pandemic, I was really gifted with this space and time and to reflect on things differently, and I knew I had to write something that was—for the very first time—celebrating the totality of the truth of who I am, which is a queer man. I’ve been a free, gay man all my life, but I never really realized how much homophobia I was really carrying inside, especially being born in a very conservative family and country.

Related*

When I started to write High Tide, I knew immediately it would be about an interracial couple, but also something that, at its core, is so delicate. These things are very urgent and timely and heavy in a way, but it’s a also a very vulnerable, fragile film. It’s about feelings more than anything else—it’s not a movie that has a plot twist—it demands the attention to focus on the subtext, on the feelings, on the unsaid.

So maybe the “plot twist” was really in my life, you know? [Laughs.] Artistically, personally, emotionally—I’m glad this interview is happening now and not four years ago, because I had no idea what I was going through! But now I can see that I was also seeking a transformation, some kind of a passage from the man and the artist that I used to be to the gay man that I was often pushing away. [A transformation] from the way I was not just dealing with myself, but with the gay community, and the way I was in relationships, the way that I was dealing with sex, and with all those deeper emotions. I really needed to find a different way of loving myself first. In the end, that is also what Lourenço is going through.

Image Credit: ‘High Tide,’ Strand Releasing

At what point, then, did Provincetown become an essential piece of High Tide‘s story. I understand you had spent some time there prior to writing the script, right? What were your first impressions?

My very nice experience was when I went to visit some friends in 2019, and that was a huge, wonderful discovery. I had a lot of fun, to be honest, but I also spent some time by myself during that week.

And I remember the very first day I went to the gay beach, the nude beach. To get there, you have to walk through the marshes and then there’s the dunes that separate one side of the beach and the other one, which is portrayed in the film. I remember that day I saw the back of the dunes and they were full of water. Then the following day, I went back and I saw that it was completely dry—it was the tides, of course. But I thought, “Oh my god, this is so dramatic—this is a great scene in a movie!” [Laughs.]

I cherished that physical and emotional memory for a year, but I didn’t remember until I went back in 2020. [At that point] I was stuck in New York—and “stuck” really is the right word. I was in limbo, somehow, like Lourenço—in completely difference conditions, of course—it was the middle of the pandemic and I was in deep Brooklyn, but all my friends had left the city, so one said, “just come to Provincetown, we have a guest house and you can stay as long as you want.” I went there thinking I was going to stay just 10 days—I I ended up staying six months!

Related*

When I arrived, I was already writing the script, but it was set in LA, so then I was like, “God, wait, this movie needs to be in Provincetown!” The memory of the tides and things came back, and it just felt right—because the geographical position and shape of Provincetown just feels like it’s at the very end of the world somehow. It’s a very thin piece of land, it’s very hard to get there, and once you’re there, it’s very hard to leave. It’s gorgeous, but it’s isolated, so it visually translates exactly what the character is going through—and what I was going through!

I didn’t know if I was going to be an artist anymore. I didn’t know if I had to go back to Italy. It seemed like the work I had done didn’t matter anymore. So I was writing High Tide not even thinking that it was going to be produced, and that was really a true gift from the above—I was really gifted with the opportunity of writing something just for the love of it, just for the personal journey that comes with writing.

And I think this experience has reflected all 40 years [of my life] until today—like, I met my husband through it. Then the producers who came on board—Pete Shilaimon, Mikey Lidell, LD Entertainment—it was like another kind of love affair, and they fell in love with Provincetown, too. It’s something that could’ve never happened in LA, you know? And then Marisa Tomei, who became an executive producer, plus Bill Irwin, and finding James Bland—what an amazing, soulful actor. I didn’t want to say the same thing I’ve said of my husband, but I think he’s one of the greatest actors I’ve ever worked with. [Laughs.] It’s just true that everybody really, sort of fluidly jumped on board, and I just want to keep the good feelings going.

Speaking of your husband, Marco Pigossi is so fantastic in this film, and I love that your love story runs parallel to this High Tide‘s evolution. I know you were already writing the script when you two first met, but I’ve also heard that you proposed on the last day of shooting! How did that go down—did you yell, “Cut!,” and then get down on your knee to pop the question?

[Laughs.] No, I’m a romantic person—I didn’t do it in front of everybody.

But, right, first of all, when I met Marco, I was almost done with the first draft, and the character wasn’t really Brazilian yet, though he was Latino. And the first date that we had—on top of something else—we also talked a lot, and we talked about being gay in the world, and it was a really deep, thoughtful conversation. It wasn’t the exact same words or topics, but it was the same intensity that the character has with Maurice in the film. We were talking about Marco being a closeted gay man in Brazil while starring in telenovelas. And not only was it sparking my imagination for this film, but I also thought he could be great in it because he has a lot to give to this character. So I didn’t tell him anything at first, then I finished the first draft, and I gave it to him. I was like, “I think I wrote this for you.”

From then on—that was like two years before we went into production—my script became really our baby, and we raised it together. He put so much into it—like, there are some lines that really belongs to Marco because it was really his experience as a Brazilian closeted gay man. And, again, different conditions than Lourenço, but [similar] at the core.

Related*

I remember leaving Marco in Los Angeles two months before starting production to do pre-production work in Provincetown, and completely devoting myself to that without him. All of our friends were like, “Oh my god, you’re going to work together? It’s going to be terrible!” [Laughs.] But I was like, “if the experience goes well, I think this is the time I have to propose.” Because it was the end of this project for us, it’d be in Provincetown, and it just felt like a perfect… I don’t know. It’s hard to explain! It’s also hard to explain, you know, how do you know that he’s the man you want to spend the rest of your life with? You don’t know, you just feel it.

So, the experience went well, I had the rings, and that night, after doing some B-roll, he was already home, and I invited him for dinner to celebrate. Then we took a walk on the beach and I proposed! And he didn’t even say yes—he said, “When? When???” And he was crying, and I was like, “But you have to say yes.” [Laughs.] Tradition, baby!

Image Credit: ‘High Tide,’ Strand Releasing

Clearly there’s such trust between the two of you because of what he gives of himself on screen, and it’s also clear this material means as much to him as it does to you. But that trust also had to be built with James Bland, who brings so much to this film’s story as Maurice, especially as he gives Lourenço a new understanding of America and what it means to feel like an outsider. Could you tell me about finding James and developing that element of the film with him?

Right, Lourenço doesn’t even realize that Provincetown isn’t necessarily that “haven” for every—Maurice really helps him awaken to that part, and to break his dream that America is the best place in the world. And, yes, if you come from the countryside of Brazil, it certainly does have more opportunities.

But! James Bland. What a find. I fell in love the second time when I met him. As a director, when you meet the actor you wrote the character for, it’s just like, wow. And he responded so deeply and so immediately to the script that I didn’t have to convince anybody, especially him.

Related*

When I started to write, I established immediately that this was an interracial couple, and that’s in line with the kind of stories that I used to tell in theater, which were always very political and tragic, in that way. Along with the pandemic, there was finally this [reckoning] of the country’s racial injustices and its systemic racism, all which became the center of our conversations, even if you were just on a date. So many of us were finally—sadly—put in front of the truth for the very first time. So, for me, it was also a very personal awakening, too, as an immigrant. Not that I thought that America was the best place in the world, but, you know, how did we get here? It was something that I was going through, that we were going through, and I didn’t want to shy away from that.

Even in Provincetown, which is a wonderful place with great people, and it has a fantastic queer community, but it’s a human-made place, and it has its faults. Perfection doesn’t exist, but we can make it better. We are at a time where our value, and our rights, are really a stake once again. And I think we should make our communities safer for all of us. It’s a very privileged place, Provincetown—it’s very expensive, it’s not easy to get there—so I think we have work to do. I don’t expect that my film will be a “textbook” for the P-townies, but at least it helped me understand what I need in my own community.

Image Credit: ‘High Tide,’ Strand Releasing

Before we run out of time, I did want to ask about your upcoming return to acting in Netflix and Tina Fey’s new take on the comedy The Four Seasons, which will see you star opposite her, Steve Carrell, our favorite Colman Domingo, and so many other greats. You mentioned much of your past work being heavier, so was it exciting for you to do something just outright funny for a change?

I don’t even know how to explain this sudden twist in my in my career. [Laughs.] Not just genre-wise, but also I wasn’t an actor anymore. I mean, I stopped being an actor 16 years ago—and sure, I did that slowly, because it was hard, sometimes. But once I started writing and directing 20, 15 years ago, acting wasn’t… Well, everything I know about directing and writing comes from my acting training, but I wasn’t feeling it anymore in the same way.

So this really came as a wonderful gift—not wanted, not chased, not even dreamed of… but it was hard to say no, as you can imagine. I can’t believe I’m doing comedy! I’ve never written a comedy before; I didn’t know I was good at it, and I think everybody’s happy with [my work so far]? I mean, it’s very hard to be bad when you are in the room with Tina Fey, Will Forte, Steve Carell, Colman Domingo, and Kerri Kenney-Silver—it is very, very hard. So if there’s any talent there on my side, I really owe it to all of them—they are wonderful and lovely.

And, yeah, I play Colman Domingo’s husband! He’s the best partner ever; he’s just wonderful person, and I feel like the luckiest man. I mean, in 2024, I got two husbands in a month. [Laughs.] I got married to Marco Pigossi a month and a half ago, and the week later, I started shooting The Four Seasons. I’m in the thick of—we’re not even halfway through—so I hope I won’t f*ck it up! [Laughs.] But I can’t wait for the world to watch it. I think it’s very cool. I think we’re doing something very magical.

You know, hearing what High Tide has meant to you—both as an artist and personally, considering it really helped you find yourself, find your purpose, and step into your power as a queer man—I can see how it directly made something like The Four Seasons possible. It’s testament to what can happen when we embrace ourselves fully and put our all into our work.

Thank you, Cameron, thank you—you might be right [Laughs.] I mean, it makes sense in a way! I would’ve never felt comfortable to do anything like this years ago, and now I’m able to do it with grace. And it’s not like I wasn’t nervous for day one, or day two, or four, five, and six. [Laughs.] But I was like, “You know what? I just want to have fun. They believe I can be here, then I want to be here, too.” It’s a wonderful ride. Thank you for saying that; it means a lot.

And you know that I’m the Rita Moreno character in the film, right? I mean… I am Rita Moreno, in a way. Oh my god!

That’s every gay man’s dream: To be Rita Moreno.

[Laughs.] Yes, that’s right!

High Tide is currently playing in NYC, and opens in LA on Oct. 25 before rolling out to select theaters nationwide through November—you can find more information on the Strand Releasing website.

Sign up for the Queerty newsletter to stay on top of the hottest stories in LGBTQ+ entertainment, politics, and culture.

Help make sure LGBTQ+ stories are being told...

We can't rely on mainstream media to tell our stories. That's why we don't lock Queerty articles behind a paywall. Will you support our mission with a contribution today?

Once Monthly Annually

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated