We chat with author Philip Ellis about his swoony star-crossed lovers romance We Could Be Heroes, which follows Patrick Lake, a movie star famous for playing a tough male superhero, who falls in love with Will Wright, a local part-time drag queen, while filming his blockbuster sequel.
Tell us what WE COULD BE HEROES is about!
We Could Be Heroes is a big gay romantic comedy about Patrick, a closeted movie star, and Will, the small-town drag queen he meets by chance while filming a new superhero movie in England. Sparks fly between them, so Will signs an NDA and embarks on a secret relationship with his dream man—but it’s not long before the real world begins to intrude on their fantasy.
This book is an inside peek behind the movie industry, and what the inner workings of a movie franchise looks like. Did you do any research on the industry before you started writing?
In my day job at Men’s Health, I have closely covered the Marvel and DC industrial complex, as well as the musclebound men who take centre-stage, all of which turned out to be invaluable homework when I sat down to write We Could Be Heroes. And it’s all still there in my head: I swear I have forgotten more than most people will ever know about the Chrises Hemsworth, Evans, Pine and Pratt.
Patrick first meets Will while he’s performing at a drag show. What first draws Patrick to Will, and how does their relationship evolve throughout the novel?
Despite his fame and success, Patrick lives an incredibly constrained life where he’s not able to be fully himself. Will, by comparison, is outlandish, slightly ridiculous, and unapologetically marches to his own beat. It’s a common gay experience to be attracted to qualities in men that you wish you had: Patrick is intoxicated by Will’s freedom, while Will can’t resist the stereotypically masculine Patrick. As the two men grow closer, their romance mirrors many relationships I’ve had, where you begin to almost speak in the other person’s voice. The trick, in this story as in life, is to not lose yourself in the whirlwind.
As much as We Could Be Heroes is a fun romance, it also centers around the serious attacks drag culture has been facing. Why was it important for you to include this in your stories?
I was halfway through the first draft of the novel when I read a news story about the drag queen Nina West being doxed by right-wingers. Shortly after, I saw a video of protestors in the United States showing up with guns outside a library at story time. It would have been disingenuous to write an ode to the art and magic of drag without acknowledging that these queens are often the first and easiest targets of homophobia and transphobia, and that these attacks are a symptom of something still insidiously, deeply rooted in mainstream culture. When you’re a white cis gay man, it’s easy to be complacent and think that we’ve “made it,” but the state of LGBTQ+ rights is as precarious now as it ever was.
This story is filled with many fun and quirky characters. Who did you have the most fun writing?
I have a soft spot for Will’s inner circle, but ultimately I had to keep his world relatively grounded. The character I had the most fun writing was Audra Kelly, Patrick’s friend and castmate, who embodies the glamorous Hollywood movie star side of the story. Audra began as quite a broad “daffy actress” caricature—think Lina Lamont from Singin’ in the Rain—but the more time I spent with her, the more idiosyncratic she became. So often when writing commercial fiction, the pressure is on to make your characters “relatable”: Audra would rather die than be relatable.
What do you hope readers take away from reading We Could Be Heroes?
First and foremost, I just want readers to have a good time with these characters: it’s a love letter to the LGBTQ+ community and to queer joy. If I have a “message” beyond that, I suppose it’s the importance of connection, especially for marginalized people. Patrick and Will are each alone in their own ways at the start of the story, and it’s only when they learn to start leaning on the people around them and asking for what they need that they both become who they truly are—and can start to be there for others.
What is your favorite rom-com? And what books or movies did you look to for inspiration while writing?
Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall is a fake-dating farce which made me snort-laugh, and which I still think about. It scratched the itch I’d had ever since finishing Red, White & Royal Blue, and for me it is the gold standard by which all other queer romcoms should be judged. And like a great many people, I immensely enjoyed Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld last year: I’ve learned just how hard it is to write a rich, handsome celebrity love interest you can really root for, and Sittenfeld nailed it. While writing the chapters set in a drag bar, I looked to the backstage vs. onstage antics of films like Shakespeare in Love and Moulin Rouge! in order to evoke as much colour and life as possible. We Could Be Heroes also includes a dual timeline, which was hugely inspired by Michael Chabon’s epic superhero novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and Margaret Atwood’s story-within-a-story The Blind Assassin: two of the most exquisite novels you will ever read.
Share a bit about your writing process. What is your writing routine like?
I start every project with a lot of writing by hand: scribbling down my thoughts and ideas about characters and scenes helps me get to grips with what is usually a very simplistic central premise, like “wedding heist” or “superhero romance.” By the time I open my laptop, I have at least some idea of who my main characters are, and the first draft becomes all about sending them through the broad strokes the plot and seeing what does and doesn’t work. I don’t have a specific routine in terms of what time of day I write, but I do need some kind of background noise: the buzz of a coffee shop, or a good playlist in my home office.
What are you working on next?
I’m currently outlining a globetrotting romantic caper. There’s some fantasy involved this time, but the assignment remains much the same: an escapist screwball romp that you can take to the beach!
