Searchlight Pictures has just announced that Joel Kim Booster is partnering with them again. This comes after the success of his 2022 queer rom-com “Fire Island” which was nominated for several awards.
Booster’s latest project revolves around the character of a gay best friend who is tasked with making sure his best friend’s wedding goes off without a hitch.
However, Booster is looking to move beyond playing the “gay best friend” in future projects.
He shares on this week’s episode of the “Just for Variety” podcast, “I know that there are a couple more gay best friends in my future, I will play them gladly. But my threshold for the level of project that I will be willing to play a gay best friend in shifted greatly in the last couple of years. I’ll be the prestige gay best friend, but I’m not going to do a web series about it.”
Outside of this new script, Booster’s latest project is “Chrissy & Dave Dine Out,” which is a new Freeform series created by Chrissy Teigen and celebrity chef Dave Chang. The show allows viewers to explore some of their favorite Los Angeles restaurants hosted by Booster and celebrity guests such as Jimmy Kimmel, Simu Liu, Regina Hall and “Fire Island” actor Matt Rogers.
The dinner party conversations are not just about food. Booster and the guests engage in discussions about race, family and sexuality.
Booster shares, “Chrissy had the ear piece, producers were feeding her where we needed to go and what they needed to talk about. And I did not have an ear piece. It was just whatever I wanted to ask and whatever I wanted to talk about completely derailing whatever the producers were going for at any given point in time. But I’m just a naturally curious person. I’m curious about people’s lives. I’m curious about the ins and outs of their experiences. I think that really made me a pretty good fit for the vibe that they wanted to create on the show.”
The vibe is talk show roundtable. When asked if he would like to host a talk show one day, Booster replies, “I think there’s a whole cadre of gay guys gunning for Andy Cohen’s job. I think I’d have to fucking behead Matt Rogers for that.”
“But yeah, I love to chat,” Booster continues. “It certainly would be an easy job for me to do. I’m in this position in my career now where I feel like a lot of people assume that it’s whatever I want to do next, but I’m still very much like, I will take the meeting. I will say yes. I am still at the mercy of what the industry wants me to do right now, too.”
I talked to Booster the morning after the Emmys, where “Fire Island” was nominated for best TV movie. Is hosting awards shows on his bucket list?