by Mia Phillips
Five years ago, Murray Barlett found himself at a crossroads in his career. He felt that to be a working actor, you must live in either L.A. or New York to be conveniently available for bookings. After visiting Provincetown during the summer of 2018, he decided he would rather live on Cape Cod.
“I knew that I wanted to shift my life and live in nature and live in a beautiful place like this. I knew that it would be really good for me as a person,” says Bartlett.
He was scared what the move would mean for his career prospects, and even came to terms with the possibility that living here would mean stepping away from the acting world. “It was a bold move, and it may have meant the end of my work as an actor,” he says. However, the opposite occurred, and shortly after he settled into his new home, Bartlett booked his role on the first season of The White Lotus. “My work life expanded in this completely surprising and wonderful way,” he reflects.
Now, Bartlett gets to celebrate all the wonderful changes that the Outer Cape has brought into his life these past five years, both personally and professionally. And at this year’s Provincetown International Film Festival, he is being presented with the Excellence in Acting Award.
“Being recognized in the place that you adore, by a community that you adore, by a film festival that you love, it doesn’t get much better than that,” Bartlett says.
Bartlett has become known as an actor who predominately embodies queer characters. From the slightly neurotic hotel manager in The White Lotus, to the gay best friend on Sex and the City, and now the hunky cowboy in the new film, Ponyboi. Written by and starring River Gallo, who will also receive an award here this week, Ponyboi will screen at this year’s Festival.
Bartlett was at the Tribeca Film Festival when he saw Gallo’s short film version of the project. “It blew me away,” he says. “I thought it was so special.” So, when the short became a feature length film, Bartlett jumped at the opportunity to get involved.
The connection between Bartlett and Gallo came about in a rather unconventional manner. “Weirdly, I was trying to make a short film and trying to get in touch with River,” he recalls. “I went onto their Facebook and there was an option to press call. And I called. River picked up and was like, ‘Hello?” Barlett says with a laugh. “I was so taken by them that I even went so far as to call them through Facebook, with the risk of being seen as a stalker.”
In Ponyboi, Gallo plays a young intersex sex worker navigating life in New Jersey while dreaming of escape. Barlett plays a mysterious cowboy figure who enters Ponyboi’s life and guides him through a treacherous Valentine’s Day. “From my perspective, he’s this cowboy, this sort of fantasy cowboy,” Bartlett explains. “On one hand, he embodies a freewheeling, free-spirited part of Ponyboi. But he’s also an ironic sort of ideal masculine figure-one that could whisk you away.” That duality was something Bartlett leaned into with intention. He expands on this, saying, “I wanted to lean into that archetype, the cowboy that makes you feel safe, like they could take you away from your troubles.”
What makes Ponyboi so powerful is its foundation in lived experience, specifically River Gallo’s lived experience. “Because of that, it was very personal. And I instantly had a personal connection with the story, too. It’s a story about finding yourself and dealing with identity and sexuality, which I think we can all relate to.” It was that shared personal connection to the film that made the collaboration between Bartlett and Gallo so magnetic. “When you’re both bringing that, when you’re working together, it’s like a real electricity, fired by these very personal feelings. It felt very charged,” Barlett says.
For Bartlett, the film resonated with his own experiences of feeling like he didn’t fit in and feelings of otherness. When he watched the short film version of Ponyboi in 2019, he felt forced to confront the pressures he felt regarding his own masculinity and femininity. He walked away from the screening feeling that “over time, we have to break away from those expectations to really be ourselves.”
Although the themes in Ponyboi are intensely personal, Bartlett sees them as universal. He hopes that audiences who attend the screening connect with both the emotion and the artistry of the film. “There are great performances, it’s beautiful to look at, but ultimately, I hope people respond to the emotional core. That feeling of finding your way and finding a community that embraces and supports you.”
On the Outer Cape, Bartlett has found that community—one that provided as a vacation destination while he maintained residence in New York to support his career, but when he needed to choose himself, it proved to be an estuary for growth he never saw coming. Bartlett’s award at this year’s film festival, doesn’t just represent his talent in the craft of acting, it represents a full-circle moment.
Murray Bartlett will receive the Excellence in Acting Award at a live conversation with producer Christine Vachon as part of the Provincetown International Film Festival on Saturday, June 14, 4 p.m. The film Ponyboi will screen in the Festival on Friday, June 13, 1:30 p.m. Both events take place at Provincetown Town Hall, 260 Commercial St. For tickets and information, call 508.487.3456, go to the box office, located at 229 Commercial St., or visit provincetownfilm.org.
