(CNN) — It was a fond memory that spurred filmmaker Jonathan Lisecki to what may become one of his most successful projects to date.
His film “Gayby” tells the tale of a woman and her gay best friend who decide to make a child, the old-fashioned way.
“I had the idea because there was a woman in college I had made a promise to that we would have a baby together if we ended up in our 30s and didn’t have anyone,” Lisecki told CNN during the SXSW festival. “She has a fine man right now and has a baby. I guess it was the fondness of that memory and what might have happened.”
The movie stars real life friends and actors Jenn Harris, as yoga instructor Jenn, and Matthew Wilkas, as comic book store clerk Matt (see what they did there?). The hilarity ensues as the pair forgo modern medicine in their attempt to conceive.
Lisecki said he’s not worried about backlash from the gay community over the storyline, which has a gay man sleeping with a woman.
“That’s where the comedy comes from,” he said. “There are so many absurd, silly heterosexual comedies that I was like, ‘Why can’t I make something that is absurd and silly?'”
Besides, he said, the awkward sex in the film is brief and the rest of the film is about friendship and how the pair help each other grow as adults and potential parents.
Harris said she loved the very idea of the movie and was thrilled with the opportunity to star in a feature film.
“It’s a hilarious script,” she said. “I just got to work with all my friends, so there was no way of not being 100 percent attracted to this project.”
Lisecki recognizes that the “gay best friend” has become pervasive in pop culture, what with the success of shows like “Will & Grace,” but he said he’s not sure it’s as widespread in real life as people believe.
“I always hear ‘Every woman has a gay best friend,’ but I’m not sure that is the case,” he said laughing. “I mean, my mother doesn’t.”
The film will screen at the Los Angeles Film Festival on June 16 and will have its New York premiere during Gay Pride Weekend at BAMcinemaFest in Brooklyn on June 22.
