Luke Gilford and The Cast of National Anthem

As the son of a rodeo champion, an American, an artist, and a proud gay man, Luke Gilford knows the power of symbols. In National Anthem, Gilford’s new film, which stars Charlie Plummer, Eve Lindley and Mason Alexander Park, the American flag and the anthem of this country symbolize more than just freedom. They symbolize hope, love, equality, and common bonds.

“The flag is something that’s been kind of taken by the right as a symbol, but it really is supposed to represent all of us,” Gilford says. Gilford grew up in Evergreen Colorado, following his father on the rodeo circuit. When Gilford came out as a young adult, he found that he no longer felt welcome in that community, and moved to New York to pursue a successful career as a photographer, music video and short film director. In 2016, Gilford discovered the International Gay Rodeo Association (IGRA), and it was in this world that he finely saw a place where he be could his most authentic self. “We all have to find and build our lives in this country. And there’s no straight and narrow throughline,” Gilford says. “So I think that it’s about finding our people and whatever that may look like, and loving each other.” Gilford first captured this community on film in his monograph, entitled National Anthem, which drew such overwhelmingly positive reviews that he was inspired to adapt it into a feature film. National Anthem follows a  21-year-old construction worker,  Dylan (Charlie Plummer, All The Money In The World, Spontaneous) who gets a job working at the House of Splendor Ranch, where he is welcomed into a lively community of queer and polyamorous rodeo performers, including Sky (Eve Lindley, Dispatches From Elsewhere), a dynamic and spirited trans woman with whom he forms a profound connection, and Carrie (Mason Alexander Park, The Sandman, Quantum Leap), whose support and guidance helps  Dylan find the confidence and freedom to  explore his own gender identity. National Anthem premiered at 2023 SXSW Film Festival, and audiences have been captivated by its refreshingly hopeful tone, as it celebrates safe spaces and openness.

“That’s a part of the film that I think Luke was really clear about going into the experience,” Plummer says. National Anthem offers something of an antidote to the heartbreak of the bleak tragedies we often see as the focus of films centered on the queer community. “I think, for Dylan, there was still very much an awareness of that,” Plummer says. “It’s just not something that we show through the lens of the film. And I really credit Luke for that, because it wasn’t like he was making the decision that this stuff doesn’t exist. It was more so not giving that a spotlight, and instead, giving a spotlight to something that was genuinely part of his authentic experience, in this kind of radical acceptance and the embrace of this community.” After starting in the 2017 indie darling Lean on Pete, Plummer is no stranger to working with horses, though the chance to do so again helped draw him to the project. It was also a chance to do something he’s never done before: perform in drag. “It was a dream come true, and it was also a nightmare in the moment,” Plummer says. A fan of RuPaul’s Drag Race, which he has watched many times with his younger brother, Plummer was excited and intimidated by the opportunity, as Dylan sheds his inhibitions by donning a blonde wig and red sequined dress, lip-synching to Black Velvet by Allanah Myles. “I have all of these incredible artists and performers in my mind,” Plummer says. “I’m looking at myself and going oh my god, I am light years away from these people that I’ve been watching for years and admiring for years.” One of the most emotional aspects of the sequence is the fact that Dylan’s younger brother, Cassidy (Joey DeLeon) is present at the performance, cheering Dylan on. Plummer’s own younger brother, James, an avid fan of drag performance, was able to visit the set that day and watch the scene be filmed. “I’ve always looked up to my little brother, and very much still do,” Plummer says. “So it was really, really special that that all got to connect in the way that I did.”

After years of development, and a production which took place in 2022, National Anthem is finally hitting theaters at a time when  drag performance a fiercely divisive topic, and the right to gender affirming care is being threatened. As members of the trans community, Eve Lindley and Mason Alexander Park see the release of the film as an opportunity to positively impact the discussion. “I think it does feel timely, “ Lindley says.”I think hopefully people will take something away from it that will inform how they feel about these issues.” Park, who identifies as non binary,  similarly hopes that the film will be a force for good. “What this film can do is really like draw you in and bring people together,” Park says. “I  think it’s as important for a queer audience to come and see this film as it is for a straight audience that has relatively no experience of queerness beyond maybe a family member or something, because the film is about love and compassion and, and everybody needs that at this moment in time.”

As the audience for National Anthem continues to grow, Gilford and his talented cast continue to feel a tight bond through the experience of making the film and of becoming part of such a loving community. The message of this heartfelt and beautiful film is simple yer powerful: love is love, there is hope, and there is a place out there for all of us.

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