Based on the iconic book series by Brent Hartinger, Geography Club is set to release this month and lead Cameron Deane Stewart spoke with YAmag about his experience playing groundbreaking YA lead, Russell Middlebrook.
The story centers on Russell and how he discovers his first love, Kevin, played by 90210‘s Justin Deeley (interview here). “Russell is an ordinary kid who doesn’t fit into any group, looking for an answer,” according to Cameron. “I think it’s hard to discover who you are no matter what in high school, and especially when you’re struggling with your sexuality it’s not any easier.”
One of the standout scenes in the film is Russell and Kevin’s first kiss. Young adults go through the highs and lows of high school, and most dream about that first kiss; often it’s some romantic love story in which prince charming rescues the dreamer from whatever bad luck is going on in life. In Geography Club director Gary Entin’s version of first kisses, it’s a lot subtler than that. Cameron speaks of what it was like smooching with costar, Justin: “Both of us knew what we wanted from the characters, he was so easy to play off of, he’s such a great guy. We didn’t want to play it up too much or too little, we just wanted to show an honest portrayal of what it might be like for these two essentially closeted guys to first discover a piece of intimacy with each other.”
More often than not, fans of a book try to imagine what it would be like to see the story on screen and feel let down by the actual results. However, in the film Geography Club, it’s hard to be disappointed because, as Cameron says, “telling a story that has such a strong message, there’s no half committing. He’s looking for love in both [the film and the book] and he finds it. He discovers who he is and that’s the most important thing. I think he’s such a strong willed character, it’s hard not to fall in love with him as an audience.”
While there are definitely a lot of changes from book to film, the message of Geography Club is still the same: “Love is universal,” Cameron states simply. “If you are a youth struggling with bulling or identifying yourself, you are not alone…there is somebody out there for you.”
Cameron will next be seen in the new CW production Star-Crossed, alongside Aimee Teegarden and Matt Lanter, and will have a recurring role on Austin and Ally. When asked what character in history he’d liked to have played, he said Peter from Jumanji. We see the resemblance!