Future Self

I have always gotten very excited when I see a fabulous older person.

At one point I began to wonder how they got there. And with that I began to wonder if I would end up like that. I really hoped I would. When does that journey to being a cool af oldie begin? In my early 30s I discovered that if I began the journey to becoming that oldie now, getting older becomes something exciting, not something to dread.

I began really paying attention to every excellent 60+ person I saw. I grew my hair long, because silver buns are amazing. I started collecting large stone jewellery (this is difficult and expensive), and I’m now trying to find big flowy linens.

The player character in Queer Man Peering embodies a lot of this energy. Being a femme queer in his 50’s brings such a different vibe to the usual video game male. Instead of an emotional range of stubbornly calm to aggressively angry, he’s allowed to be bubbly when things go well. And him getting grumpy isn’t being angry.

“I’ve seen enough of life to know I’m not putting up with this sh*t”.

The joy of watching this lanky fruit come to life cannot be understated. When I first animated his f*ggy little panic gesture I was screaming. Such a delight.

When I animated him kissing Darl, I couldn’t stop watching it on loop over and over again. (I realised that even after 20 years of animating (!!!) I’d not animated an intimate scene before, what a wonderful place to start!)

That filling of your heart when you see yourself (or your potential future self?) represented on screen — there’s nothing quite like it.

x Pete.