Pedro Zamora’s life was ripe for the TV movie treatment: He immigrated from Cuba as a boy, but was separated from his older siblings who stayed behind. His mom died of cancer. He was a gay Latino boy coming of age in the late ’80s and early ’90s in Miami. And when he was diagnosed with AIDS at age 17, he rose to national prominence as an outspoken AIDS activist. But it wasn’t until he snagged a spot on the third season of MTV’s The Real World (remember when that was relevant?) that he became an indelible pop-culture icon.
And that’s also what makes the network’s decision to honor him with a biopic so strange: Um, didn’t they document his life once…on their own groundbreaking reality show? They had the key footage of the actual Pedro’s life — big, important moments like his wedding to (also HIV-positive) boyfriend Sean Sasser. As my colleague Kerrie Mitchell wisely asked: Why not just release that season — by far the show’s pinnacle — on DVD instead? Or, I would add, why not even repackage Pedro footage into its own tribute, perhaps with fresh interviews from cast mates and some unaired extra scenes?
That said, I found this mashup of standard TV movie and meta reenactment of The Real World‘s third season to be oddly mesmerizing, namely because of the latter. This could be the first of many future biopics that include incidents that happened on camera once before (anyone from Lauren Conrad to Donald Trump to Elisabeth Hasselbeck is fair game). Depicting such requires at least a little subtle commentary on the genre itself; and MTV, as usual, proudly owns the fakeness of its reality, with housemates reshooting missed dialogue, stopping what they’re doing so cameramen can reload, and admonishing Pedro to quit preaching his HIV gospel when they weren’t rolling. Can’t wait to see what we learn when the inevitable Heidi: The Price of the American Dream hits the air in 2035.
What did you think, PopWatchers? Did Pedro live up to Zamora’s legacy? Would you have preferred a more real Real World treatment of his life? What did you think of the movie’s depiction of reality TV?
I’ll reserve judgement only because Dustin Lance Black is the writer. Still, the trailer does look pretty lame. None of these actors remotely resemble any of the real life players. The guy who plays Puck is ATTRACTIVE!!! He looks like a CW pretty boy instead of the ugly pig we all know the real Puck was. Why not an amazing Season 3 REAL WORLD DVD package with extras, new interviews and tons of Pedro footage we’ve never seen before?? This just looks like another attempt by MTV to cash in on someone else’s misery.
Pedro was a touching tribute, and a great way for a new generation to be introduced to an educator and activist who sadly passed to spirit just before HIV medications became available.
He inspired me to open up about my own status, and I’m grateful to MTV for presenting his message, and how hard it was behind the scenes of that Real World season, in a tasteful manner.
Positively Yours,
Shawn Decker
http://www.mypetvirus.com
Wow, you’re extremely stupid. You act as if MTV created the biopic, which they didn’t. It was originally a sundance film, but they decided to air it on MTV a few months later (yesterday). You’re stupid, and need to learn your facts before commenting like you know everything
I thought the movie was awful. While I found it interesting to learn about Pedro’s background and how acquired AIDS and learned to use it benefit the greater good, the film poorly portrayed with terrible story editing and worse acting. Having become familiar with Judd and Pam on The Real World I was disappointed at how they were portrayed. Judd was really the leader of the housemates and here he could not have any less assertive. The actor who portrayed Pedro lacked any inspiration, gusto or zeal of the real Pedro Zamora we saw on the original show. Moments were rushed through. The story was spliced together in a mish mash of different time changes. Why start with Real World moments and then flash back to his childhood. It made no sense and carried no symbolism. It was awful. It was like watching a bad freshmen high school play. There is a better movie here; a worthy movie. A movie worthy of Pedro’s legacy.
Read fellow Real Worlder Judd Winick’s graphic novel Pedro and Me instead – far more informative and definitely a tear-jerker.
I thought the movie was a good tribute of Pedro. It brought tears to my eyes.
i really thought that the movie was touching and that it made an impact on me and how i want to use alot more precautions when having sex and who do i sleep with or mess around with, luckily i have only had two partners but i still fill the need to protect myself and get tested. i loved this movie, i wish he wasnt dead and i wish i can meet his family and tell them what a great man pedro really was, i cried so much while watching the movie, it was unbelievable. it was as if i was watching titanic all over again…lol..but no really this movie really touched me and the fact that his siter took care of him, and prayed at the end of the movie with the cup under the bed just like he did when his mother died, touched me alot…i really hope this family has closure…they should be really proud!!!!
I was extremely disturbed by this movie. This man was extremely promiscuous and most likely infected many of his partners, ultimatley causing their deaths, yet we praise him and put him on a pedesta, says a lot about the state of our country. Maybe we should do a movie about a young person who abstains from sex, or practices safe sex, and does not have hundreds of partners, random hook ups with strangers.
Particularly distrubing was when he was talking to elementary school children. If you want to teach kids the merits of safe responsible sex, it should be from someone who practices what they preach. Further, Clinton having his family brought over from Cuba? good god.
I was extremely disturbed by this movie. This man was extremely promiscuous and most likely infected many of his partners, ultimatley causing their deaths, yet we praise him and put him on a pedesta, says a lot about the state of our country. Maybe we should do a movie about a young person who abstains from sex, or practices safe sex, and does not have hundreds of partners, random hook ups with strangers.
Particularly distrubing was when he was talking to elementary school children. If you want to teach kids the merits of safe responsible sex, it should be from someone who practices what they preach. Further, Clinton having his family brought over from Cuba? good god.
i would have rather watched original footage from the san francisco season. i mean, why the need to make it a movie? you’ve got the entire story already…featuring the actual people. and watching the real pedro was much more moving and emotional. course, the real world itself was much more interesting in those days – now it’s all famewhores. ho hum. who wants to watch that? oh, that’s right, this new generation of self-absorbed kids who’ve grown up expecting that people want to watch their lives on film, no matter how unbelievably uninteresting they actually are.
I liked the movie, I’m interested in the original cast members reactions, especially Puck and Rachel who were portrayed pretty realistically.
I agree with you. I think his story would be better served by a re-releasing of the season with added content. The actors’ performances weren’t very good, except for the young lady that played Pedro’s sister. I wanted to enjoy it, but I didn’t.
Watching brought back memories . I watched it with my 3 kids and they asked if this story was true ? I told them yes , when they where toddlers at the time .for them watching was very sad and very usefull because they dont want to end up like that . it is sad he ended up that way but it is a part of life that we cant bypass thiinking it will not happen to us cause it can , God bless
To PA: Maybe you should read your facts before spewing. The movie was produced by Bunim/Murray Productions. Same people who brought you The Real World (DUH) on…guess what? MTV!
The overall movie left me uninspired. Pedro was a charismatic person; I didn’t feel that was portrayed at all. I think re-releasing the season on DVD with commentary would have done his message more justice.
Wow! It was so badly acted, I was expecting to see Steve Guttenburg or Ben Affleck pop in. You’d think the with the billions of dollards MTV has, they could afford some better actors, or at least an acting coach…or a chimp or something. 15 years later? Was this a Jr High project or something?