By Gary M. Kramer—
Out gay actor Charlie Barnett has a supporting role in Dreams in Nightmares,an engrossing drama opening September 4, 2026, about a group of queer friends, Z (Denée Benton), Tasha (Sasha Compère), and Lauren (Dezi Bing), who go on a road trip to find their missing friend, Kel (Mars Rucker).
Barnett plays Reece, Z’s partner, who is in a polyamorous relationship that includes Dionne (Malek Mouzon). He supports Z as she calls Reece from the road. Barnett delivers a warm, assured performance that is a nice contrast to the main action. Dreams in Nightmares also benefits from letting the audience sit with the film’s characters as they grapple with their emotions and determine how to move forward.
Barnett spoke with me for the San Franscisco Bay Times about playing queer characters and making Dreams in Nightmares.
Gary M. Kramer: How did you get involved in this film?
Charlie Barnett: I just finished Star Wars, and I told my team that I really wanted to do something that had a little bit of grounding and was pushing the boundaries of storytelling. I wanted to experience a different kind of environment than Star Wars, which is so epically built. I wanted something homey. Shatara [Michelle Ford, the director] reached out to my team, which is so incredibly heartwarming and humbling, because they are an incredible artist. When I read the script, I was already sunk. Denée Benton was attached to it. I was a huge Gilded Age fan. And it was something I had never done. It is important to me to show the queer experience.
Gary M. Kramer: Whereas the main characters are slightly adrift in life, Reece is a very caring, loving, and supportive partner for Z. What appealed to you about his character and what backstory did you give him?
Charlie Barnett: He’s sturdy. The academia was a big trigger. I love to work on characters beforehand, and I also love throwing things away—this isn’t serviceable; let’s lose it. Because Reece works so closely with students and is an educator, there is a patience and understanding and a willingness. In a class, each person learns a different way. If a teacher can teach one lesson, but tap into each student’s muscles, they become a powerful source of education and communication and community. That was something for Reece I wanted to initiate through all aspects of his life, both in his relationships at home and at work.
I love exploring femininity and masculinity and on the page the character and the environment of the piece are truly beautiful. People think it is a women’s story, so it’s feminine, but there is a lot of masculinity, and having a tinge of seeing someone strong in a soft way has always been of interest to me as an artist. Reece felt like a perfect embodiment of that.
Gary M. Kramer: Reece and Z are polyamorous. Can you share more about his relationship with both Z and Dionne? We get glimpses of it and what I like is how viewers can fill in their own thoughts about their relationship.
Charlie Barnett: Playing any sexual orientation or relationship structure, it’s “lead with love.” I talked with friends in either open or in poly relationships, and that is where I got a lot of inside information. The scenes we were playing, detail work wasn’t necessary. It was more showing on screen that we can all love each other in different and equal ways. That was the core that was special to me.
Gary M. Kramer: Do you gravitate to playing nice, stable queer guys, or are you concerned about being typecast in these types of roles?
Charlie Barnett: I get to balance between playing straight roles that are very different and a project where I am playing queer—a variety of queer; sometimes I’m bi. Then I will play something straight. I never really put it together that many of my queer characters are soft and gentle like me.
In Orange Is the New Black, I played a lover of one of the guards and that role is very different. It is hard not to be typecast. People know what you do, [so] they will put you in a similar vein, but I really try to reach the Viola Davis, Meryl Streep, and Jessica Chastain that each person you put on screen is different without putting on a body suit and a fake nose.
Gary M. Kramer: Do you aspire, as many actors do, to write and direct your own films or series?
Charlie Barnett: I fight it. I am a true believer in not investing deeper into this industry. I love many parts of this industry, but I despise the business side of it, even in selling yourself. As a producer, you are selling yourself and your project. As a director, you are still auditioning, and you have to earn your place—which I have a difficulty with. But from a creative sense, I cannot turn away from the fact that I feel a calling towards directing. I’ve dabbled with it, but not enough to put any titles out there yet. I don’t want to be a mogul. I am not interested in creating an empire. As much as I respect people who are doing that, I do not see that in my future, and it is not something I need. I want to have enough money to buy a farm and do some fun art and invite friends. Maybe I’m a hippie.
Gary M. Kramer: You have appeared in many queer films and TV series in the past 20 years since I first saw you in Alan Brown’s film Private Romeo fifteen years ago. Can you talk about the importance of taking on projects like Dreams in Nightmares and making Black queer art?
Charlie Barnett: It is why this script, this story, was a huge pull for me. I was adopted and I’m biracial. It presents a complicated relationship with myself and the community. Even being mixed race is incredibly beautiful. It’s an amazing blessing but it can leave [you] feeling on the bounds and not feeling you fit it. A lot of people feel that way, but it has different contexts and different lenses—that you are not accepted or can’t find your place.
This project, being so deeply infused, was like alarm bells going off in my mind. This is what you have been wanting and calling for—to be seen as part of the community and reflect in that positioning, truly, and be honored to be there and celebrate it. But also, that I do not have to work for this. That was special for me to be able to work with people and being surrounded by that. As a bigger scope it is incredibly important to me, because it is part of my life and to see those stories as reflected from a place of representation and acceptance and loving myself and the community as a whole. And as much as it is a huge part of it, we are not surrounded by it at all times. We see the darkness but also experience life instead of having to proclaim it. Only by widening that voice do we get to playing those corners.
Gary M. Kramer: While Z, Tasha, and Lauren embark on a “quintessentially American road trip,” your character stays home.
Charlie Barnett: You can call it a road trip movie, but it is so much more than that—creatively, artistically, story-wise. That’s what I love, love, love about Shatara.
Gary M. Kramer: What is a memorable road trip that you have gone on?
Charlie Barnett: I’ve been driving across this country since I was 15. I love to drive across this country, and I suggest it to people often. So many people don’t get to see the inner guts of America and I think it’s worth a visit. What’s my most memorable? The ones with my family. My sister once hit me in the face with a seatbelt and cracked a tooth! That was a memorable one.
2026© Gary M. Kramer
Gary M. Kramer is the author of “Independent Queer Cinema: Reviews and Interviews,” and the co-editor of “Directory of World Cinema: Argentina.” He teaches Short Attention Span Cinema at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute and is the moderator for Cinema Salon, a weekly film discussion group. Follow him on IG @garyemkramer
Film
Published on August 26, 2026
Recent Comments