These days, it’s near impossible to scroll through social media and not see a joke or anecdote from Caleb Hearon going viral. And thank goodness for that!

Over the past few years, the multi-hyphenate comedian-actor-writer has made a name for himself with hilariously frank podcast appearances and frankly hilarious stand-up, becoming nothing short of an internet darling in the process.

And though he’s already got some notable screen credits under his belt—from Jurassic World Dominion to the Fargo TV series—his latest scene-stealing role in the rom-com Sweethearts makes it clear that Hearon is just getting started.

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The film follows life-long friends Jamie (Kiernan Shipka) and Ben (Nico Hiraga) who moved away to college and are only now realizing they need ends things with their respective long-distance high school sweethearts. So, they concoct a plan to do it while everyone’s back in their hometown for Thanksgiving break.

Meanwhile, Hearon plays their gay bestie Palmer who deferred college for a year to work at a patisserie in Paris, now returning home for the holiday to come out to all the people he grew up with and show everyone how cool his European life is.

While the entire ensemble (which also features faves like Joel Kim Booster, Tramell Tillman & Miles Gutierrez- Riley) is charming, it’s in Palmer’s story that queer audiences will find a surprising resonance: Are we too eager to leave our hometowns behind? Do we judge those that do stick around a little too harshly? Are we putting up walls to protect ourselves before we even take a chance to let others in?

Those are all questions Hearon’s familiar with, too, having grown up in small-town Missouri knowing he was gay, but only coming out years later after moving away. He sees a lot of himself in Palmer, and there’s a good chance you might too.

With Sweethearts streaming on Max this coming Thanksgiving weekend (Nov. 28, to be exact), it was the perfect opportunity to have Hearon in the hot-seat for our rapid-fire Q&A series, Dishin’ It . In our conversation, the star opens up about his own complicated relationship with his hometown, the underrepresented holiday movie he’d like to see, and that time a story he told on his hit podcast So True came back to bite him in the ass.

Is there a piece of media—whether a movie, TV series, book, album, theater, video game, etc…—that has played an important role in your understanding of queerness and the queer community? Why does it stand out to you?

The thing that immediately comes to mind—you know, it’s so funny, before you specified the queer angle, I just could not stop thinking of the Fly album by The Chicks, and that does feel inherent to my queerness in a way, like really looking up to women—and women in country specifically—was very inherent to my queerness.

But Moonlight ! The themes on masculinity and uncertainty, and how those early romantic experiences really stick with you through your life—I think, for so many queer people, the first romantic experiences you have, the unrequited ones, or the ones that were kind of something but you weren’t sure, those really are formative for us, and they stick with us for so long. Yeah, that movie’s so beautiful, and I think about that a lot when I think about queerness.

If your Sweethearts character, Palmer, were a real person—and not, you know, a character played by you—do you think you two would be friends? What do you have in common, and/or what might you disagree on?

You know, I would probably be a little annoyed with Palmer at this point. Palmer’s a little… he’s still figuring it out! You have grace for younger queer people, of course, but the people that annoy you the most in the world are mirroring yourself back to you, and I was Palmer at that age. Like, I was a little pretentious, a little figuring it out.

So, I think if I were to meet Palmer right now, I’d be like, “Oh god, come on, let’s skip to the part where you’re cool.” Because I do find him cool, but I do find his pretentiousness and his insistence that moving to Paris makes him better than where he’s from, I do find those very unattractive qualities. I do have a lot of grace for him because he’s a child. [Laugh.] But, obviously, [I have] so much in common with him, and I really feel like that’s who I was at that age as well. I think we would really vibe. I think Palmer probably has great taste in music, and I feel like I actually would like going to one of Palmer’s parties—I like a party with intention!

Do you have any fond—or not-so-fond memories—of coming back to your hometown after moving away to for college? Or maybe traveling back home after you moved away to Chicago? What were those experiences like for you?

I think a big realization for me getting away from my hometown was realizing that other people weren’t holding me back as much as my perception of myself was. And so I think having more grace for where I’m from, and the people where I’m from, and understanding that a lot of that was my own perceived internal fears of what they might think of me before I even gave them a chance to form an opinion—I think some queer people from really small towns like mine will understand that sentiment.

But I have a lot of good memories. When you really start to figure yourself out, going home gets so exciting because you’re like, “Oh man, I can’t wait to revisit this place now as a person who everything that used to have power over me, the perception of who I am in this space—it doesn’t matter anymore.” I know who I am and I like me, so going back can just be fun. I’m not scared of what some f*cking guy I went to high school with thinks of me. It’s like, I love my life, and if you don’t that’s your thing.

Going home as a powerful, self possessed person—when you weren’t necessarily that as a kid—it’s exciting and fun to me.

Somewhat inspired by that, even though you didn’t technically grow up in Kansas City, there’s a tweet that’s been going around that says, “ caleb hearon’s podcast makes kansas city feel like the amalfi coast like i wanna go so bad .” What is it about the city that make you want to sing its praises?

People keep bringing this up! I’m actually off Twitter, but a friend sent it to me, and I sent it to some of my friends in Kansas City, and I was like, “LOL, we’re working on the brand!” But, yeah, I do love Kansas City! It’s beautiful, it’s spacious, it’s green, the people are nice, the food’s amazing. I grew up in very, very rural Missouri, but Kansas City kind of became my [place.] As many queer kids do, as soon as I got a driver’s license, I was like, “I gotta go somewhere with a gay bar and some Thai food!” So, I started going to Kansas City and then moved back there later on. I f*cking love Kansas City.

It’s like every day a new video of you or a new clip from So True or another podcast you’ve guested on goes viral. For lack of a better way to put this, have any of those moments come back to haunt you in any specific way? Like, was a joke you made or something you said referenced at an inopportune time, or maybe someone recognized you somewhere strange?

Every single week of my life, something occurs that I’m like, “Why am I in this?” Literally, right now, as we speak, I’m getting lit up online because I told a story about how I asked someone to change seats with me on a plane so I could sit next to my friend. And people are so mad at me about this, but I’d always change for people!

I’ll tell you an even better one. [Laughs.] I mentioned on a podcast once: I took multiple dates in a week to the same bar. I went on dates with a couple different guys—it was a lesbian bar, and it’s nice to take gay guy dates to lesbian bars because, well, we’re going to be really focused up, aren’t we? I took multiple guys, and when I went in the second or third night, the bartender kind of gave my game away, like, “good to see you again!” She kind of said it in a way that was [acknowledging] I was in there with another guy and I was like, “Girl, what are we doing?”

So I told this story on a podcast—all with love, she didn’t do anything wrong, and it’s also not like some big secret that I went on multiple dates. I’m a single guy! But I told this story like, “Oh, she she sold me out, she f*cked up the bro code!” And then I was at that bar again recently and she came over to grab a drink or something, and she was like, “Do you guys need anything?” And I said, “No, we’re good.” Then she’s like, “Cool, I just don’t want to end up on the podcast again.” Queen! Absolutely. I was red in the face. I was humiliated. So, yeah, my little podcast gets me in a lot of trouble, but you know, we’re doing what we’re doing.

Sweethearts joins the all-too-small cinematic canon of “Thanksgiving movies,” but if you could make a movie set during another underrepresented holiday, what would it be & why?

Oh god, if I could make one set on another holiday: I find St Patrick’s Day to be a horrifying holiday. I don’t like when white people get together and start chanting and drinking and things like that. So I would make a horror movie about the fright that can be a group of white people getting drunk in public. We’ll do a horror movie on St Patrick’s Day. I don’t know if you’ve been in Chicago on a St Patrick’s Day, but it’ll shake the constitution of a very strong person. It’s very scary.

Who from this cast would you trust to host the best “petite soirée” and why?

Nico Hiraga! I do not know a person who is more interested in making a party fun than Nico. Nico and [his character] Ben have a lot in common, but Nico is quite a bit smoother and I would say a little more self-confident, but just as sweet, just as sensitive. Nico throws a good party.

Who is a queer or trans artist/performer/creator that you think is doing really cool work right now? Why are they someone we should all be paying attention to?

Yeah, so many! It almost makes me feel like the responsibility is to pick someone who’s maybe not getting their flowers, which is not a bad thing at all. That’s great, you know, there are so many funny queer comedians right now that come to mind: Sureni Weerasekera , a great New York stand up, who’s queer and very, very, very funny.

In a different lane, I would say, somebody who is getting their flowers: Justin Tranter . We love Justin, one of the greatest living songwriters, queer icon, a mother to many—I love them. Our Lady J I think is one of our greatest writers and queer minds right now, a mother to many.

Look, queer people are the culture, and we always have been. And I think, especially right now, when a bunch of bigoted freaks with kind of fascistic ideologies are taking over multiple levels of the government, and they have a real bent against queer people, I think now it’s really important that we are making our art out loud and coming out and being loud and proud. I think there’s a little bit of a propensity right now towards not coming out and not using labels, but I think we just don’t have the luxury. We don’t have the privilege. I think being out right now is so important.

See Caleb Hearon in Sweethearts , streaming exclusively on Max beginning Nov. 28. New episodes of his podcast So True With Caleb Hearon drop every Thursday on all major podcasting platforms.

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