Chief Among Them

Frontdesk by David Waggoner

Actors are always changing their professions—that is, they’re forever looking for a better role to play. One like the role that this month’s cover story—Anthony Azizi—gets to play on America’s favorite White House soap opera, Commander in Chief. When one’s character is the face of the million or more men and women who are HIV-positive in this country, then there is an added benefit—and responsibility—to play that role with even more ferocity, even more grace, and even more tenderness. Anthony Azizi more than rises to the challenge in his realization of a gay, HIV-positive individual of Middle Eastern descent who just happens to have the ear of this nation’s favorite new TV President (played by the ever-evanescent Geena Davis).

As someone with an educated perspective about the real-life pandemic in Zimbabwe or the United States, and who had been dedicating his time to ASOs long before he had even heard of Vince Taylor, Azizi brings gravitas to a character who is caught up in politics both personal and national. What is also a secret fantasy of probably millions of Americans who are affected by HIV/AIDS, is that finally there is a character who isn’t just making a one-time appearance in a hospital waiting room—he’s actually a living, thriving, and powerful person whose words and actions contain the very essence of what it means to be HIV-positive in this country. That state of grace is what I find so appealing in Azizi’s starring role.

Taking time out from a grueling production schedule of a top TV show is no small task. It would have been easier to schedule an interview with the real Chief of Staff at the White House, Andy Card. But, alas, getting to some truths about AIDS by way of a fictional character makes a lot more sense in these tragicomic times. In this era of AIDS when Congress is flatlining the AIDS budget, when more than fifty thousand Americans contract HIV every year, makes one wonder if reality itself is becoming some sick kind of stand-up comedy and that the joke of withheld support, abstinence-only advocacy, and diminishing healthcare options is on us.

America needs some comic relief—or, rather, relief from this “comedy” called AIDS apathy—and some truth serum. A word to the wise-ass king of comedy Jon Stewart (A&U, September 1995) when he hosts the 78th Academy Awards on March 5, don’t hold back on telling it like it is. Sure, we want to see who brings home the gold statues, but that doesn’t mean we can’t recognize other things besides big-budget movies with small-minded ideas and egotistical and overpaid actors who can’t do Hamlet let alone Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham. Perhaps Rachel Weisz’s Best Supporting Actress nod for her portrayal of Tessa Quayle in The Constant Gardener, which takes a fictional look at the political intrigue of pharmaceutical trials in Africa that are being fudged for profit, can encourage people to take a second look at AIDS and TB in developing nations. Perhaps Tsotsi, the South African movie up for Best Foreign Language Film, can fill in some of the gaps about how AIDS is ravaging the townships of Johannesburg as efficiently as apartheid did.

Like Azizi’s character on Commander in Chief, these portrayals of AIDS advocacy embody the tribulations and triumphs the AIDS community face every day. Our challenge is to make the connection between these people and the rather abstract numbers that get fed to us by governmental press offices. That is, we need to take Taylor, Tessa, and Tsotsi and multiply them by millions. Through the alchemy of television and film, we can turn fiction back into fact.

March 2006