Folks who are familiar with The Transporter movies might be a bit shocked to learn (POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT) that Frank Martin (played by Jason Statham) has sex with a young Ukrainian girl named Valentina (played by Natalya Rudakova) in the latest installment of the franchise mainly because the act seems so out of character for Frank Martin. You see, according to Lou Letterier (who directed the first two Transporter movies), Frank is gay and always has been:
With Transporter 3 now in theatres, the director of the first two films is claiming the sex scenes between Transporter star Jason Statham and actress Natalya Rudakova in the latest installment are misleading — because the character Statham plays in the films is gay. Lou Letterier, who directed the first two films in the franchise, outed the character of Frank Martin in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “If you watch the movie and you know he’s gay, it becomes so much more fun. It’s so great — the first gay action movie hero!” He continued, “Action fans in general are pretty homophobic. You see these tough guys who say, ‘The Transporter, that’s such a great movie!’ If they only knew they’re really cheering for a new kind of action hero.” Letterier pointed to a scene in the second film in which a character played by model Amber Valetta makes a play for Martin, only to be rebuffed by the line “It’s because of who I am.” “That’s him coming out,” Letterier said. Though Letterier has yet to see the latest installment, which is directed by Oliver Megaton, he said he recently went back and watched the first films and realized they weren’t as gay as he had originally intended. “I was sick over the weekend and my 2 Transporters were on, so I watched them and in fact they aren’t that gay,” Leterrier wrote in an e-mail to the Times. “But it makes for fun movie legends.”
See … I knew there was a reason that I loved the Transporter movies so much. In Transporter 3, Valentina accuses Frank Martin of being “the gay” which he brutally rebuffs a couple of times … and then it is implied that couple have sex. I found that whole exchange really forced and not at all in character with the way Frank Martin usually operates in these films. To say that he is gay is also misleading … it is never really discussed and we never see Frank get romantic with anyone (except for this third movie and, as I said, we still don’t see anything happen). I quite love the idea of Frank Martin as a gay man … kickin’ ass as a bona fide action hero. It also puts all of those half-nekkid scenes of Jason Statham in fine context, I think. As I said the other day, I didn’t really love Transporter 3 … but I may have to get out my Transporter and Transporter 2 DVDs out for another look ;)
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