‘Bookends’ Star and Writer Noam Ash on Authentic Queer and Jewish Casting and How ‘Heated Rivalry’ Could Help Sell the Film

Noam Ash was about 27 years old when he and his then-boyfriend called it quits. At the time, Ash didn’t have much money nor another place to live.

What did he do?

He moved in with his grandparents.

“I lived with them for over a year,” Ash tells me. “It was the best year, but honestly, I was so mortified and embarrassed by the whole thing. I did not want anyone to know that I lived with them. But my manager at the time thought it was hysterical. She said, ‘You have to write something about this.’ And then I did and this is the result of that.”

The this is “Bookends,” a rom-com written by and starring Ash as an aspiring novelist who finds romance with his grandparents’ doctor (Charlie Barnett) when he moves in with them after he finds out his boyfriend (Spencer Belko) is having an affair…