And then as soon as he finished telling me about this he just went right back.”Ĭowan shared similar sentiment about Emmett, saying “I felt very protective of his character and rather offended by people who could only see him as a queen. He was an accountant at one of the major studios and one day we were talking, and everything dropped, and he was the most forceful, powerful person telling me about this thing. (Also, kudos to Peter Paige for "paying it forward" in terms of gay visibility by creating The Fosters, a show currently on ABC Family, and celebrated by ATX, about a family headed by two lesbians.) Said Lipman, “Emmett’s character was based on someone I knew who was a gym buddy of mine, and he painted his fingernails and toenails and he was very queeny. They both wanted Emmett to be more than a cliché, and show that this self-described "nelly bottom" had more grit and guts than you could find in the burliest of men. Similar sentiment was shared by showrunners Cowan and Lipman, who played Emmett Honeycutt, the "sassy queen" of the group. When asked about taking the job, Gale said “I had no hesitation to play that character.” His concerns with the part were much more personal, with Harold confiding that “My primary concern was not to let down friends of mine that I’d grown up with who may not have been out, but they were dear people to me, and I didn’t want to do a disservice to them.”
During the panel, the creators said that Gale Harold, the actor who played Brian, even refused to discuss his heterosexual orientation while publicizing the first season for fear of taking anything away from the audience believing in his portrayal of Brian.
#Queer as folk cast now crack#
Showing this crack in his bravado made him that much more real. He pushed away Justin, the young high schooler of the group, once he'd "had" him, only to begin falling in love with him and answering that, yes, sometimes we do get to go to prom.Įven Brian Kinney, with his motto of "No excuses, no apologies," was afraid to come out to his parents and avoided it until his father was dying. He gave sperm to his best lesbian and actually ended up being a caring father and unflagging friend. Instead, they colored him with other qualities that made him human. He had a different guy every night, and in a lesser show, could've been exactly what straight people are afraid gay men are: selfish and promiscuous, trolling for their next prey.
Very quickly, though, Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman gave all of these characters shades and dimensions of their personality that made them more rich and real than a "type.”īrian Kinney, the leader of the pack, was handsome, wealthy and put-together. The show was populated with a diverse set of characters that, at first, seemed to come from a stock of gay stereotypes. "What's everyone going to think when they FIND OUT ABOUT ME?" "What's love and what's friendship?" "Do I still get to go to prom?"Īs the seasons progressed, Queer As Folk not only addressed the changing political climate, but let the audience see how the increasingly conservative rhetoric affected gay people through this specific group of friends. When Queer As Folk's first season aired, many of the themes it dealt with (coming out at work, being out in high school, falling in love with your hot best friend) were pretty universal coming out experiences.
Ten years after the last episode aired, the ATX Television Festival got together the creators and some fan favorites from the cast to talk about the show and what it meant to them and the fans.
#Queer as folk cast now tv#
How we live, how we love, how we screw up, and how we come into adulthood, all laid out on our TV screens. Not just gay people and how we react to straight people's lives, but how we navigate our own. All of a sudden, there was this show on the air that was about gay people. We were still mostly sassy best friends, but it was better than Limp Wristed Hairdresser or Humorless Gym Teacher. It was the beginning of a wave of TV shows and movies where gay people were allowed to be more than a punchline. When Queer As Folk came out in 2000, I was in the midst of being newly out myself. Photos by Jack Plunkett and Mandy Jeronimus
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