Russell T. Davies, the creator of the new UK drama It’s a Sin, talked about the importance of casting gay actors in gay roles in an interview with Radio Times.
“I’m not being woke about this,” said Davies, “but I feel strongly that if I cast someone in a story, I am casting them to act as a lover, or an enemy, or someone on drugs or a criminal or a saint… they are not there to ‘act gay’ because ‘acting gay’ is a bunch of codes for a performance. It’s about authenticity, the taste of 2020.”
“You wouldn’t cast someone able-bodied and put them in a wheelchair, you wouldn’t black someone up,” Davies added. “Authenticity is leading us to joyous places.”
It’s a Sin premiered on Channel 4 in the UK, and the U.S. can’t be too far behind (the series is a co-production with HBO Max). Check out the first trailer HERE and a clip starring Olly Alexander here.
Channel 4 described the show: “Ritchie, Roscoe and Colin are young lads, strangers at first, leaving home at 18 and heading off to London in 1981 with hope and ambition and joy… and walking straight into a plague that most of the world ignores. Year by year, episode by episode, their lives change, as the mystery of a new virus starts as a rumour, then a threat, then a terror, and then something that binds them together in the fight. It’s the story of their friends, lovers and families too, especially Jill, the girl who loves them and helps them, and galvanises them in the battles to come. Together they will endure the horror of the epidemic, the pain of rejection and the prejudices that gay men faced throughout the decade.”
