Contents:
- ERIC DANE ON ‘EUPHORIA’ CHARACTER’S DOUBLE LIFE: “I’M ACUTELY AWARE THAT I’M A STRAIGHT ACTOR PLAYG A GAY CHARACTER”
- EUPHORIA EXPLOR CAL JABS’ SEXUALY WH TRAGIC GAY ROMANTIC BACKSTORY
- MD THE MEDIA: EUPHORIA'S DEPICTN OF A HIDN GAY INTY, AND S CONSEQUENC
ERIC DANE ON ‘EUPHORIA’ CHARACTER’S DOUBLE LIFE: “I’M ACUTELY AWARE THAT I’M A STRAIGHT ACTOR PLAYG A GAY CHARACTER”
He’s no longer accepted by the straight muny and not accepted by the gay muny.
“I’m acutely aware that I’m a straight actor playg a gay character, ” Dane reflects. “The gay muny has been super supportive.
However, tertgly the scen of heteronormative high school romance are terspersed wh shots of the boys wrtlg sglets that have a distctly homoerotic tone, as well as a shot of Cal starg at Derek adjtg himself the r, makg clear that there’s fe potential for the boys’ relatnship to move beyond the platonic. Thgs culmate on the night of their high school graduatn when Derek suggts they take a trip to the lol gay bar bee he knew they’d get served there whout an ID. In season two episo three ‘Rumatns: Big and Ltle Bullys‘, which dropped on NOWTV the UK this week, the show’s rint villa Cal (Eric Dane) was given a gay orig story worthy of s own movie.
EUPHORIA EXPLOR CAL JABS’ SEXUALY WH TRAGIC GAY ROMANTIC BACKSTORY
Gay. Dpe this, Cal was actually secretly bisexual, and had feelgs for Derek but never acted on them, most likely due to his homophobic father. Cal Jabs is a plex man who's lived his entire life as a lie, pretendg to be someone he's not due to his upbrgg wh an homophobic father.
In a stirrg sequence set at a gay bar jt outsi their hometown, the two boys celebrate their recent graduatn and mourn their rapidly approachg separatn for llege wh an INXS-soundtracked slow dance, eventually givg way to a passnate kiss. And knowg what we know about how (and who) Cal turns out to be — a philanrg hband who’s ma a hab of secretly filmg his illic enunters wh young gay men and trans women — ’s easy to fill the gaps that separate that life-changg ‘80s moment om prent-day. Cal gets piss-dnk on a benr, dangeroly swerv traffic, and returns to the gay bar where he had his first same-sex kiss, only to try to start a brawl.
Even his rawt moments — like the briefly tenr dance he shar wh a stranger at the gay bar, while remiscg on the one he shared wh Derek 25 years prr — are weighed down by his current realy.
MD THE MEDIA: EUPHORIA'S DEPICTN OF A HIDN GAY INTY, AND S CONSEQUENC
Ultimately, he’s still a ragg dnk a gay bar, terrorizg unspectg patrons; he’s an agonized bull nng around a very lite cha the scen do allow for are nuance and clary, acknowledgg that even the worst of have ep-seated pa whout tryg to turn Cal to a good person to make that pot. He returns to the same gay bar 25 years later not to pick up someone new, but to repture those feelgs he had wh one boy over two s ago.
At the gay bar, his fellow patrons wer away om him fear.
The two hantly walk to a gay bar, have some drks, and their platonic iendship quickly evaporat when "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS on and they prs their bodi together, dance, and even kiss. Cue the gay squeals.