Neil Patrick Harris on First Gay Sex Scene Netflix's 'Unupled' - Variety

Contents:

• IS TUC WATKS’ COL GAY REAL LIFE?
• UNUPLED’S TUC WATKS AND EMERSON BROOKS DISCS THE EVOLUTN OF GAY CHARACTERS ON TV AND HOW THE NETFLIX SHOW AVOIDS TROP
• NEIL PATRICK HARRIS ON HIS FIRST ON-CAMERA GAY SEX SCENE ‘UNUPLED,’ FAKE PENIS AND JOG ‘DOCTOR WHO’
• IS UNUPLED THE GAY SEX AND THE CY?

IS TUC WATKS’ COL GAY REAL LIFE?

The show progrs through Michael and Col’s attempts to start new chapters of their liv by fdg love while beg part of the gay muny of New York Cy after their breakup. Sce Watks is portrayg an appealg gay character, the viewers mt be cur about the actor’s sexual orientatn as well.

UNUPLED’S TUC WATKS AND EMERSON BROOKS DISCS THE EVOLUTN OF GAY CHARACTERS ON TV AND HOW THE NETFLIX SHOW AVOIDS TROP

Y, Tuc Watks is gay. The actor me out as gay April 2013 while talkg an terview wh Marie Osmond for the talk show ‘Marie. ’ “[…] when I was young, I knew three thgs: I knew I was gay, I knew one day I was gonna be a dad, and I knew that Gene Wilr’s Willy Wonka and the Cholate Factory was gog to be the bt movie of all time, ” Watks said the terview.

’ Over the years, Watks has been vol about the importance of pictg LGBTQ+ stori on screen as a gay artist.

NEIL PATRICK HARRIS ON HIS FIRST ON-CAMERA GAY SEX SCENE ‘UNUPLED,’ FAKE PENIS AND JOG ‘DOCTOR WHO’

The character and film were also nnected to Watks as a gay dividual. Any eedom I feel as a gay person is bee of what the guys this play and movie went through, ” the actor told Out ncerng the same. When to ‘Unupled, ’ Watks’s Col is a gay character who attempts to open a new chapter of his life while beg part of a gay datg scene that had changed over the seventeen years he spent wh his ex-partner Michael.

While Hank’s life shows how hard is for one to embrace one’s te sexualy, Col’s story shows the characteristics of ntemporary gay life. Watks, as a gay actor, succeeds brgg out the te sence of both the characters through his performanc. In ‘Unupled, ’ Watks is joed by fellow gay actor Neil Patrick Harris, who portrays Col’s ex-partner Michael.

He and his bs partner, Tisha Campbell’s fabuloly drsed and manicured Suzanne, go after a big — but mandg — fish Marcia Gay Harn’s wealthy, and angry, Upper East Si divorcee, Claire. Durg a square-off Claire’s lobby, Michael and Claire bate over who now has harr: a gay man his 40s or a geo, but volatile, woman late middle-age. This is somethg that seri stars Emerson Brooks and Tuc Watks are aware of this and recently opened up about the evolutn of gay characters and how their show avoids trop.

IS UNUPLED THE GAY SEX AND THE CY?

What’s most tertg about the seri is that ’s one of the few seri to provi an timate look at the profsnal and personal liv of gay men over the age of 40. Durg our nversatn, I asked the two about the show’s approach to s characters, and Watks provid a thoughtful rponse: We’re seeg a gay breakup edy about members of the LGBT muny. It wasn’t long ago that we saw members of our muny as the gay clown or the terribly troubled person or the psychopath.

Seri stars Tisha Campbell and Marcia Gay Harn, who learned om one another while workg on set, are among those who give memorable performanc. Exactly the kd of rom- story dienc have seen aga and aga for middle-aged straight, whe characters — and that Hollywood has recently shown more tert wh younger LGBTQ+ characters projects like Love, Victor, Fire Island and Anythg’s Possible — Unupled livers the kd of narrative treatment middle-aged gay men are rarely on the receivg end of. After havg his life turned upsi down, Michael attempts to refe (and fd) himself now as sgle gay man New York navigatg a datg scene that leav him feelg, at tim, out of his pth.

(The st also clus Brooks Ashmanskas, Tisha Campbell, Emerson Brooks, Marcia Gay Harn and André De Shields.