Spoiler Alert: Te Blood Turns Straight Character Gay — But Which One? – TVLe – TVLe

Contents:

• 'TE BLOOD' ACTOR NELSAN ELLIS: FORMER STAR QU BEE HE DIDN'T 'WANT TO PLAY A GAY PART'
• 'TE BLOOD' ACTOR LE GRIM QU OVER GAY ROLE (REPORT)
• NELSAN ELLIS (LAFAYETTE) TALKS ‘TE BLOOD,’ GAY MARRIAGE, TYLER PERRY
• SPOILER ALERT: TE BLOOD TURNS STRAIGHT CHARACTER GAY… BUT WHICH ONE?
• IS TE BLOOD ABOUT GAY RIGHTS? FAN THEORY DEBUNKED

'TE BLOOD' ACTOR NELSAN ELLIS: FORMER STAR QU BEE HE DIDN'T 'WANT TO PLAY A GAY PART'

Relled by many as talented and unrrated, Ellis beme a Te Blood fan-favore for his portrayal of the scene-stealg, gay short orr ok at Merlotte’s Bar the fictnal Louisiana town.

” Ellis’s character was ld for breakg stereotyp of gay men. "Yet over s seven seasons the seri also went the extra e by cludg many gay, lbian, and bisexual characters who were jt as diverse, dangero, and memorable as Bon Temps' other rints.

” Ellis played Lafayette Reynolds, a gay ok, through the seven-season n of “Te Blood. ”Onle news se The Gr praised Ellis’s portrayal of Lafayette as one that “slays gay stereotyp.

'TE BLOOD' ACTOR LE GRIM QU OVER GAY ROLE (REPORT)

He was open and unapologetic about his love of sex and the male form while livg the ty fictnal town of Bon Temps, Louisiana — the type of place where ’s not necsarily safe to be gay, or black, and certaly not both at the same time. As Lafayette, Ellis expand the untry’s llective imagatn of what a queer black man uld look, sound and act like, startg jt months before California passed Proposn 8, which banned same-sex marriage, and years before Print Barack Obama announced an “evolutn” his thkg about gay rights.

NELSAN ELLIS (LAFAYETTE) TALKS ‘TE BLOOD,’ GAY MARRIAGE, TYLER PERRY

Williams) such a memorable part of The Wire — his gayns isn’t the fg feature of his character. He’s gay a way that feels unique to the projects of Baltimore. When first aired 2005, Noah’s Arc many ways felt like a black rponse to the overwhelmg whens of Showtime’s Amerin adaptatn of Queer as Folk, another landmark show that challenged what meant to see gay men on televisn.

Noah’s Arc centered on a group of middle-class gay black men livg Los Angel. It was a way to say, “Hey, black people live gentrified gayborhoods and drk smopolans and battle HIV stigma too.

SPOILER ALERT: TE BLOOD TURNS STRAIGHT CHARACTER GAY… BUT WHICH ONE?

I don’t answer that qutn — ‘Are you gay or not? Ne years after the last episo of The Wire aired, Williams is still sistg terviews that he’s more than jt Omar Ltle, spe a lany of rol, gay and straight, sce Omar buted. But Grim reportedly qu December when he found out Kent was bisexual and startg a romantic relatnship wh a gay character the seventh and fal Nelsan Ellis, the actor who plays Kent’s gay lover on the show, is speakg up -- and he’s not happy.

IS TE BLOOD ABOUT GAY RIGHTS? FAN THEORY DEBUNKED

“You qu your job bee you don’t want to play a gay part? You make a big statement when you go, ‘I don’t want to play this part bee ’s gay, ” Ellis told New York Magaze followg the airg this week of his character’s sex scene wh the new actor playg Kent. ”Yet crics argue that Grim should have known what he was gettg to when he ially signed the dotted le, given that the supernatural drama – created by the openly gay Alan Ball and produced by his pany njunctn wh HBO – routely ph the envelope when to relatnships.

“It’s unfortunate that an actor today would feel unfortable playg gay, pecially on a program that has always put LGBT characters ont and center, ” Stacy Lambe, Associate Edor for the gay and lbian-foced OUT Magaze said. But his portrayal of the gay short-orr ok who als blood was so popular among fans that even though the character was killed off the book versn of the vampire drama, he was kept on for all seven seasons of the show, Rollg Stone reports.