"I just kind of waited for someone to stop me. And I could defend it vigorously. It wasn't there to be salacious. People talk to me about “shock value,” and actually shock value is just as much a danger of people turning off as it is turning on. I powerfully believed in that rimming scene, because I needed a sexual experience that Nathan had never even imagined. There wasn’t as much porn. Nathan wouldn’t have had access to all that stuff. Even in porn magazines, you didn’t see rimming, particularly. It wasn’t as easily photographed, I suppose. I wonder what boys imagine now, now they know what goes on. Maybe you imagine fucking. But to imagine rimming? And to get a sexual thrill out of rimming? I don’t think then, at 15, that even existed in his head. So that was the point. That night with Stuart is a mind fuck. Not just a fuck. A mind fuck. He experiences something he never even knew existed. And that’s a metaphor for his whole gay experience. I genuinely believe to this day that it was important."
British GQ dropped an "Oral History" of the original Queer as Folk over the weekend -- which just turned 25 a couple of weeks ago, good grief -- and the above quote is from creator Russell T. Davies, talking about the first episode's infamous (slash legendary) "rimming scene" between Aidan Gillen and Charlie Hunnam. Oral History indeed! In all seriousness that scene was when the show got its hooks in me, and for the exact reasons Davies explicates -- I mean yes obviously we all liked watching that happen to Charlie Hunnam. (Also there are other quotes in the piece that seem to finally make it clear for once that yes, that is indeed both Aidan & Charlie in the scene, and nobody's body doubles. Huzzah!) But I saw my own experience being reflected on a screen in that show in a way I never had before. When I was 18 and having sex with my slightly older boyfriend for the first time(s) I had no idea what to do -- I hadn't had any access to gay porn in the mid-90s. I was fucking clueless. I didn't know what two men would do together; I just knew that I wanted it to happen whatever it was. So Charlie's shock and delight in that moment... let's just say I felt real seen.
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1 comment:
I'm Currently Re-Watching The US Version Again! While I Watch Heaps Of British TV Shows, I Didn't Much Care For Their QAF Especially Watching It After Having Seen The US Version. For Me With The US Version, You Could Close Your Eyes And Would Be Able To Identify Each Character Simply By Their Voices But The UK Version You Couldn't Since Their Accents Were Pretty Much The Same.
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