NBC/Actor's manager "kills" gay character

darkcrow

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds40728.html

A Heroes character that producers intended to be gay has been re-written as straight for "behind the scenes" reasons.

Series creator Tim Kring envisaged Claire Bennett's schoolpal Zach - played by Thomas Dekker, 18 - to be gay, dropping numerous hints in episodes screened thusfar.

In the pilot episode, Zach is teased about getting an erection in the school lockerrooms while in an episode screened as recently as November 20, Zach declares that he knows who he is and is "proud of it".

The character's MySpace profile claims that, of his orientation, he is "not sure", while his favourite movies are identified as Velvet Goldmine and Priscilla: Queen of the Desert.

However, a spokeswoman for broadcast network NBC has now told blogging site After Elton that Zach "is not gay... in all certainty".

In an email to the site, Kring explained that Zach being gay was the original plan, one that was subsequently dropped for other reasons.

"It was certainly not our intention to confuse the issue of Zach’s character being gay," said Kring. "We have too much respect for our audience to do that intentionally. However, it has simply become too complicated behind the scenes to push this issue further with this particular character."

He added: "Heroes is a big, sprawling drama and there is no reason to believe that a gay character will not be represented on our show in the future. It is my hope than we do, we do it with honesty and dignity. That will certainly be our attempt."

Although the blog site speculated that NBC was to blame for the change of focus, TV Guide columnist Michael Ausiello suggested otherwise. "My sources tell me it was not NBC, but rather Dekker's camp that came down with a severe case of gay panic syndrome," he wrote. "In fact, there's speculation that Dekker's manager threatened to pull her client from the show unless the story was changed."

Nothingman54

Who cares. Its my fav. show.

mwachsman

Who cares.

wavin_goodbye

i'm just going to go out on a limb and guess that people who want homosexuality to be accepted in the mainstream/pop culture might care just a teensy bit.

A Surprise Left

if people want homosexuality to be accepted as a societal norm then token gay characters are perhaps not the way to go.

enharmonic

I don't see how his sexuality had any bearing on the show. He's not even a main character yet.

Maybe they're going to give him a power, and the test audiences just weren't ready for Super Gay.

darkcrow

that is why it is so strange... it really wouldnt matter if he was gay... just seems like the studio/management got scared about the whole gay issue and forced the writers to change it.

on a side note the guy playing zack is the new john conner in the terminator tv series

Skitch Patterson

darkcrow wrote:

that is why it is so strange... it really wouldnt matter if he was gay... just seems like the studio/management got scared about the whole gay issue and forced the writers to change it.

on a side note the guy playing zack is the new john conner in the terminator tv series

OR...
Perhaps they like the on screen chemistry between Claire and Zach and feel as though his charecter has more value as a potential love interest for their female lead.

deadmosquito

Skitch Patterson wrote:

OR...
Perhaps they like the on screen chemistry between Claire and Zach and feel as though his charecter has more value as a potential love interest for their female lead.

that's what i was thinking too. although i thought for sure he was gonna be a gay character after some of his lines. oh well.

sonicreducer

why is every minority fighting so hard to be the majority?

for fuck's sake, enjoy being a minority,... you get scholarships for shit like that.