Ryan O’Connell Loved Playing a ‘Salty Little Bitch’ on ‘Queer as Folk’
28.06.2022 - 22:15
/ variety.com
Sasha Urban editorWhen Ryan O’Connell created “Special,” a a semi-autobiographical Netflix series about a gay man with cerebral palsy, he “didn’t give a shit” about making the show palatable to straight people. That show ran for two seasons in 2019 and 2021, with O’Connell as star, executive producer, showrunner and writer.
Now, he’s starring in Stephen Dunn’s “Queer as Folk,” a re-imagining of Russell T. Davies’ groundbreaking British TV series, for Peacock.
He thinks of the two shows as “spiritual sisters.”“It’s queer stuff for queer people, like it’s for us,” O’Connell told Variety. “I made ‘Special’ not trying to spoon-feed anything to straight people … And I feel like ‘Queer as Folk’ has that similar attitude, where we’re not explaining queer culture to straight people, we’re just saying, ‘This is our lives, either you’re DTF or you’re not.
XOXO, Gossip Girl.'” The experience of working on “Special,” although rewarding, “deleted years” off O’Connell’s life, so he was grateful to join a project as an actor. As a co-executive producer of “Queer as Folk,” he also has writing credits on two episodes.The new “Queer as Folk” is set in New Orleans, and centers around a mass shooting at a gay club (inspired by the events at Pulse Nightclub in 2016) in Episode 1.
The show features an incredibly diverse cast of people of color, trans people and disabled people — not to mention Kim Cattrall as the mother of O’Connell’s character, Julian, who is pretty much the opposite of O’Connell’s role on “Special.” The first season follows the characters as they recover from the tragedy, and, staying true to the original series, furiously seek out romantic and sexual connections with one another. Variety spoke to O’Connell about crafting
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