As Stephen Dunn was developing a reimagined version of Russell T Davies’ Queer As Folk for Peacock, he approached Netflix’s Special creator and star Ryan O’Connell about appearing on screen as well as writing for the series. It was a suggestion that took O’Connell by surprise, as O’Connell shared with The Queer Review’s editor James Kleinmann.
“At first my brain was like ‘Um, but there’s already Marvin in the show, how could there possibly be two of us?!’ Which, is like, LOL, the call’s coming in from inside the house! You know what I mean?!” recalls O’Connell. “It was really amazing to be a part of the show, but also have Marvin there as a contrast because they’re very, very different. Episode 4, F**k Disabled People, is the Caligula gay horny disabled episode of TV that I had always wanted to write. I co-wrote it with Alyssa Taylor who was incredible. It really represents everything I stand for, which is just gay horniness, basically!”
When it comes to Queer As Folk’s approach to diversity, O’Connell offers, “Everyone was super clear at the very beginning of writing the show that, yes, this will be a very inclusive show but we wanted to actually make them…fully realized people! Groundbreaking, I know. And not just holograms of their trauma and suffering and their identities.”
Reflecting back to his first encounter with Davies’ original series, O’Connell remembers seeing it when he was “horny, closeted, and 12, what a beautiful place to be! I rented it out from Blockbuster when my mom wasn’t looking and watched it under the covs. And I obviously loved! It was groundbreaking. It was my first sneak peek into queerness, but it also hit a little different because of being gay and disabled. I was like, ‘Oh, okay, it’s gonna be a rocky road for my disabled ass!’ So it felt really good to be a part of the reboot, because what it means to be queer and what queerness looks like has changed radically in 22 years. What was groundbreaking in 1999 and what’s groundbreaking in 2022 are completely different things. So it was really amazing to be given the opportunity to update computer a little bit, and 12-year-old me would be v impressed, and still horny!”
Watch our full interview with Ryan O’Connell and his Queer As Folk co-star Fin Argus:
All eight episodes of Queer As Folk debut on Peacock on Thursday, June 9th 2022.
Queer as Folk will be available to stream in the UK from 1st July on StarzPlay through Amazon Prime Video, with two new episodes dropping weekly.
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