Russell Tovey‘s breakout role in the U.S. was in the HBO series Looking, which ran for two seasons back in 2014 and 2015.
Instead of getting a third season, the series was wrapped up with a movie in 2016. While the series was praised for giving LGBTQ+ stories representation on a major network, it still received backlash from gay men who weren’t fans of the material.
Nearly a decade after the show ended, Russell is speaking out in response to that backlash. Keep reading to find out more… “The critical narrative at the beginning was that nothing much happened in it,” he told The Independent in a new interview. “That it was too boring.
But it was just real life!” Russell, who is openly gay, even recalled an instance when he was filming a season two scene on location in San Francisco and he was approached by some gay men. “They’d say, ‘You’re in Looking!… but I’ve not watched it, I’ve heard it’s boring,’” Russell said with an “exasperated roar,” according to The Independent. “They hadn’t even seen it!