Heroes Zach not gay
Heroes lovers, I was suprised last night to find out that Zach is not gay. Looks gay to me!
An NBC publicist told AfterElton in a phone conversation that Zach “is not gay”, that it was something that was “for sure” and “in all certainty.” AfterElton contacted NBC for confirmation after being told by Thomas Dekker’s management (Dekker plays Zach), the character of Zach is absolutely straight.
For those of us who have followed the show closely and taken even a cursory look at NBC’s marketing efforts around the show (which have repeatedly insinuated, implied and led most viewers to believe that the character is gay), this is interesting—and troubling—news.
What does it mean when a network’s website portrays character as gay, and yet the publicity department suddenly claims that he isn’t? Or when the series creator and writer are quoted in an interview conducted before the show premieres that the character is, indeed, supposed to be gay? [Ed. Note: See creator Tim Kring's response to the controversy on the AfterElton.com blog.] That’s not even factoring in all the loaded dialogue and the character’s gay-friendly Myspace page (how many straight teens love Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Velvet Goldmine, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch?).
Is it possible for a character’s very sexuality to be mis-marketed? Or is there a different, more disturbing situation occurring?
While hats are off to Dekker for landing the plum lead role in the upcoming Terminator spin-off series, The Sarah Connor Chronicles (as announced on Thursday), it does make one wonder exactly where the pressure to bury the character’s gayness might have come from.
Two scenarios seem the mostly likely: for unknown reasons, NBC suddenly shied away from the idea of a gay character. Or Dekker’s management wanted Zach to be straight. (Dekker’s management declined to comment on the topic.)
Considering that Dekker has notably played gay on television before – in a hilarious turn as an obsessed gay teen fan on the short-lived 90210 satire Grosse Point – why should there be any concern on his part with playing gay? Indeed, so many actors have now done so it seems hard to believe it should be an issue for any actor. It’s beyond disheartening to think that in 2006, a peripheral character’s sexuality could be such a volatile matter for studios, actors, and management – particularly when it’s obviously not an issue for the show’s fans.
As for NBC, the network wasn’t able to explain exactly how Zach got “gayed” in the promotional materials, but they suggest that it’s all some kind of miscommunication. However, in the entertainment industry, where shows, careers, and breakout phenomena are based on a myriad of interlocking, carefully-thought out parts, “miscommunication” can mean anything from a genuine “mistake” to “change of mind.”
A few things are clear, and can be backed up by evidence from interviews with the show’s creators and in the show’s official publicity materials: Zach was conceived as a gay character, he was developed as a gay character, and as of the November 20th “Homecoming” episode, he was a gay character. And yet a decision was made by someone – be it studio execs, talent management, or otherwise – to “straighten him out”. To get a better idea of how the character of Zach – or perhaps more importantly, public perception of Zach – has changed over the last few months, let’s pull a Hiro Nakamura and jump back in time…
Zach appears in the series’ very first episode as the newfound best friend and only confidante of Claire Bennett (Hayden Panettiere), a Texas cheerleader who has recently discovered that she has the ability to regenerate instantly. What by all rights should be a peripheral, two-dimensional role (each of the other “heroes” has their own rather unrealized sidekicks) manages to be more than that thanks in no small part to Dekker.
Zach is an awkward but surprisingly self-assured kid whose sensitivity makes his sexuality a subject for debate with the other kids at school. In the first episode of Heroes, there’s a crack about Zach getting an erection in the locker room – typical high-school gay-baiting. Zach doesn’t operate within the school hierarchy – he’s a loser who hangs out with a pretty cheerleader, and for that he’s labeled an outsider.
The character, played by 19-year-old Thomas Dekker, disappeared during the show’s hiatus because producers and the actor’s manager couldn’t agree on his sexual orientation.
“(Dekker’s) manager threatened to pull him from the show because he was up for the John Carter role in The Sarah Connor Chronicles and she didn’t want him playing a gay character because it might affect FOX’s interest in hiring him,” Heroes co-executive producer Bryan Fuller said in an interview posted on popgurls.com. “It got really ugly. I was very upset by it – I was not happy about it at all.”
Written by TechStickle on September 6th, 2007 with
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