The Heroes controversy continues.
It has been reported that Thomas Dekker (who played Zach) and his management didn't want him to play a gay character, and that's why the character and the actor suddenly disappeared from the show. But now Dekker has said on his web site (horribly designed, and I can't find the posting) that it's absolutely untrue.
In fact, Dekker says that he has played a gay character three other times in his career, as a younger teen, and would have done it again. He says his leaving the show had nothing to do with the story arc for Zach, though he doesn't really get into why he did leave the show.
Producer Bryan Fuller said in an interview last month that Dekker left because the character was gay and they were going to explore that plot further in later episodes.
Mike Henry and Daryl Hall on a Cleveland Show Thanksgiving
The TV Squad Podcast: The Prisoner, '80s TV, soap news and more
Let's talk about spoilers ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-02-2007 @ 4:04PM
David said...
Hmmm... who do I believe... the producers of the show or the homobobic bitch that left the hit show to do a pilot for a show that might last a year? Hard choice.
And I know I'm not the only one who thought Thomas Dekker was gay in real life. Who else thought he was too?
I say in season two make Hiro gay, after Monday's episode it's very believeable.
Reply
5-02-2007 @ 4:04PM
Scott said...
I think the benefit of the doubt has to go with Fuller, who is gay, and one of the producers of the show. He has far less reason to lie about this than the actor does. And the actor offers no explanation of what did happen--and waited weeks (months?) before refuting this.
Reply
5-02-2007 @ 4:05PM
nukethewhalesagain said...
I'm not entirely sure i buy his statement. Why would Bryan Fuller lie? It just seems like Dekker has more to gain from coming out with this statement than Bryan Fuller did by lying a couple of weeks ago.
Reply
5-02-2007 @ 4:15PM
Chaim said...
His site certainly looks gay.
Reply
5-02-2007 @ 4:25PM
Curt said...
Not picking sides, but to those who ask "why would the producers lie?"
Well, Dekker could've pissed them off in some minor way and they wanted to start blackballing him in the public.
Remember, living in the real world and living in Hollywood are two separate things. Hollywood is a harsh, vindictive bitch and you don't want to piss her off.
Reply
5-02-2007 @ 5:55PM
RSL said...
@ Curt: I doubt that Fuller would homosexuality as a way to smear Dekker. As a 'mo, I've always found it to be the straights who "smear the queer" and not the other way around. Heh.
Reply
5-02-2007 @ 6:43PM
David said...
Maybe it will be like Grey's Whorefest, he comes out months after the fact and goes "it's not because the charater was gay". And he played a gay charater 3 times? When?
Reply
5-02-2007 @ 7:13PM
Franklin said...
With so much going on in the various storylines of Heroes, I just can't see what the point would have been to delve further into the character of Zach, who was definitely a minor player. Frankly, Fuller sounds like an ass for even bringing up the "homo card".
Fuller could have just stated that the show might have delved more into Zach's sexuality, but then Dekker left to pursure a starring role in another series (the Terminator pilot), and, anyway, they had too many threads to deal with. Instead, this producer had to accuse Dekker of being a career homophobe; he comes across like an old queeny bitch.
Reply
5-02-2007 @ 7:19PM
Andrew said...
I don't think you can call a myspace profile a webpage....
Reply
5-02-2007 @ 9:16PM
RSL said...
@ Franklin: Despite Zach's minor presence in the Heroes storyline, as one of the few homosexual characters presented on teevee, it still must be very frustrating as a writer to have him yanked by either an actor or his management. As a homosexual _viewer_ it was frustrating.
Reply