Interview with Torchwood’s Gareth David-Lloyd

***WARNING*** This article contains some minor plot spoilers for Season 2 of Torchwood.

Mention Wales and most folks think of Dylan Thomas, wool sweaters, and picturesque seaside villages. But for those who follow gay characters on television, Wales is becoming known for something else entirely – handsome actors portraying some of the best gay and bisexual roles on the small screen.

Matthew Rhys’ performance as Kevin Walker on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters has won him numerous accolades, magazine covers and status as a gay favorite. Now fellow Welshman Gareth David-Lloyd is developing a following of his own as Ianto Jones on the hit sci-fi show Torchwood, currently airing its second season on BBC America in the U.S. and BBC 2 in the U.K.

At the end of Torchwood’s first season, it became clear that some sort of relationship was blooming between the previously heterosexual Ianto and Torchwood’s omnisexual leader, Captain Jack (John Barrowman). Gay fans, not to mention many straight women, were thrilled by the turn of events and have followed the developments of Janto (as fans refer to them) quite rabidly in hopes of a more serious relationship growing between the two.

AfterElton.com recently caught up with Gareth to discuss what the future holds for Ianto and Captain Jack, how Ianto views his own sexuality, how he wound up working for Torchwood in the first place and much, much more!

AfterElton.com: In terms of the part of Ianto, in the first season he seemed to be a pretty small supporting character, but he’s developed into something much larger. Do you know if it was always planned for him to become a larger character as the series went on?
Gareth David-Lloyd: I’m not sure. There is a certain organic relationship between the actors and the writers, and things develop and grow as it moves on. The writers see things, and performances spark off other ideas and actors, so it’s almost like an unspoken relationship there between the actors and the writers.

I think it could have gone either way. I could have died after the first series, and you wouldn’t have seen any more progress or development for the character, but obviously it was great in the sense that we did, so I’m still there.

AE: Speaking of organic relationships and organically developing relationships, the burning question for most of our fans is what is going on with Jack and Ianto and whether they are becoming an official couple.
GDL: I wouldn’t say an official couple. You will still find that it does go more into their relationship and their backgrounds later on in the series, but there is definitely a relationship. Whether they are labeling it as a couple, I’m not quite sure. I don’t think so. There’s more to find out about that relationship later on in the series.

AE: I’m sure you can’t divulge too many details anyway. It seems like they’re going in one direction with Jack and Ianto and then in another direction with Jack and Gwen, so people are kind of . . .
GDL: Yeah, I think [there is] different sorts of love or lust, as it might be, and I think that’s an ongoing thing, whether friction will be caused because of it, I have yet to know really. At the moment, I think there’s two different sorts of love going on there.

AE: But Janto fans in particular shouldn’t be giving up hope that something might happen at this point?
GDL: Absolutely not – no. Absolutely not. Nothing’s being said and it looks like that’s the way it’s going, so it should be fine.

AE: In the first season, Ianto was in love with Lisa before she died, and now obviously has some sort of relationship with Jack. Being that Ianto is from the 21^st century as opposed to Jack, who is from the 51^st century, how would you say Ianto perceives his sexuality? Would he consider himself bisexual, or omnisexual as does Jack? And have you done any character work as to whether he’s had relationships with men in the past, or is this a new thing?
GDL: I think it’s definitely a new thing as far as same-sex relationships go for him. He doesn’t quite strike me as a labelist anyway, but if he were a labelist, he’d probably be bisexual because obviously omnisexual is very much a term from the century that Jack is from. So "bisexual" as a label would be that. He wouldn’t regard himself the same way as Jack does because they’re from different times.

AE: What do you think Ianto hopes for from Jack?
GDL: Support, meaning. I think he lost meaning. He was tortured and Jack gave him that meaning back. And reliability that he’ll always be there, I think.

Next page! We ask how Ianto joined Torchwood!