"Skins"'s Bryan Elsley Gets Why Gay Fans Might be Mad

Bryan Elsley understands why fans of his original teen drama Skins might be upset that the U.S. version of his hit UK show is no longer going to have a gay character. As previously reported by AfterElton.com, the gay character named Teo (based on Maxxie in the original) was changed during the casting process to a lesbian named Teo.

That decision angered more than a few fans and raised suspicions over why the change had been made, especially when the first sixteen minutes of the U.S. version (shown as a preview for critics) turned out to be an almost exact remake with the sole exception being that Teo was now Tea. 

The cast of Skins USA

Last Friday, Elsley appeared on a panel at the Television Critics Association Press Tour in Los Angeles to introduce the new cast and discuss bringing the show across the Atlantic. Elsley promised that even though the first sixteen minutes, shown as a preview to critics was an almost exact dupicate of the first sixteen minutes of the original, the rest of the series was not going to be a carbon copy.

"We've hired a bunch of very, very talented American screenwriters," says Elsley, "and already, series one is looking very different. There will be a degree of resonance, let's say, from the UK show, but you'll find some original episodes and some very original writing from the young team."  

Asked why the show simply didn't start fresh from the beginning, Elsley explains it has to do with how Skins actually hires young writers to write the show. "But in order to achieve that," Elsley says, "You have to invest in those young people very, very heavily over a long period of time."  

After the panel, AfterElton.com caught up with Elsley to ask in more detail about the switch from a gay male character to a lesbian one.

AfterElton.com: The burning question for readers of our site is what happened to Maxxie? How come, at least in the first 16 minutes of what we saw, it's so much of the original Skins and yet we've got this one big change that the gay male character is gone.
Bryan Elsley: Well, first of all, I understand the concerns. And I know that everyone loved Mitch [Hewer, who played Maxxie]. Skins is always cast from the kids that I have available. In other words, there's a big open audition and the characters always emerge from what is there in front of me.

And as I went through the audition process, it gradually became apparent to me that I actually couldn't replace Mitch. I couldn't find a kid who could bring the same tenor to the performance. And I'd met Sofia [ Black D'Elia, the actress cast as Tea; read my interview with here here], and I started to think about things in a different way. So on the basis of that, one night I changed a character called Teo into a character called Tea.

And it was mainly because I did not have someone in front of me with the magic I needed for that part. Secondly, because I wanted to change some things in the show. And thirdly, because I'd met Sofia.

AE: I don't mean to impugn any of your motives, but a lot of folks are immediately going to say "Really? You couldn't find any actor who would work in that part?"
BE: I didn't say I couldn't. I just said I didn't. In the time I had available and the kids I had in front of me.

AE: So did that switch come before the idea that you wanted to change some things about the show or after not finding the right actor?
BE: I changed a number of things in the show, and this is one of them. There are several quite big changes in the show. Obviously I'm a writer and I don't necessarily kind of work to fulfill needs, which is not to say that I don't understand those needs.

AE: I think that shows in the orginal Skins. But like I said, these are the questions people are going to ask about the change.
BE: I totally understand. I hope what your readers will understand is that if they watch the show, they will see a range of diverse characters, including gay male characters on the show. It just so happens on this occasion that there isn't a gay male character in the center cast.

As there was no gay female character in the center of the first UK cast. It does pretty much guarantee that there will be a gay male character in the second cast of the show, but this is the way we've gone.

AE: So is Teo basically going to be replacing Naomi and Emily later on?
BE: No. Tea is a new character which is a lesbian character that I've created. And the conversation flows with many lesbians, some of whom I speak to all the time. So she's a fully-rounded, complex, difficult, human character.

People kind of forget that Mitch was hardly in the first series of Skins. And I think, you know, my response in the second series was that I felt a need was not being attended to. We just said the character was gay. He was kind of pretty. And that was not really an acceptable position for us to take.

So, I took the decision to make Mitch the star of the first half [of the second series] of the UK show. I will always do things like that, not just in terms of sexuality, but in terms of ethnic diversity and all of those things. Skins broadly wants to have the correct mix of voices. My writers room, my teenage advisory group, is full of young gay men.

AE: Which is great.
BE: Full of them. And young gay women too. And they are actively expressing their opinions in the room just as any teen contributor would.

AE: Now, one of the explanations for the change that has been floated is that Skins is a very sexual, very frank show which is more acceptable in the UK. Now you've come over to America where female and lesbian sexuality is more acceptable than gay male sexuality. So some people have speculated that the switch was to get rid of the gay character on the show which is going to be a little more sexually graphic than what we are used to. Can you address that?
AE: Do your readers honestly believe that? That it's harder to have a gay male character [than a lesbian one]? That's certainly not why we did it. You only have to look at Glee. It's got strong gay characters. 

AE: Well, I said sexuality. I think there is a lot of truth that American television is more comfortable with lesbian sexuality than gay male sexuality. That's why we have something over here called "the lesbian sweeps kiss," where you see a former straight character kissing [another woman] during the sweeps month. You don't ever see that with men unless it's a joke. Gay male sexuality is treated differently in America. America just isn't as comfortable with it. So that was the idea.
Bryan: I would never make that decision, and if I really felt that, that would have made me feel less likely, rather than more likely, to [make the switch to Tea]. Because we are writers, and we don't follow anyone's agenda. And on Skins we make it a point not to follow everyone's agenda. We can't follow everyone's agenda all the time. We just can't.

And you can always look at a Skins cast and say such-and-such interest is not being reflected. I've always had concerns about the ethnic makeup of our cast, and we strive to get those kids in there — both in the UK and here. And in our writers room as well. I'm very pleased about the gay contingent in my [writers room]. They just showed up. They were very assertive and very confident and very opinionated, and that put them in my room. Those voices will come out. They can't not come out. And, in fact, one or two of those young men will be writing the show really quite soon. Maybe not this year, but very soon. I could waffle on, but that's basically where I've landed. 

You know, I did change the character. It was me who did it. I don't have any view on the desirability of one kind of a character over another. And there are all kinds of issues that should be explored in the show. All I should say is that your readership should watch episode three of the show, which is the Tea episode.

AE: OK, maybe this was what you were alluding to earlier, and this is my next question: Will we see a gay male character in the first season at all?
BE: Yes.

AE: Anything else you want to add?
BE: I wanted Mitch to play the gay character because I had a vibe with him. I liked him. I thought he was pretty and cute and clever and sexy, and I felt I could do something with that. And he was the person in the audition ... I think at that time, I wasn't even sure if Maxxie was gay. Looking back at it, as we auditioned, I don't think we were sure Maxxie was gay.

When I saw Mitch, the character came into focus. That's why I said I couldn't find that character, and when I met Sofia [who plays Teo], I felt the same way about her and it's about wanting to write for people. And everyone on Skins wants to write for one or another of the characters.

That's what I want to get across and those connections on Skins will happen again in relation to gay male characters. I really, really hope that when that happens those characters will be written by young gay male people and not by forty-five-year old male heterosexual's with five children.