Soap star says camp gay characters deserve more screen time
The actor said camp characters deserve better representation.
Hollyoaks star Ross Adams has defended camp gay characters on TV, saying they have become lost among more ‘straight-acting’ alternatives.
Although Adams – who plays Scott in the soap – admits that his character was hard to like when he first hit screens, he thinks the negativity intensified due to his camp behaviour.
“I think it’s always really difficult for a new character coming into the show,” Adams told Digital Spy.
“When I first joined, I received a lot of hate. The reaction on Twitter was fairly negative and that was really hard for me to read.”
Asked about the specific criticisms received by ‘out and proud’ gay characters like Scott, Adams argued that it is important to have a variety of gay characters portrayed on screen.
“If you’re playing someone who is larger than life and flamboyant, that can polarise opinion,” he continued.
“Characters like Scott and Sean Tully (played by Antony Cotton on Coronation Street) are of a similar ilk because they are more camp, but I do think that it’s important for those types of gay characters to be represented.
“Recently we’ve had an awful lot of gay characters in soaps who are very ‘straight-acting’, if you like,” he added.
“Amongst all that, the camper gay characters got lost a little bit.”
However, the actor concluded that it is good to have a wide varitey of LGBT characters on screen, in order to effectively represent such a diverse community.
“I think it’s good that here we have gay characters who are more straight-acting like John Paul and Ste, but then we also have a character like Scott who is camp and silly.
“Just as there are different types of straight people, there are different types of gay people as well.”
The executive producer of Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks last year revealed he gets complaints for making things “too gay”.
The soap has a number of gay characters, and recently features a ‘Hollypride’ gay Pride festival as part of a storyline.
