Rivals star Gary Lamont on filming racy gay sex scenes: ‘It’s a big naked celebration’
Gary Lamont plays gay TV controller Charles Fairburn in Rivals. (Disney+)
Gary Lamont’s character in Disney+’s Rivals is, in his words, the original “Hawk Tuah” girl.
Lamont plays Charles Fairburn in the new series based on Jilly Cooper’s raunchy novel, where sex scenes and nudity are common and the people involved are anything but.
The show follows the rivalry between MP Rupert Campbell-Black (Alex Hassell) and Lord Tony Baddingham (David Tennant), in the coarse world of 80s TV broadcasting.
In the novel, Charles is the implied gay head of religious programming at Lord Tony’s commercial television network, Corinium. But in the series, there’s no implied about it. From episode one, Charles is as gay as Elton John in drag at Brighton Pride.
Charles in a relationship – albeit a hidden one – with Tory politician Gerald Middleton (Hubert Burton). They’re very firmly involved in the now-famous sex scene montage at the end of the first episode, during shooting of which director Elliot Hegarty told Lamont to “bob faster”… if you know, you know.
It’s a riotously good time but Charles is an out gay man in 80s Britain. Thatcher’s Section 28 looms large, as does the threat of the Aids pandemic, and homophobic comments in Baddingham’s TV empire are commonplace. It’s not all silly sex and champagne.
As the show becomes one of the must-watches of 2024, Lamont talks, as a gay actor, to PinkNews about embodying the era, and going body-to-body with Burton.
PinkNews: Rivals is smutty, camp and gloriously fun, but for Charles, there are darker undertones. How did you feel about playing a gay man in 80s Britain?
Gary: I think I can speak for both Hubert and I. To be representing our community, gay men, at this time in history… it gives me goosebumps even talking about it, purely because we all know what happened. So many beautiful, brilliant elders didn’t survive. To track back to that time and unearth the plight… it’s just undiluted horrors.
I felt quite a lot of rage. We have institutional homophobia. We have internalised homophobia that we as queer people, sadly, have been forced to carry around even to this day. It was uncomfortable. I can’t wax lyrical enough about being able to portray our community at that time and to be bestowed that honour. It’s life affirming, life changing and I’ll never not be proud of it.
Charles is a man who can’t be at work without ridicule, and can’t be in a relationship without secrecy. Rage is absolutely what he must’ve been feeling.
Completely and utterly. There [are] a lot of gains that we have, but the dial has only shifted marginally. It’s never going to go away. If you’re in any marginalised community, we have to band together, we have to look after [one another]. Right now, the dial has shifted to the trans community. When they’re done with them, they may well come back to us. So, we have to, as a community, stand together, stand strong and ensure that we never go back.
In Jilly Cooper’s novel, it’s implied that Charles is a gay man, but never explicitly confirmed. In the TV series, it is explicit. What conversations did you have with writer Dominic Treadwell-Collins about making that the case, and making sure it wasn’t shoehorned in?
Firstly, I had to leave my modern-day privilege at the door. I’ve been out and proud all my adult life. The producers had to constantly [say]: “No, no, no. This is what it was like.” I would sort of rage against it with my modern privilege. Having queer artists portraying the roles, there was a real shorthand between us, and trust.
Our writers got it to perfection, and it was a constantly moving, evolving conversation. It wasn’t set in stone. There were certain things that went in there and they’ve been taken out, and whether they’ll come up down the line, I’m not sure. I always had to be dragged back and made to face the realities. That’s where a lot of the rage stepped in for me. I just assumed well, he is out, and they said: “Yes, he is. But if anybody in that office asked him if he was gay, he would have said, ‘No, I am not’.” That’s the reality of it.
Within the compromised relationship that Gerald offers him… I felt he was in a straightjacket with a lot of it. His hopes were so myopic and tiny, but again, going back to that world and portraying it makes me so proud for us now, and has galvanised me. It was s**t. It was really awful.
Even the actors we’re working with, beautiful, open-minded, wonderful actors who are saying the nasty things, like David Tennant, he would be like: “I’m so sorry.” I know we’re only acting, but the air in the room would change with that. But the sad thing is that happened and still happens, and nobody challenges it.
Rivals isn’t all homophobia and darkness. You’ve got some pretty fun scenes in it, too. Let’s talk about the sex montage scene in episode one – Charles Fairburn is down there with Gerald Middleton, bobbing for apples.
Charles is the OG Hawk Tuah. He was an icon before his time.
Charles and Gerald
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📸: Rivals ( Hulu ) pic.twitter.com/ULh9zQ9EqX
It’s explicit, in-your-face gay sex. Was that always going to be the case?
I think so… I’ve never quite seen anything like it. So to be a member of it? For the producers, it was important for them that the gay boys were front and centre, and we had our place at the table, or in the bedroom. It’s really beautiful to be included and not to have it be an addendum, an add on, an appendage. We absolutely are part of the world, and our story interweaves with the rest of them.
I was 39 when I got the job. I’m 40 now. My agent said: “There is a lot of nudity and if you don’t agree to it, you probably won’t get the job.” I thought, well, if at 39 years of age, they want to pay me to take my kit off, they can have that gladly. The nice thing is that, especially the montage, everybody else was doing it. It’s like this big naked celebration. Sex sells!
What a way to kick off the series.
You can’t decide what becomes iconography or part of the canon. But I do feel they absolutely must have known that that was going to get attention. One of the reviews said nobody’s trying to be sexy. Especially as a performer, if I had to come into a room and be like a big lothario, I would die. So, to have a twinge with that certain Britishness, it really just sings, I think.
By doing it the way they’ve done it, we absolutely set the tone, and it’s like, “Here’s what we’re doing. Do you want to come with us for the next seven episodes? Of course, you do, get the remote.” I was trying to give it full romance, and from the back, [director Elliot Hegarty] just kept going: “Bob faster.”
What were the mechanics behind your sex scenes? Did you and Hubert spend much time together beforehand?
The nice thing is, Hubert and I, we’d spoken. Once I knew we both were cast and it was coming up, and production had told us that we were going in at the deep end quite quickly, I thought rather than wait anxiously, I asked if production could give Hubert my number and vice versa. We had a conversation probably about four or five days before we even met, just because I’ve never done anything this intimate before. We got on the phone and had a bit of a squeal and [to] celebrate it. It was such a huge job for all of us.
Hubert is the warmest, kindest, and we both were going from the same point. So, the intimacy stuff was quite exciting.
We had to have two intimacy co-ordinators because there was quite a lot of nudity. It’s really helpful for those [who] need it. I felt safe and secure anyway, but to just have that unwavering support, and it’s somebody in this space on the day to break the ice for you. You’re de-robing and you’re doing it. It’s an awkward thing. I had a nice time, no disrespect, but I’m glad I don’t have to do it all the time.
OK, time for a classic: shag, marry, kill with Rivals’ three main beaus: Tony (David Tennant), Rupert (Alex Hassell), and Declan (Aidan Turner)?
Well, we’re gonna have to kill Tony because he’s a big, bad, bully, homophobe. So, he’s gone. Bye, bye. I think I would shag Rupert and marry Declan. Love them all, but as characters, that’s my order.
Rivals is streaming on Disney+ now.
This interview has been edited for clarity.
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