Jesse James Keitel On Differences Between Peacock's Queer As Folk And Prior Iterations - Exclusive
The rainbow flag is soaring higher than ever this month — Pride Month — and with it comes a host of queer content produced by queer people for queer people. You can stream "Trixie Motel" this month, for instance, or you can tune into Netflix's "First Kill," which boasts lesbian main characters (via Distractify). Peacock's "Queer as Folk," too, proves that queer personhood is beautiful, and its cast works hard to bring this vision to life. Series star Devin Way revealed to the List why that's so important today, especially considering that two "Queer as Folk" series preceded it.
As noted by IMDb, Way is joined in this series by Finn Argus, CG, Armand Fields, and Jesse James Keitel, among other show-stopping actors. We were also able to speak with Keitel ahead of the series' launch on Peacock, and the actor revealed in an exclusive interview with The List not only how her role on "Big Sky" prepared her for "Queer as Folk" but also how the series is different from the two prior series of the same name.
Queer as Folk 'does a really masterful job' of representing the queer community
Jesse James Keitel is the perfect star to portray Ruthie in the latest "Queer as Folk" series because she's not only incredibly talented but also part of the queer community herself. It's this representation that she thinks the show does so well, particularly in comparison to the two prior series, which were centered on white, gay male characters.
"There's no one way to embody the entirety of the LGBTQIA+ experience," Keitel explained to The List. "I think our show does a really masterful job of letting watchers know that there is much more to the queer community than ... I think the word queer often gets reduced to cis gay men, and really, that acronym embodies so much more than that — people of different races, people of different abilities, people of different trans statuses."
"It's really fun and it's storytelling we haven't necessarily seen before," she added, noting that viewers can expect to see far more diversity than they saw in the prior series. Ultimately, though, her reaction to the show has her feeling just one thing: "I'm such a fan of the show. I'm so excited that I can say I'm part of it."
All episodes of "Queer as Folk" are now streaming on Peacock.