Joe Locke Addresses Backlash To His Gay MCU Character: “The Marvel Fandom Is Far Less Nice”
Agatha All Along actor Joe Locke opens up about portraying a gay character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
In a new feature piece by Variety, Locke shared his thoughts on joining the MCU, as well as some of the responses to him playing a gay character in the franchise. To Locke, who is openly gay himself, he felt it was contradictory of Marvel fans to initially call for "authentic casting," only to then call his character "a campy gay stereotype," sharing the following:
I’ve never really thought about it. It’s one of those things that gets a bit stressful if you think about it too much. But being in a Marvel series is the most pinch me thing… I thought you get cast in a Marvel show, you get paid to get really muscly and hench. 'We want you to stay small and twink-y' is basically what they said, in a very corporate way.
It was like, 'Oh, why has Marvel done this campy gay stereotype?' It really annoyed me because I was like, 'You can’t ask for authentic casting and then be upset if you have a camp character.' I’m fully aware that the Marvel fandom is far less nice than the ‘Heartstopper’ fandom. There’s going to be a lot of people that just hate everything about the character and everything about what I’ve done with it, and I just have to be OK with that. Marvel fans are very open with their opinions. But they’re not in a Marvel show, so [blows a raspberry]. I’m doing the one thing that they really wish they could be doing. Sorry!
Source: Variety