James Sutton’s John Paul McQueen (right) developed an on-screen romantic relationship with best friend Craig Dean (Guy Burnet, left) on Hollyoaks in 2007. (Channel 4)
Actor James Sutton has looked back on his history-making gay sex scenes on Hollyoaks, telling listeners that he “doesn’t mind getting down and dirty”.
Sutton made history back in 2007 on the teen soap opera as John Paul McQueen after he developed an on-screen romantic relationship with best friend Craig Dean (Guy Burnet).
The groundbreaking storyline formed the first-ever prominent same-sex relationship on the series, and was aired on Channel 4 pre-watershed at the time of 6.30pm. The series was awarded with Broadcast of the Year at the 2007 Stonewall Awards for the storyline, while Sutton received nods at the British Soap Awards and Inside Soap Awards for his role.
Now, 18 years on from his performance, the star told the All Out podcast that he was “more than happy to get involved” with filming sex scenes for the series – provided he was able to keep his “stubble rash” under control.
Craig fights his emotions when he confronts John Paul…
Watch the whole ‘Hollyoaks: Pride box-set’ right here: https://t.co/9HP50wSoVD pic.twitter.com/gNYZm2CUaR— Hollyoaks (@Hollyoaks) July 9, 2017
Speaking about one of his character’s later love interests James Nightingale (Gregory Finnegan), Sutton, who identifies as straight, said: “We came up with this sort of way around it because a lot of the scenes would end with, ‘…and then they snog and start to rip each other’s clothes off’.
“But after a few times of doing this, we’d both have stubble rash and we’d be like, ‘F***, I just can’t keep doing it. So we came with this thing where we’d snog and then we’d fall out of frame, that was our way around.”
He continued: “I mean, there are instances where there’s clothes being ripped off and stuff, which I’m more than happy to get involved with,” Sutton continued. “I don’t mind getting down and dirty, but when you’ve been doing it all afternoon and it’s your mate, you’re like, ah, just can we just fall out of frame please?”
Sutton also appeared to weigh in on the straight actors depicting gay characters’ debate, telling listeners: “I don’t underestimate the impact and the joy and the comfort that I get as a straight man, but more so as a performer to know that what we did then had such an impact, it’s the most beautiful thing,” Sutton said.
“Not many actors get that. There’s only a few on soaps who’ve had that kind of storyline and those kind of scenes.”
You can watch James Sutton’s episode of All Out with Jon Dean on YouTube now.
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