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Kim Cattrall has ‘first non-binary love scene’ in Queer as Folk reboot

Show creator Stephen Dunn tells Attitude that the actress was "so dialled into the character’s learning curve around queerness" - and even improvised a line about bottoms.

By Jamie Tabberer

Words: Jamie Tabberer; picture: Starzplay

The creator of the new Queer as Folk has discussed what cast member and Sex and the City icon Kim Cattrall has called her “first non-binary love scene.”

Stephen Dunn, who is heading up the reimagining of Russell T Davies’ iconic 90s show, discussese Kim’s character as the show’s cast appear on the cover of the Attitude July/August Pride issue

The cast of Queer as Folk for the Attitude July/August issue

Kim, whose work pushing on sex-positive depictions of sex on TV can’t be understated, plays Brenda, the mother of two of the main characters of the new show.

“I wrote the role only dreaming of being able to cast her,” Stephen [pictured below] tells Attitude of Kim, who he met at the 2015 premiere of his film Closet Monster.

“She’s an incredible improvisor,” Stephen adds. “She added the line at the end of her scene in episode seven, ‘Can I say bottoms?’, in response to her learning what is OK and not in this new queer friendships that she’s establishing.

“It becomes sexual, but it didn’t start that way. She was so dialled into the character’s learning curve around queerness.”

Ryan O’Connell, who plays Brenda’s son Julian, adds: “Get ready, because the last four [episodes of the show] are insane. Kim’s storyline takes really fun turns.

 
 
 
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A post shared by Kim Cattrall (@kimcattrall)

“She’s so fucking cool, smart and funny — she doesn’t get enough props!” the Special star added.

Devin Way, who plays Brenda’s other son, tells us he’d never seen SATC and got to know Kim “in the makeup trailer, where she told me I could stay while she got her hair done. I was like: ‘Hello, Mom!’”

Brenda is described in Queer As Folk press nots as “a Martini-soaked, high-society, Southern debutante with trailer-park roots.”

Kim first addressed the love scene in an interview with Variety in May, declaring: “I had my first nonbinary love scene. And for the first time in my career, I was introduced to someone who had the position on a set that I had no idea what they did — her heading was ‘intimacy coach.

“I thought, ‘Excuse me?!?’ I never had an intimacy coach. It was fantastic. Instead of someone from the wardrobe department holding a housecoat for you when they said cut or putting a towel over you, they had this person there who’d say: ‘OK, stop! We need this protected there.’It was like a fairy godmother.

Queer as Folk will premiere on Peacock on Thursday 9 June in the US and on Starzplay on Friday 1 July in the UK.

The Attitude July/August issue featuring the cast of Queer as Folk is out on 9 June. Preorder here.