Russell Tovey discusses new gay drama series Looking

Russell Tovey has spoken about his role in HBO’s new gay drama series Looking.

Looking, which follows the lives of a group of gay men looking for love in San Francisco, is set to premiere in the UK on Sky Atlantic on January 27. Russell plays a supporting character called Kevin who becomes involved with one of the leads, Jonathan Groff’s Kevin, both professionally and personally.

Explaining how Looking is different to previous gay-themed TV series, Russell told The New York Times: “A drama that might have been on 10 years ago would be like: ‘As gay men, you can just go and have sex with who you want. Who cares if I’m sleeping around?’ And now this show is at such a time when suddenly gay people can conform to heterosexual blueprints of how to live. You can get married, you can have kids, you can have joint mortgages, you’re recognised as next of kin, which is all fresh.”

Alongside Jonathan Groff and Russell Tovey, Looking co-stars Murray Bartlett and Frankie J Alvarez. The series was shot on location in San Francisco and was created by Michael Lannan, who worked on Interior. Leather Bar. Andrew Haigh, who wrote and directed Weekend, is one of the executive producers.

During the interview, Russell, 32, also recalled coming out in Attitude when he was “20-odd”, saying: “They asked me, and I, in a roundabout way, said, ‘I don’t want to talk about it, but yeah.’ At that point in my career, people had an interest but not too much, and then it was there, it was done. If I had to do it now, I think I’d be nervous because it would feel like a big dramatic thing.”

Asked whether Looking could make him into a sex symbol, Tovey replied with plenty of self-deprecation. “You tell me,” he said. “I’ve got ratty curly hair. I’ve got sticky-out ears. I‘ve got a little troll nose. I’m like a little pale street urchin. I’m lucky that I’ve sort of aged well into my face. I don’t think people are repelled by me. But one never sees how other people see you in a mirror at all — ever.”

Watch a trailer for Looking featuring Russell below:

[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1u1CkRFVRs[/youtube]