While Buzzfeed has had some pretty good scoops, they’ve also released more than a few stories that seem to be based on little more than the fever dream of the reporter, so it’s difficult to know how much we should trust this one. However the site reports that True Blood’s Luke Grimes left the show due to that fact his character was getting a gay storyline in the new season.
The return of the show for its seventh season saw a new actor take over the role of James, the vampire boyfriend of Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll). The reason someone else came in is reportedly because Grimes was uncomfortable with a gay storyline that was developing in the early episodes of Season 7 between James and Lafayette (Nelsan Ellis).
Buzzfeed’s source says Grimes was prepared to play the role so long as ‘Lafayette [was] attracted to him, but not if the attraction was mutual.’ He also supposedly objected to having to do any same sex kissing or sex scenes.
Grimes’ publicist, Craig Schneider, denied Luke leaving the show had anything to do with content and was purely about scheduling due to the 30-year-old wanting to pursue other opportunities, such as playing Christian Grey’s brother in the movie version of Fifty Shades of Grey and a role in the currently filming American Sniper. He also suggested Grimes hadn’t even seen any of the Season 7 scripts when he made the decision not to return.
This isn’t the first time rumours have surfaced it was the direction of the character has caused Grimes to quit, as TVLine said this was the reason when it was first announced he wasn’t returning last December. At the time though it wasn’t said what it was that the actor didn’t like about what was planned for James.
It would seem odd that someone who’d already appeared in the LGBT friendly True Blood would have a problem if his character got some same sex action, especially in this day and age. However it may be it’s something Grimes genuinely uncomfortable about when it comes to him doing it (and if this was a few years ago, we’d wonder if this the result of agents who tended to suggest gay actors avoid LGBT roles completely, due to a presumption they would be outed and it would affect their career, particularly if they had hopes of being a movie leading man – but hey, this is 2014, isn’t it?). And of course, it could just be that Buzzfeed is mistaken.
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