Chippendales Star Murray Bartlett Talks the Evolution of On-Screen Gay Sex

Murray Bartlett is no stranger to partaking in a little on-screen gay action (The White Lotus' iconic rimning scene, anyone?) and he's exploring even more in the risque true crime series Welcome to Chippendales.

The Hulu series follows the story of Somen "Steve" Banerjee (Kumail Nanjiani), an Indian immigrant in the '70s who wound up founding the iconic male revue show Chippendales.

Bartlett takes the stage as Emmy-winning choreographer Nick de Noia, who Banerjee hires to whip the dancers into shape.

Apart from the examination of the deteriorating relationship between de Noia and Banerjee (that eventually ended in murder), the unabashed look at gay sex as depicted through de Noia's relationship with handsome investor Bradford Barton (Andrew Rannells) is also creating a buzz.

"What I am interested in, and what I'm pleased to see, is the intimacy between queer characters and the evolution that we're seeing," Bartlett told PinkNews.

Although sex scenes between the two men generate interest, Bartlett said his main priority during the filming was to cultivate intimacy and to translate that into how people connect on screen.

"We are seeing a real evolution of that in terms of those queer intimate scenes that are actually intimate," he said.

Bartlett, who is also set to play one-half of the tragic gay couple in the HBO adaptation of The Last of Us, noted that even though gay characters aren't necessarily the most relatable, the fact that sex between two men is being portrayed in the media comes as a big win.

"Sometimes people in the community have difficulty connecting with or identifying with [these characters]," he said. "But when we can find those sort of universal things that we all relate to, we realize that we're all connected and not that different, essentially. I think that's a wonderful thing."

Welcome to Chippendales is streaming on Hulu.

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