Bryan Elsley brought his U.S. version of the show Skins to the United States via MTV, and it debuted Jan. 17. The scripted show follows a group of high school students living in Baltimore, Md., through the ups and downs of adolescence with all its complications and gray areas.
The premiere episode followed closely in the footsteps of the original British show's first episode, which aired in 2007, but it is said to diverge in many ways from the original series as the season progresses.
Still, the characters in the U.S. version remain almost identical to the British show, with one major exception: The gay male character, Maxxie, has become lesbian character Tea.
Skins is known for its touching and thoughtful portrayal of its gay and lesbian characters. The show has had gay characters in every season and in seasons two, three and four, the gay and lesbian characters remained central to the progression of the show. Despite Elsley's history with LGBT inclusiveness, there has been much speculation and questioning around his decision to change the gay male character to a lesbian character. One theory for the change is that a U.S. audience is more accepting of lesbian sexuality than gay male sexuality. In several interviews Elsley has denied this as the basis for the character change.
Regardless of the reason, the show has now aired and brought a new lesbian character into this country's living rooms. Windy City Times spoke over the phone with Sofia Black-D'Elia, who plays Tea, about the show's LGBT storyline.
Windy City Times: Tell me about Tea.
Sofia Black-D'Elia: I play Tea, who is a very confident girl. She's openly gay. She's kind of the wild card of the group. You don't really know what to expect from her. She thinks she has herself very put together at the start of the series and, as most teenagers come to realize, she has no idea. She's also very cleverkind of too clever for her own good. So she is constantly looking for someone that can compete with her and make things more exciting.
WCT: What do you like about her?
Sofia Black-D'Elia: I kind of love how she is so comfortable with herself and how confident she is with her sexuality. ... She's very honest. She is just such a confident character. I think that is really great. With teenagers, you usually see a lot of insecure girls so its fun to play a girl that is really secure in who she is.
WCT: There has been a lot of discussion and questions around Bryan Elsley's decision to change the gay male character to a lesbian character. What are your thoughts about that?
Sofia Black-D'Elia: His reasons for doing it are all his own and trying to understand that man is extremely hard because he is brilliant. ... from my viewpoint I think a lot of people have been saying that the character was changed because it is easier to have a gay female on television than a gay male. I don't really see that at all, and I watch a lot of TV.
I think gay characters in general are kind of hard to come by. I think Tea, the way that she treats her sexuality, is even harder to come by. There is no tearful scene when she comes out of the closet. All of those things are kind of avoided, because I think when you look at high school today, it's not really the case anymore. She just kind of represents a large amount of teenagers that don't have anyone on television to represent them.
WCT: The show is well known for its thoughtful portrayal of gay and lesbian characters. Do you feel any pressure following in the footsteps of these beloved characters?
Sofia Black-D'Elia: I definitely feel a lot of pressure. I think all of us feel pressure for different reasons because the original show is so incredible and we are all fans. But like everyone else on the show, I kind of had to go into it and put that out of my mind and just accept the fact that we are creating our own show and I had to create my own character. I'm a huge fan.
The Naomi/Emily storyline is probably my favorite, favorite Skins storyline out of all four seasons. I think it was beautiful and so touching and really great to watch, but Tea is so different from the other gay characters and so different from the other characters that have been on Skins before. I kind of went into it with the same mindset as everyone else in my cast that this is our show and we have to make it our own, because trying to repeat any performances or live up to any expectations will only lead to disaster.
WCT: Are you prepared emotionally for personal responses from the audience, sharing their own stories with you? A lot of other actors receive some very emotional letters from LGBT fans who relate to their characters.
Sofia Black-D'Elia: I guess because we are all just anticipating the show coming out right now; I haven't allowed myself to think of all the personal things that will happen for me once the show airs. [ Laughs ] Now you're going to make me think about it. I'm excited. I really hope that people see how real of a character she is. I think that the decision she makes might throw people off but at the end of the day she's so human. So when people relate to that, I think I am a very small part of Tea, and Bryan probably should get all of the letters but, yeah, we'll see what happens.
WCT: Do you have anything that you would like to add about Tea?
Sofia Black-D'Elia: I think that Tea is going to be one of those characters that people are going to look at with a lot of ideas in their head prior to her even showing up on television so I guess for now people that are interested in watching, just wait for her episode and wait to see how everything plays out before you judge her.