Rufus Hound says he and his ‘Cucumber’ star co-star Vincent Franklin could "absolutely go for it" with their gay love scene in the series because they’re both straight.
The 35-year-old actor has a guest appearance in episode four of the new Channel 4 series which sees his character Rufus romantically pursue Vincent’s alter ego Henry.
Show creator Russell T. Davies told Rufus he would be required to act out a homosexual love scene before he accepted the part and he was glad he got to do it with Vincent, who is heterosexual and married with kids, because they’re own sexual preferences "freed" them as actors.
Rufus – who is married to Beth Johnson, with whom he has two children – said: "In acting, there should be absolutely no difference in whoever you’re kissing as long as it’s part of telling a story. So the point that there were any kind of caveats about kissing another man is just old fashioned nonsense bulls**t … We (me and Vincent) could both absolutely agree on though that it was incredibly liberating … The lovely thing about working with Vincent, us being both straight men, was that we were meant to be playing these two guys absolutely into it and turned on – so we could just absolutely go for it, because there was never a sense of from either of us that feels like, ‘Oh you’re really getting off on this.’ We were freed up for it to be as steamy as we could make it."
Rufus has long been an admirer of Russell’s work – which includes ‘Queer As Folk’ and ‘Doctor Who’ – and he was desperate to be cast in the series as soon as he was told the TV mogul wanted him in the programme, despite knowing he’d have to get naked on screen.
In an interview with the new issue of Gay Times magazine, he said: "It was a dream come true working with Russell. (My agent) tells me I’m playing a gay man and it’s very physical and I have to get naked. But I’m like, ‘Yeah, but it’s for Russell T. Davies, so it’s fine.’ "
Rufus Hound: Vincent made gay kiss easy
