In a recent interview, out actor
Russell Tovey said that response to HBO's Looking “broke”
him.
The 41-year-old actor played Kevin
Matheson in the HBO drama about three gay friends living in San
Francisco. The series ended in 2016 with a feature film after two
seasons.
In the show, Patrick (played by
Jonathan Groff) comes to the city in search of love and becomes
involved with two men, barber Richie (Raul Castillo) and Kevin
(Tovey).
Speaking with The Independent,
Tovey said that he was disappointed by the response to the show.
“The critical narrative at the
beginning was that nothing much happened in it,” he
said. “That it was too boring. But it was just real life!”
The actor remembered being recognized
by locals while filming the show's second season in San Francisco.
“They'd say, 'You're in Looking!
… but I've not watched it, I've heard it's boring.' They hadn't
even seen it! And it's about you, in your city, filming outside your
coffee shop, and you're not even intrigued to watch it?”
“It really, really frustrated me,”
Tovey said. “It broke me, honestly. If that show came out now, it'd
have a completely different response.”
Tovey has also played gay characters in
Years and Years, Pride, The Pass, and American
Horror Story: NYC.