Some gay kisses were crop-out from the first season of the "Physics or Chemistry" series. Yesterday it was said that there wouldn't be any continuation of the filming on the CTC television.
The "Kvir" magazine in its December issue has published actor's interview (Ilya Iosifov in the series played Fyodor (a high-school student-gay).
"...We need to learn from our Western colleagues. No one is shy to play (gay roles) there". Explaining changes in scenario Ilya Iosifov says that "it is possible to understand the absence of front-view kisses in our version - the TV channel is afraid to loose some part of its audience. Parents will tune TV sets to other channels after the said time, schools will be gathering students' meetings, etc. It is real Russia that we live in. And that is why the series' rating was much higher in the Internet than on TV".
Commenting his friends and fans' responses, Ilya noted that after his gay role in the series he did not face with any elements of homophobia.
"Recently, three skinheads saw me on the street, approached and asked me if I was the main hero of "Physics or Chemistry" and wanted to take a photo with me. Then a cheerful special tasks officer chatted with me near the FSB building on Lubyanka and gave me his business card. I threw it away to be safe.
I believe that had been the role of Fyodor played by some "sweet boy", the things might have been worse. Worse for my country because people have a lot of stereotypes about gays. Many people in Russia associate me with an "ordinary, normal guy" and that helps me to "normalize the image (of the main hero)".
English translation presented by Yerdna Bananes