Lukas Gage Was Dropped by an Agent After He Refused to Label His Sexuality
Lukas Gage is opening up about Hollywood’s label.
The “You” Season 4 and “Euphoria” star told The New York Times that he feels pressured “all the time” to conform to a certain LGBTQ+ category of sexuality.
“An agent that dropped me was like, ‘Stop dyeing your hair, stop wearing weird clothes and pick a lane: gay, bi or straight. It’s too confusing,'” Gage said. “I understand representation and voices that need to be heard, but I don’t want to do anything on anyone’s accord but my own. Let me do it when I’m ready.”
He continued, “And it’s acting. I feel like everyone should get the opportunity to play whatever they want.”
Gage previously responded to a fan that criticized his casting as a queer character in “The White Lotus”. Gage responded on social media, “You don’t know my alphabet” at the time.
Now, Gage is continuing that conversation.
“I’m a pretty open book about most things in my life, but I have a problem with the culture of everyone needing to know everybody’s business and nothing can be sacred,” Gage told NYT. “It’s a weird line that I’m still trying to figure out.”
The “How to Blow Up a Pipeline” and “Road House” remake actor additionally revealed that he gets “a lot of backlash in my DMs” over his kinky sex scenes onscreen, with viewers calling it “so disgusting” to watch.
“That pisses me off because I don’t want to yuck anyone’s yum. But a lot of people can have a hard time separating the actor from the character, and then, suddenly, people are coming up to me at Starbucks asking [if the scene was real],” Gage said. “People forget it’s make-believe.”
In “You,” Gage’s character requested a golden shower sequence that called to mind his anilingus scene in “The White Lotus.”
“With that scene, and in ‘The White Lotus,’ I wasn’t doing it to be sexy, but for comedic value. I didn’t think it was going to be hot for people,” Gage told The Hollywood Reporter earlier this year. “But I did want to go as far as possible. It can’t be a half rim job, or a half golden shower — although we did use a water machine with yellow food coloring.”