'Fellow Travelers' Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey Talk Playing Gay and Getting Cozy in Kinky Scenes

Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey, the openly gay leading men in the miniseries "Fellow Travelers," chatted about playing gay roles, the show's intimately steamy moments, and more, opening up to The Hollywood Reporter in an issue that hit news stands this month.

Lauded for its hot sex scenes as well as its emotional complexities, the Showtime series ventured into fetish territory with Bomer's character, Hawk, adopting a strict-daddy persona (not so far from the character's hard-edged, pragmatic usual self) when dealing with Bailey's more inexperienced and idealistic Tim. But the BDSM tinge was just the beginning, as the characters got caught up in a little piggy tickling when Bailey gave some lip service to Bomer's toes.

"I saw that as an incredible way to dissect power," Bailey said of the anything-but-pedestrian love scene moment. "I got it when I read it, and I wasn't intimidated by it. I was just like, 'If in the first episode that's what we are doing, it's going to be worth five months moving to Toronto, and it's going to be a series that I would want to watch.' Because not only is it incredibly complicated, not only is it really hot, it's also something that masks as being provocative, but actually it's really psychologically impactful and the people who get it get it."

Bomer weighed in with his take on the series' many moments of intimacy, saying that the show's sex "scenes were a really external representation of what was going on with these characters internally, emotionally."

"And for me, it was really refreshing to see the gay love scenes brought to light in a really unflinching way," Bomer added.

The eight-episode series was adapted from Thomas Mallon's novel about a decades-long gay love affair at a time in American history when being gay wasn't just taboo, it was forbidden for any employee of the federal government. The so-called Lavender Scare – another fabricated moral panic from the purveyors of the Red Scare, Sen. Joseph McCarthy and notoriously anti-gay Roy Cohn – forced thousands of civil servants into hiding... or, if they were caught up in the homophobic witch hunts of the time, out of their careers.

At a time when there's debate around the question of whether straight actors ought to be playing LGBTQ+ parts, THR took note of how meaningful it was for the two leading men to be openly gay themselves.

"I'm just so grateful that the gatekeepers gave us this opportunity," Bomer told the outlet. "I was doubtful, almost up to the 25th hour on this, that they were really going to put the money and the opportunity into this series that they did. And I'm just so grateful that people who are in the position of calling the shots gave us the chance to tell the story – and the way we needed to."

Said Bailey: "I've just looked at gay characters, they're such rich, brilliant, oppressed, complicated, joyous characters to play, so of course people want to play them. And this is a brilliant example of: What better way to do a character study of two polar-opposite gay characters than have gay people play them? But that's what I felt growing up. I just thought, 'Of course people want to play those parts,' which is great. It's just, what happens if, just for a moment, gay people play them?"

Giving a shoutout to series creator and showrunner Ron Nyswaner – the screenwriter whose script for "Philadelphia" earned him an Academy Award nomination, and who went on to write the trans drama "Soldier's Girl" and last year's Harry Styles-starring gay romantic drama "My Policeman" – Bailey noted that the series "isn't something that just got commissioned overnight, because there's a wave of progress. The people who are really doing it, as well as the actors, are the people in positions of power who have worked their way up with these questions."

The actors took note that while the closeted Hawk is portrayed as so career-minded that he will willingly sacrifice even close friends to protect his secrets and his professional prospects, such iron-willed determination was necessary in those times for survival, let alone success.

Bomer pointed out that our own times might not be as different as we like to think, saying that he has "known people over the years who've made similar choices that Hawk made in order to survive. Not governmentally – I mean in a society that certainly didn't want to see them succeed."

Hollywood has certainly been an example of that, with LGBTQ+ actors being unwilling for much of Tinseltown's history. The dominant narrative until recently has been that being out in the film industry can easily derail a career.

But, Bailey also pointed out, "It's the Tims of the industry, who are searching for more, who are deconstructing, who are questioning" that create inclusive content once systemic barriers to representation have begun to topple.

Bailey also drew attention to an intersection between fact and fiction, as a significant day fell in the midst of the show's production.

"We found ourselves filming by coincidence on World Aids Day," Bailey recalled. "It is really not hard to feel the importance, but also just the grief is palpable in the stories."

"And there is a lineage – you inherit this in your community," the "Bridgerton" actor mulled. "It just felt like an opportunity to learn as much as I possibly could, generally, about the queer experience."

Check out the trailer below to get and see why the show has created so much buzz.

"Fellow Travelers" streams on Showtime.