Coronation Street's gay star Antony Cotton says it "gets his back up" when other gay men criticise his camp barman character Sean Tully for being a "stereotype". Coro Street's Antony Cotton "People in our own community are the biggest critics," he tells London's gay magazine Boyz. "People say, 'That doesn't represent me! I'm not like that!' But there is room for all types. "I'm often accused of being a stereotype and those comments generally come from gay men, and I understand there's been under-representation for years in TV, but what I'm most proud about Sean is that he's totally unapologetic," he adds. "He doesn't have gay-themed storylines, like coming-out troubles or HIV troubles... he's absolutely part of the Weatherfield community and he suffers the same problems as everybody else, so he's always on an equal footing." Cotton has played Sean on the soap for six years. Before that, there had been hardly any LGBT character's in the show's decades-long history. "It was about time they had a character like Sean in," he confirms. "I wrote a cheeky card to Tony, the producer. I just said 'If you ever want a flaming homosexual on Coronation Street, then I'm your man'," he laughs. "I said, 'I've got my own car, my own house, I don't do drugs and best of all, I'm cheap. Come on Tony - you know you want it!'"
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Sunday, 27th December 2009 - 5:22am