Skins creator Bryan Elsley has been forced to defend a change to the upcoming US version of the teen series.
Unlike the British original, the character of Maxxie, played by Mitch Hewer, will not be a gay male but a lesbian character called Tea to be played by Sophia Black D’Elia.
“I understand the concerns [about the change],” Elsley said, “And I know that everyone loved Mitch. Skins is always cast from the kids that I have available. In other words, there’s a big open audition and the characters always emerge from what is there in front of me.”
Elsley explained that he had not found a male actor suitable enough for the US’s equivalent Maxxie character.
“I couldn’t find a kid who could bring the same tenor to the performance,” he claimed. “And I’d met Sofia and I started to think about things in a different way.”
“It just so happens on this occasion that there isn’t a gay male character in the central cast,” he added.
The US version of Skins will hits screens in 2011 on MTV.
Source: Digital Spy
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