Press Archive > Magazine Article > Vogue - March 
 
 Queer as Folk was too racy for America, but the Brit miniseries made Charlie Hunnam a star. 

For those who haven't sat down in front of English TV lately, a bit of background: Queer as Folk is an eight-part English sitcom-melodrama-totally original television miniseries whose American rights were won by Showtime in a bidding war with HBO. Queer is as far a cry from Masterpiece Theatre as you can get. It's about a group of gay men and their friends, family, and partners, and it's breezy and sexy and funny and unformulaic. In fact, it's quite unlike any television show you have ever seen. When it was shown in the U.K. last spring, it had record ratings-even if the first episode did open with a 29-year-old taking home a 15-year-old virgin schoolboy. And in N.Y and L.A., where the series has not been publicly aired, the show already has its own cult following. Bootleg tapes have been auctioned on the internet; VHS copies in the care of William Morris and Showtime are fought over madly. But it's unlikely, that American viewers will ever see it. Queer as Folk is too candid, too explicit, too raunchy-even for cable. Instead, director Joel Schumacher is slated to direct a two-hour pilot: Queer as Folk, the remake. 

Though the series was filled with funny, indelible characters played by an assortment of delicious young actors, it is 19-year-old Charlie Hunnam who has Hollywood turning somersaults. As Nathan, Queer's free-spirited, fifteen-year-old kid, Hunnam is phenomenal. No one can get enough of him. Madonna saw Queer and immediately invited Hunnam over for dinner. He arrived 45 minutes late and in a terrible panic. "I got lost getting there", says Hunnam, who grew up(without learning how to drive) in England's Lake District and was in L.A. for his very first time. "When I did get there, it was mad," he says. "It was like being in a Western. I just kept going from room to room, through swooshing doors, looking for the action." He found it very soon, next to Rupert Everett. "He talked about real estate all night," says Hunnam, quite amazed actually that real estate should be considered legitimate dinner-table conversation. on a more recent trip to L.A, he had to prolong his stay to fin in 107 meetings-seriously, that's what he told me. And that's not just because he's beautiful and funny and bright. He's also fresh and unpretentious. Remember Brad Pitt before he became Brad Pitt, when he first tipped his hat to Thelma and Louise? Charlie isn't, as yet, worn out from working it. Only a few years back, he was discovered dancing in a Manchester shoe store and was told that he should be in the movies. That led to a bit part in a cildren's TV show, which led to an agent, which led to Queer. 

When he isn't working ort negotiating the deep end, Hunnam hangs out with his friends, none of whom are actors, in London. They play computer games, go clubbing, and talk about sex (he likes girls, will flirt with boys), clothes (Stüssy), music (Bob Dylan), and the movies. But Hunnam's life is a tad different from the rest of the gang. Right before Thanksgiving, for example, he flew to N.Y. for the weekend to discuss the Anakin Skywalker part in the next Star Wars installment. And there is the upcoming weekend in Santa Barbara when he has to learn how to surf for his American movie debut in Bobby Bukowski's future project The Lads. 

Right now, it's an adventure. "Being paid to learn to surf?" he exclaims. "In Santa Barbara? With Bobby, who's a spiritual guy, teaching me? "He pauses and takes stock. "Yeah," Hunnam says in earnest, "it's a rose-tinted life. My only fear the bottom falling out. I'm obsessed with the movies, and I "loved" doing Queer [including the sex scenes? "It was a closed set," says Hunnam, laughing, "and we just got it on"], but I also want to write, and I'm really into art. I'm influenced by music. I just want to follow my dreams. I want to live large. That," Hunnam says, with a glint in his eye and nineteen years of wisdom,"is what it's all about".