At an Outfest panel this week, out
actor Daniel Franzese said that he was proud of his groundbreaking
character in the HBO gay drama Looking.
Looking: The Movie, which ends
the series about a group of gay men living in San Francisco,
premiered at Outfest, Los Angeles' LGBT film festival.
In the show, Franzese plays Eddie, an
HIV-positive character of size with a positive outlook on life.
“I'm very proud of our HIV storyline
with Eddie,” Franzese
said. “Eddie was the first character in six years to be on
television as an HIV-positive character. I was told from the first
time by [executive producer] Andrew [Haigh], he was never gonna get
sick. And it was never going to be something that hindered him from
living his life.”
Creator Michael Lannan said that he
wanted to capture “a moment in time” when LGBT rights were
rapidly advancing.
“We wanted to sort of just have
people in their lives in a time of great change,” he said, adding
that San Francisco and the world “literally changed during the
show … with gay marriage.”
Looking: The Movie premieres July 23 on
HBO.