Netflix on Friday released Armistead
Maupin's Tales of the City, a limited series inspired by Maupin's
popular novels.
Netflix's 10-episode series is set in
present-day San Francisco as Mary Ann Singleton (played by Laura
Linney) returns to the boarding house run by Anna Madrigal (Olympia
Dukakis) at 28 Barbary Lane. The premise appears to follow author
Armistead Maupin's eighth novel in the series, Mary Ann in Autumn.
Speaking with the Washington Blade,
out Australian actor Murray Bartlett talked about playing Michael
“Mouse” Tolliver in Netflix's adaption of Tales of the City.
Bartlett said his character is
HIV-positive and dating Ben, who is younger.
“Michael is HIV-positive and he went
through the AIDS crisis at its height,” Bartlett said. “He
thought he was going to die and he lost a lot of friends. He was
deeply affected by that; it was a transformative time.”
“The honeymoon isn't over [between
Michael and Ben], but they're at a point in their relationship where
they're starting to look at some issues and notice their different
ages. They have this deep love, but Michael is quite a bit older than
Ben. We see a lot of intergenerational issues come up between them.”
While Bartlett is the third actor to
play Mouse, he said that he looked for his own interpretation of the
character.
“I didn't go back and watch the
previous shows,” he
said. “I did read the books and try to get the essence of Mouse
off the page and let Armistead hand him to me. I thought I could come
to him fresh and keep the essential boyishness of the character.”
He added that Tales of the City
is arriving “when there's a lot of divisive stuff going on. This
show really speaks about family and understanding each other and
having compassion. I hope people respond to that and run with it. I
feel like we could use more of that.”