Highlights
- Jack Innanen says Paul Baker is not queerbaiting because the FX Adults character is fluid at his core.
- The straight actor says fans told him Paul Baker helped them understand their own sexuality this season.
- Innanen hopes Season 3 brings Paul Baker stability with Anton and confirms he left Heated Rivalry over scheduling.
Jack Innanen took the question directly.
The Adults star, who identifies as straight, was asked in a new Variety interview whether he was sensitive to accusations of queerbaiting given that he plays a sexually fluid character.
He started with a definition. “Queerbaiting is when someone is falsely portraying themselves as queer,” he said.
By that standard, he doesn’t believe Paul Baker qualifies. “Paul Baker is pretty fluid to the core,” Innanen said.
He didn’t pretend the criticism never existed. Innanen acknowledged early critiques about a bi or fluid man being placed in a heterosexual relationship, but argued the show’s love triangle stayed consistent with who Paul Baker is, and that little about the character amounted to queerbait.
That triangle is the spine of the season. Season 2 of FX’s Adults, which premiered in late August, follows five friends sharing a house in Queens, with Paul Baker torn between his girlfriend Issa, played by Amita Rao, and his husband Anton, played by Owen Thiele.
Coverage of the season has noted that the show puts Paul at the center of its romantic plot without reducing his identity to a single relationship.
Innanen said he doesn’t feel pressure to get the representation right, because the character’s fluidity is so central to who he is.
What he does feel is something heavier.
He said that this season, for the first time, viewers began approaching him to say Paul Baker helped them understand their own sexuality, with some realizing they were fluid rather than bisexual.
Rather than pressure, he described it as a sense of representative responsibility, adding he was glad the character could do that for people.
Paul’s feelings for Anton were planted early. Speaking to TheWrap over the summer, Innanen said, “It’s not at the front of his brain,” explaining that the attraction lived somewhere deeper and grew throughout the first season.
The payoff landed in the finale. Paul Baker and Anton got their happy ending with a real kiss, surrounded by balloons, in the Season 2 finale.
The character wasn’t always this gentle. Innanen told Variety that Paul was first written as a player from Colorado. Creators Ben Kronengold and Rebecca Shaw rewrote him as Canadian after casting Innanen, and he credits that change with bringing out the character’s kindness.
Innanen has been open about his own identity before. On the Disgraceful With Grace O’Malley podcast, he confirmed he is straight and said he questioned his sexuality only once, in middle school, after another kid called him gay. He is also a vocal ally of the LGBTQIA+ community.
As for what comes next, he’s rooting for his character. “I would hope that there’s some stability for Paul Baker and Anton,” he said.
The interview also touched on a near miss. Innanen told Variety he had been cast in Heated Rivalry Season 2 but had to leave because of scheduling conflicts. “It was such a cool show,” he said.
He is now filming the second season of Dan Levy’s Netflix series Big Mistakes.
