Robert Sheehan has revealed his character in The Umbrella Academy was rewritten as gay after he was cast in the role.
And the Irish actor, who plays one of the most flamboyant characters in Netflix series, Four, also know as Klaus, believes they were right to take the more interesting road with the storyline.
The 32-year-old Laois native told Attitude magazine: “Here’s an interesting thing for you, I suppose it doesn’t matter now.
“In truth, at the time [working on season one], [the story] was that Klaus had had a relationship with a Vietnamese woman, who has a child in the 1960s, and then he goes to find a daughter who’d be quite old and make contact.
“Then it became, ‘Well, what if he had a gay relationship in Vietnam?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, definitely.’
“You have to follow your nose to find the most interesting road to take.
“And I found that really, really interesting and quite subversive of the Vietnam that’s been depicted before.”
Based on Gerard Way’s (of My Chemical Romance) hit Dark Horse comic book of the same name, the hit series is the story of seven super-powered adopted siblings who come together to solve the mystery of their father’s death.
And despite being best known in Ireland as gangster Darren in the RTE crime series Love/Hate, he feels his role in Umbrella Academy has earned him a new level of attention.
He said: “Certainly at the [comic] cons, you get a lot of younger people who identify in the LGBTQ bracket.
“Lovely, young, queer people coming up and saying lovely, meaningful things. People who are at the formative part of their lives. That’s very nice.”
Sheehan, who identifies as straight but has previously revealed he has had same-sex experiences in the past, added: “One thing I really do love about Umbrella Academy is that there aren’t any kind of finer points put on love and things like that.
“The show is delightfully and wonderfully and aspirationally non-prejudicial in that sense; it’s just about connection and love. That’s all it should be about.”
The versatile actor is known for challenging gender norms, regularly spotted rocking bold and interesting looks on the red carpet.
And describing his likeness with his character, he admitted he wears women’s clothes saying he prefers how they look on his body.
“I really prefer how ladies’ clothes look on me, to be honest.
Encouraging other men to follow suit, he said: “It’s the great secret of retail: guys, get out there and go to the ladies’ side of things.”
However, the Misfits star, revealed he has suffered from some painful situations in ‘girls jeans’.
He said: “Do you find that the old John Thomas is a little bit starved for space, or is he all right?
“One time, I had these lovely girl jeans, but they were skinny jeans as well.
“They were quite Lycra-y, which kind of saved them.
“But after a while I had to stop wearing them because I had ball pains, basically.”
