"Se xy Beast": Ruaridh is gay for pay, Farley explores gay trauma, Gal shows his d*ck, and Vampire Bill gawks at guys

 

Link to the n*de dudes

 After reviewing Elspeth, starring the actress who played Arlene on the vampire soap opera True Blood actor, I decied to look for recent projects involving Stephen Moyer, who played Vampire Bill.  

I found him playing Teddy, the main villain in the British television series 

Se xy Beast (2024), a prequel to the 2000 movie:  he hires thieves and best buds Gal (James McArdle, left) and Don (Emun Elliot) for increasingly dangerous jobs, thus jeopardizing the relationships with the Women of Their Dreams. 

There is also a "Young Teddy,"  Ruaridh Moluca, who appears in a clip on AZ Nude Men smooching a heavy-lidded decadent gay guy while a woman is being strangled.  

So, is Teddy gay, or was he a straight "gay for pay" hustler in his youth?

The scene appears at the beginning of Episode 1.8, the finale: 

Scene 1: During the 1980s, Young Teddy tells either a femme man or a woman to "just get through it, don't ask names.  Think of the money."  His companion is rather looking forward to it.

They enter a nondescript building.  An elderly, decadent man in a bathrobe approaches, calls Teddy a "tart," gropes him, then leers at his companion -- Daniel -- and leads him into the main room. 

It's what straight people think a gay party is like, men in suits looking decadent by candlelight, with shirtless waiters milling about. A leatherman and a person with long hair snort poppers.  

"He's 21," Teddy tells the elderly man, who doesn't believe it.

Cut to moaning, leering, and decadent looks.  Teddy does things to the elderly man, then sits beside him to drink.  He sees Daniel having things done to him, hand-on-mouth, looking terrified.  The decadent men watch.

"He's suffocating!" Teddy exclaims.  He tries to intervene, but the elderly man stops him.  The participants include Sir Henry Coulson and Sir Anthony Jones (the husband of Princess Margaret) -- very powerful -- so  keep to yourself.  Young Teddy watches in dismay as Daniel dies.

In the present, Teddy remembers and is depressed during Guy Fawkes night, with fireworks exploding over Big Ben. 

More after the break

Ruaridh Mollica (left and below) is a Scottish actor with 19 credits in the IMDB, including Boys on Film: Dangerous to Know (2023) and Sebastian (2024), about an aspiring writer who becomes a s*x worker with elderly male clients.  Sounds precisely like his role in Se xy Beast.

Daniel does not appear in the episode cast list, but he is listed in the closing credits as James Farley, "a queer, neurodivergent, working class actor" from the Midlands.  In 2024 he performed  "Good Boy," his final project at the Manchester School of Theatre, at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  It explores "patriarchal power dynamics in queer relationships and recovering from the trauma of se xual abuse"

 Sounds like his role in Se xy Beast, also.

Both of them are presenting gay life as sleazy, decadent, and destructive.  But what about the adult Teddy in Se xy Beast? Is he a queer threat to heterosexual destiny?  A straight guy with a "sleazy" past?  Or just incidentally gay?

Only one way to find out: watch the first episode.  But I'm almost out of space, so I won't do a scene-by-scene.

Dom and Gal and the rest of their team do a job, then hang out at a club full of women to get their heterosexualization on.  Cut to Teddy all alone in a tanning bed.   I get it: straight equals community, gay equals isolation, "existential loneliness."

He puts on a silk bathroom, goes downstairs, and while getting manicured by a Cute Young Thing, hears from his assistant or boss about the next job: the mark is Sir Stephen Eaton, who made millions "brokering illegal backroom deals with the Chinese," married a royal, and now squanders his money. 

Heterosexual shenanigans, domestic family stuff, being accepted by the girlfriend's parents, and Dom trying to talk Gal into taking the job: Teddy is a powerful crime boss who doesn't like to be told "no."

In Malaga, Teddy gets intel on their mark, Sir Stephen. He has a penchant for fine wine, fast cars, and "young, nubile blondes."  Why are ladies always the third thing in the list?  His henchman, Freddie, is a "total de generate," handling the drug trade and the murdering aspects of the business. 

Teddy gawks at the Cute Young Thing serving their drinks.

Teddy meets with the guys at a party occupied almost entirely by gyrating women, and points out Henchman Freddie.  If they take the job, they will get enough money to live "a life of luxury," illustrated by shots of gyrating women.

They mingle and start heterosexualizing, resulting in Women of Their Dreams, and a conversation about "Why would you want anything besides a good job and a Gorgeous Woman?" 

They take the job: it involves stealing a coin from a locked box in a security van.  Except Larry goes wild and tries to shoot some people.

Then more heterosexualizing and nuclear family stuff.  Happy happy joy joy.

Teddy congratulates them on their success, but kills Larry for being a loose cannon.

Beefcake: Teddy and Gal take off their shirts.

Gay Characters: Only hints: femme mannerisms, gawking at guys, and the standard existential loneliness of the gay outsider, blatantly juxtaposed with the warm, wholesome, all-smiles of heterosexual romance.

My Grade: F

See also:  Elsbeth: The lady from True Blood solves murders, with a jazz pianist, an OnlyFans hunk, a Christmas gay tease, and Kwanten's bum

Gangs of London: An assassin, his boyfriend, a gay Mafioso's son, and some parties with d*cks