Ncuti Gatwa on 'sex education' ending and how playing Eric was 'healing' for him
Ncuti Gatwa on 'sex education' ending and how playing Eric was 'healing' for him
September 3, 2023 1:00 p.m.
Ncuti Gatwa reflects on Sex Education ahead of her series finale this year on Netflix and how playing Eric helped him heal.
"Thanks to [screenwriter] Laurie Nunn for nuanced this gay black character and gifting him to the world," he said in an interview with Elle before the SAG-AFTRA strike. "He's so fierce and shameless. It was healing for me and it was great for people to see themselves represented. It taught me the importance of representation: it's so powerful and necessary."
In the same interview, Gatwa talked about identifying as gay, just like his character in the streaming series. The series ends its run after four seasons with the premiere of season 4 in September. Gatwa says the series helped him understand a lot about himself.
“It erased a lot of the internalized hatred I had. I've experienced racism all my life, and even though I always believed in myself and always knew [racists] were stupid and uneducated, I guess that misinformed my view of how of the world,” he explained. "It makes you think that everyone has that opinion and that you'll have to fight constantly throughout life. Then you learn that's not the case: you can find a tribe, you can find your people ."
Gatwa was part of the summer blockbuster playing one of the Ken in Barbie and share the screen with actors like Ryan Gosling, Margot Robbie, Issa Rae, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, as well as his Sex Education co-stars Emma Mackey and Connor Swindells.
The next step for Gatwa is to star as the Fifteenth Doctor in the next season of Doctor Who.
Ncuti Gatwa reflects on Sex Education ahead of her series finale this year on Netflix and how playing Eric helped him heal.
"Thanks to [screenwriter] Laurie Nunn for nuanced this gay black character and gifting him to the world," he said in an interview with Elle before the SAG-AFTRA strike. "He's so fierce and shameless. It was healing for me and it was great for people to see themselves represented. It taught me the importance of representation: it's so powerful and necessary."
In the same interview, Gatwa talked about identifying as gay, just like his character in the streaming series. The series ends its run after four seasons with the premiere of season 4 in September. Gatwa says the series helped him understand a lot about himself.
“It erased a lot of the internalized hatred I had. I've experienced racism all my life, and even though I always believed in myself and always knew [racists] were stupid and uneducated, I guess that misinformed my view of how of the world,” he explained. "It makes you think that everyone has that opinion and that you'll have to fight constantly throughout life. Then you learn that's not the case: you can find a tribe, you can find your people ."
Gatwa was part of the summer blockbuster playing one of the Ken in Barbie and share the screen with actors like Ryan Gosling, Margot Robbie, Issa Rae, Simu Liu, Kingsley Ben-Adir, as well as his Sex Education co-stars Emma Mackey and Connor Swindells.
The next step for Gatwa is to star as the Fifteenth Doctor in the next season of Doctor Who.
