After 9-1-1 Sealing its 100th episode with a monumental same-sex kiss between Oliver Stark’s Buck and Lou Ferrigno Jr.’s Tommy, Stark responded to fans’ emotional reactions in an Instagram Story.
The actor, who starred in all seven seasons of the popular first responder show, said he was “humbled and overwhelmed by the positive reaction to Buck’s story,” admitting he read many messages from fans and “couldn’t be prouder.” . He also addressed the haters, calling out the “smaller group of people” when commenting on their posts about how Buck’s bisexuality has ruined the show.
“I’d like you to know that I really don’t care,” Stark wrote in a story for his 737,000 instagram followers. “This is a show about love and inclusion. It features queer relationships from the beginning, including a beautiful black lesbian marriage played by two of the best actresses I’ve ever seen. If another character finding a new facet of her sexuality and realizing her bisexuality is your deal breaker, I’m afraid you’ve missed the entire point of the show.”
As noted in a previous article, a number of 9-1-1 Fans have been begging writers to explore Buck’s sexuality for years. When his 118’s fellow firefighter Eddie Diaz (Ryan Guzmán) joined the team in Season 2, the ship “Buddie” was born and viewers began rooting for a friends-to-lovers story between the two best friends.
Over the past seven years, the show dropped subtle signs that suggested Buck wasn’t straight, from his sister Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt) saying she had a “boy crush” on Eddie and talking about setting him up with her partner. work Josh. (Bryan Safi) to a memorable interaction between Buck and9-1-1: Lone Star‘s TK and more. As the crumbs piled up and the seasons passed, fans began to fear that the show was leading them on with no real intentions of making Buck canonically queer. That’s why Buck and Tommy’s kiss was so important.
As Stark noted on his Instagram Story, there was an overwhelmingly positive reaction from fans toward Buck’s bisexuality, but it’s also worth noting the support the actor has given the story since “Buck, Bothered and” aired. Bewildered.”
In addition to repeatedly thanking and validating viewers for collecting supporting evidence in past seasons and never leaving the conversation, Stark said he felt like the story made a lot of sense and had been a long time coming.
“If you look back, and I don’t know if it was intentional on anyone’s part at the time, I think the thread is there throughout. So to get to this moment now is really exciting, deserved and earned.”Stark told TVLine. “I’ve probably believed for a long time that we should end up in this place. I withdrew from social media a lot because you saw these things. [about Buck] and I would agree… but II couldn’tokay, right? It was a very fine line, because if thingsNoIf this happened, then I would have been in quotes doing queerbaiting. So thanks [to those fans] for continuing the story, and I hope there’s an element that feels right. I also hope that you will continue to stay on board and enjoy the story as we tell it.”
As for viewers wanting to jump ship now that another queer character has been introduced, Stark says, “There’s no need for them to announce their departure.”
new episodes of 9-1-1 premieres Thursdays at 8:00 pm ET on ABC.
