9-1-1 star Oliver Stark, who plays Evan ‘Buck’ Buckley in the hit show, has responded to criticism of his character coming out as bisexual on the show - and we can only stand back and applaud his amazing response!
Posting onto his Instagram Stories, the 32-year-old wrote: “Humbled and overwhelmed by the positive reaction to Buck’s storyline. I’ve read so many of your messages and I couldn’t be prouder.
“If you are one of the smaller group of people commenting on my posts about how this has ruined the show, I would like you to know that I truly don’t care. This is a show about love and inclusion. It’s featured queer relationships from the very beginning including a beautiful Black lesbian marriage played out by two of the best actresses I’ve ever watched.”
He concluded by insinuating that fans who don’t like the storyline can simply stop watching, adding: “If one other character finding a new facet to his sexuality and realising his bisexuality is your deal breaker – I fear you’ve missed the entire point of the show. You are not required to announce your departure.”
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly about how the storyline made sense for Buck’s character, Oliver explained: “I do feel like there have been moments in the show that have led up to this for a long time. For a long, long time, in fact. I think it's been seasons and seasons in the making, so it's really nice to see it officially come to fruition.
“I think the crumbs have been there. Maybe on one hand in quite obvious ways, but on the other hand, in less obvious ways — of just searching, of trying to... There was obviously something that wasn't clicking in Buck's personality and his openness with himself and his acceptance of himself.
“It felt to me like there was something beneath the surface, right? Because we've seen him latch onto these different personalities, or different relationships over the years, and that, to me, is a sign of not being quite okay with yourself. So I think that was a big driving force in it for me.”
The star has also opened up about the show’s 100th episode, telling HELLO!: ”The 100th episode is a really great character episode. The heart of the show is the characters, right? The spectacle is lovely but if you didn't care about the people then the spectacle would wear off pretty quickly.
“We had these huge, chaotic, high-octane first three episodes of the season so to bring things down and have a more intimate character-driven episode is going to be a really nice breather and a way to honor these characters that we've spent seven seasons getting to know, and to really focus in on them – because they are the show.”