#fellow travelers tv series

[hot-hellboy]

Bloom - A Fellow Travelers Fanfic

Summary:

Hawk fists Tim for the first time.

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       It was moments like these that reminded Hawk that life was truly worth living. It was the softer moments–the tranquil moments–after sex that reminded him of what really mattered. And what really mattered was his fucked out beautiful boy, who was currently curled into his side and on the brink of dozing off. 

     Of course, Hawk had to be mindful of the fact that at least one of them had to stay awake (which usually ended up being him, but he didn’t mind–especially if he got to watch his Skippy rest in total peace for a few hours before sunrise) so that they could be ready to wake the other up in time to leave Hawk’s apartment building without suspicion, and under the cover of a starless city sky. 

     Hawk was content with letting Tim rest for a while after sex, so long as they didn’t make the same mistake as one time before when sleeping in with each other wasn’t an option. But that incident hadn’t been repeated since, so Hawk was willing to let it go. Well, for the most part. 

     As mentioned before, now was usually the period of time where Tim would either be nearly passed out, or still be riding the highs of sexual ecstasy, and therefore conscious enough to be chattier than usual as he asked Hawk all of the questions weighing on his mind, or otherwise communicating in general. Tonight was clearly the situation of the former–it had been a particularly rough session with his boy that night which left Tim too tired to stay up late talking with Hawk as he opted for letting his body be cradled in his arms as sleep nudged him into its gentle lull. However, Hawk wasn’t done playing with him. 

     “Skippy?” Hawk’s hand came up to stroke the side of his face while Tim made a quiet noise of acknowledgment somewhere in the back of his throat. “I want you to turn over for me.” Tim looked up at him momentarily with a slightly confused and dazed look in his eyes that told Hawk two things: one being the fact that Tim was still deep in subspace, and two being that he still hadn’t made the effort to put his glasses back on, so seeing Hawk clearly was a bit of a struggle.

      Nevertheless, Tim did as he was told as he rolled over onto his front just like Hawk asked. It never failed to amaze Hawk how obedient Tim was in the bedroom for him, and how that kind of submission was nothing short of a gift. 

     “Good boy,” he praised. Hawk could see the small twitch of a bashful smile begin to form on what he could see of Tim’s face, which also made his fondness grow simply because of his Skippy’s love for affirmation. 

    Hawk let his hand slide from the side of Tim’s face down to tracing his neck, his spine, and down to the small arch of his lower back right before it met his plump ass. Hawk nudged his thighs apart for easier access while he fumbled around for the can of lube they had used before. 

     Tim turned his head to watch what he was doing with those stupidly pretty brown eyes of his that Hawk would never admit to the extent of how much they affected him, especially when those irises were filled with so much trust to the point that Tim wasn’t even questioning what he was about to try. 

     Hawk’s attention was brought back to him as his slicked up fingers found their way to tracing his hole in circles. Tim must’ve assumed it was time for round two with the way he spread his legs a little wider for when Hawk was ready to fuck him full of his cock once again, but he had other plans. 

      This time around, Hawk was much slower and deliberate with the way he fingered him. It was no longer a rushed process as before with his fingers getting his boy prepped and ready as fast as possible, but instead he was truly taking his time with how he stretched him, though it wasn’t really necessary since Tim’s hole was still thoroughly open from their actions prior. 

      Hawk could feel how ready Tim was just by feeling the semen he had ejaculated into him make his two fingers inside him sticky with the substance. It made something dark and animalistic inside him proud of the way he was able to claim his boy from within. 

      Like the good boy he was, Tim didn’t even flinch or try to move away when Hawk slid a third finger into his soft pink hole. He paused to reapply some more lube before guiding his fingers in and out as he watched his boy make little sounds of pleasure when Hawk rubbed his prostate. 

       “Feels good, Skip?” Hawk teased as he intentionally felt around for that perfect little sweet spot again.

       “Yes,” Tim moaned into the pillow while his hips moved back to meet Hawk’s fingers. 

      Hawk chuckled as he stimulated that place over and over again. He appreciated how far Tim was allowing him to go even after a scene so rough.

      Speaking of which, in Tim’s mind, he wasn’t completely sure what had come over Hawk. Usually, it was all cuddles, kisses, soft words, and sometimes hard conversations that followed what they did in the dead of night, especially since they only had so much time for only so many rounds of sex before he inevitably had to leave Hawk’s side and go back to being relative strangers the next day for appearances. Good God , did Tim despise “appearances”, and Hawk never failed to remind him of the importance of them, even if it hurt. 

      But Tim decided he couldn’t focus on any of that right now, especially not with Hawk still playing with him long after he had come inside him for the night. Tim’s entire body thrummed with the feeling of his well-fucked hole stretched over Hawk’s three fingers inside of it, and he relaxed into the grounding sensation of Hawk’s free hand petting his sides, his hair, and occasionally guiding his face into a sweet kiss. 

      Anticipation grew in his mind, and it translated into him arching his back and fucking himself on Hawk’s fingers as he waited for his length to fill him once again. Tim waited patiently for the now four fingers stuffing him full to be removed in order to make way for a much larger intrusion, but he soon came to realize that wasn’t going to happen. 

       “Hawk–” Tim protested when he felt Hawk slide all four digits down to his knuckles. Now that was new. By this point, both of them would have been too eager to ravish each other’s bodies until pure exhaustion was the only thing pulling them apart, and Tim would have long deemed himself ready to take Hawk inside him, but never before had he been so set on opening him up like this. 

      “You trust me, don’t you, Skippy? Trust me enough to take good care of you?” Hawk murmured into his ear, but Tim didn’t have the heart to tell him that after observing the unpredictable nature of Hawk’s behavior and his ability to seemingly detach himself from Tim’s life at the drop of a hat, he wasn’t so sure anymore. 

     But this? Tim trusted him enough for the sake of what they did behind closed doors. Trusted him to the point of doing anything Hawk asked; trusted him with his submission, and certainly trusted him with his love despite everything separating them. 

     “I-I do,” Tim’s voice shook as Hawk’s fingers formed a point; the shape they formed akin to the closed beak of a duck. 

     Hawk proceeded to go even slower (if that was possible) after he reapplied more lube to the rest of his hand, which was when Tim began realizing his intentions. 

     Just the mere thought of Hawk’s future actions made him blush and squirm under the amount of close attention the man was giving him. It was the sheer trust and vulnerability of it all that had Tim questioning whether or not he could really take it. Yet the answer was simple; of course he could take it. Take the emotions, take on his role of knowing exactly who he belonged to, and, physically speaking, take Hawk’s hand inside him. Tim supposed it was poetic, almost,–it was as if what Hawk was doing to him at the moment was a metaphor for the hand-held grip he had on his life, his every waking and breathing moment, on Tim himself. 

     “Are you okay?” Hawk stopped for a second before he got to the widest part of his hand where his knuckles peaked and the joints of his fingers could very much be felt by Tim’s sensitive hold. 

      Tim gave a shaky nod as he squeezed his eyes shut at the impending pressure against his body. 

      “I want to hear you say it, can you do that for me?” Hawk’s voice was gentle in the way it got whenever his dominating facade faded ever-so-slightly during sex whenever he wanted to check in on Tim. 

       “I’m okay,” he responded. And it was true; Tim was more than just “okay”. He felt vulnerable in the best way possible as he surrendered any semblance of control to Hawk as he always did, only this time in the way of doing something they had never done before.

      Hawk’s lips met his heated skin in reassuring kisses as he inched more of his hand into his hole, and Tim took it beautifully. The hard part was relatively over–he had managed to take him past his knuckles and over the wide part of his palm, and Hawk wouldn’t let him doubt for a second about how well he was doing. 

      Every couple minutes was spent either inserting more of himself in Tim, or stopping completely just to praise his boy for being so open in more ways than one. Eventually, Tim had taken Hawk up to his wrist, and he was overwhelmed with just the feeling of being so full. 

      “Talk to me, tell me how my boy is feeling,” Hawk coaxed the words out of him since Tim was too overstimulated to do it himself. 

     “Hawk–I’m–I’m good, really good, it’s just–”

     “Too much?”

    “Yeah,” Tim laughed breathlessly. Hawk started to retract his hand. “Don’t,” Tim whimpered; his voice high and needy as his grip tightened significantly. 

     “ Fuck, need it that badly, huh? Need my hand filling you up like this, even if it’s a lot,” Hawk said as he continued stretching him as Tim’s hole fluttered around his wrist. 

     Hawk could see him rutting against the sheets for some much needed friction, and that was when he decided it was time to end his little experiment for the night. This time, Tim let him remove his hand from his inviting body since the urge to get off had taken over his mind, and Hawk was keen on letting him orgasm once more for the night. 

      Tim moaned loudly when he wrapped his hand around his cock and proceeded to stroke his length until his cum splattered across the bed sheets. Hawk gave him a few more tugs even after he climaxed, which made Tim shudder and bat his hands away. He turned over onto his back once more with a content, blissed out expression on his face; making Hawk’s heart warm. 

       Few words were exchanged as they cleaned up for the second time that night–though it was mostly Hawk who was doing the tidying-up since rough sex, a fisting session, and two orgasms had left Tim far too tired to be much help. 

      Once everything was settled, Hawk joined his boy on the bed once more and wrapped a clean blanket around the two of them. Tim made a quiet sound of appreciation as Hawk tucked him in for real this time. 

       “You were good tonight, Skip. Really good,” he murmured into his soft brown hair. There were no less than a million words Hawk wanted to say to him, but couldn’t bring himself to do so. So, he opted to do what he did best when it came to Tim; hold him in his arms and hope that everything he wanted to communicate was shared through that kind of contact, even if they both knew Tim needed more than that. But like everything else, Hawk hoped it would be enough for now. 

        The

           End. 

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[livreria]

Fellow Travelers (2023)

[ballumville]

Discovering a new storyline...pt2 🥰💖✨🌈🏳‍🌈🏳‍🌈

Hawk and Tim's storyline from season 1 of 'Fellow Travellers' (2023 -?). I just discovered it😐 and I loveddddddddddddd it!🥰😋😍💖

With the adorable Jonathan Bailey and the ever so gorgeous Matt Bomer 🔥🔥🔥 who, I swear, gets better good looking with every passing year; he literally ages like a sumptuous wine. 😊

If you're interested to know more about Hawk and Tim's storyline, here's a recap ( 🚨🚩 spoilers )

[poreyneel]

Fellow Travelers (2023)

[frannsmain]

HUGE PRISMA UPDATE

rai (our national television network) has bought prisma’s distribution rights! this means that the first two seasons will premiere on a public tv channel (rai2) in 2025 for everyone to see. the show will still remain on amazon as well though.

what does this mean for season 3? it doesn’t mean anything yet, as prime still has all the creative rights, but it’s a start. why would rai buy a cancelled show that ends with a cliffhanger if they didn’t intend to continue it?

we are thinking that rai might produce season 3 or co-produce it with prime like they did with other shows!

none of this is confirmed though, which is why we all still have to keep signing our petition (which has become the most signed one in history when it comes to italian tv shows- surprassing skam italia!) and talk about the show. the streaming parties are still going strong (we’re watching s 1 ep 7 in 20 minutes!) and our hashtags still trend on x. we’re switching hashtags every two days (we used #andrearisorio yesterday and today), so i’ll keep you updated). we have to keep showing interest: they need to think of our show as something they should invest on! the mediatic attention we have received has been crazy: we need to keep on fighting!

keep on commenting under all primeit’s posts and share the petition! we’re close to 25k signatures! we go this!

ps: our director, ludovico bessegato, posted an ig story thanking us and saying that everything that has happened this past week has been the most moving thing that ever happened to him and that everyone is really greatful🌈💎

https://www.change.org/p/chiediamo-il-rinnovo-della-serie-tv-prisma-per-una-terza-stagione-su-amazon-prime-video?recruiter=164945634&recruited_by_id=25cb64cb-edec-47b3-b2e3-4d9ee2137498&utm_source=share_petition&utm_campaign=share_for_starters_page&utm_medium=copylink

[pascaled]

Happy birthday

Jonathan Bailey

[grace-williams-xo]

Are the Emmy’s actively homophobic or do the voting members just not watch queer media? An inquiry

[felloweeper]

differences from book -> series: the cufflinks.

context: [december 23, 1953] this is the scene where we're first introduced to the cufflinks. it's christmas and they're serving post-coital realness (i have no other way of explaining this rn).

this is one of the most dramatic differences between the book and the series, because what on earth. this is such a tender moment of rare openness from hawk in the series. it's such a clear declaration of love with the implication of possession and a what's-mine-is-yours kind of deal.

we get the same feeling in the book but in a much darker tone. we see, first of all, how small and undeserving tim feels in the presence of hawk. i'd go as far as to say tim uses the cufflinks to self-harm. "the way one forgets a pain in one place by introducing another somewhere else." tim is actively chasing the pain of loving this man away in the form of causing bodily harm to himself. (🚩 x a million.)

yes, there's tenderness in hawk giving the cufflinks to tim and going as far as putting them into his dress shirt himself -- but the number of times tim doesn't even let himself believe that it's a special thing for him is awful. he thinks he's so undeserving that, in the end, he convinces himself that they were his reward for not showing his emotions! and to add hawk's passiveness with "'i'm going to be late, skippy.'" ✋ don't get me started. the coldest cherry on top -- agh!

overall, this scene makes me feel sick. it's not at all like the series -- and thank god for that! the show made it so much more heartwarming and loving. they look happy, they look like they both love what the cufflinks symbolize -- they adore each other!

context: [april 7, 1954] this never made it into the series, but tim has a boss named tommy mcintyre who is very aware of the situation between tim and hawk, but doesn't really mind it. (this character kind of grew into the roy cohn moment which i thought was ridiculous but this is not the post for that.) klein is another assistant to a different senator who pops up like thrice when they're talking politics.

i really liked tommy as a character, i felt he had really great moments in the book i wished they'd kept in the series, but oh well. again, he knew about tim and hawk and would go as far as to tease them about it. anyway, this is a great example of tim's lies that "people like himself learned to construct a dozen times a day."

context: [december 25, 1954/april 22, 1957] tim is home for the holidays with his sister, frances, at their grandmother's. frances is older and is married with children.

how do i... like how do i even begin.

i put it best in my notes:

honestly, favorite character? absolutely tim's sister. she does everything i wish i could have done for tim -- she's such a supportive force of nature for him, it's so nice to see.

in the show, she's there for him while he's suffering from aids, so she's fully aware of the fact that he's gay and completely devotes all of her time to him anyway. in the book, she shows this unconditional love toward him in the best way she can when she recognizes he's in love with another man.

this is heartbreaking because, in my opinion, that was their escape. she was there and so willing to welcome hawk into her home -- without having ever met him -- because she saw how much tim loved and treasured him. she was ready to love him, too, and to include him in their family. i wonder, sometimes, what would have happened if she had actually ever met him. if that would've ever made a difference in hawk's decisions and the fate of their relationship.

and because tim can't be normal and recognize his self-worth for one second:

also! the difference in using the cufflinks to inflict pain! tim uses it to distract himself, but she uses it to anchor him to the present and pay attention to what she's telling him.

context: [october 16, 1991] hawk is on the phone with his old employee, mary, where she's telling him details of tim's life and death.

..........................

that's all i have to say about that! 😊

[queerstuffonscreen]

Fellow Travelers (2023)

Episode length: 46-60 min.

Country: USA

Genre: History, Drama, Romance

Language: English

Decades-long chronicle of the risky, volatile and steamy relationship between the charismatic and ambitious Hawk and the pious and idealistic Tim, two political staffers who fall in love at the height of the 1950s Lavender Scare. Through the Vietnam War protests of the 1960s, the drug-fueled disco culture of the 1970s and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, the two men’s fiery affair only intensifies despite the constant threat of being exposed and losing everything.

Season 1

Episode 1: You're Wonderful

Episode 2: Bulletproof

Episode 3: Hit Me

Episode 4: Your Nuts Roasting on an Open Fire

Episode 5: Promise You Won't Write

Episode 6: Beyond Measure

Episode 7: White Nights

Episode 8: Make It Easy

Watch on Paramount+

[stephpanda]

"It’s not who we sleep with, it’s who we love.”

"Non è con chi andiamo a letto, è chi amiamo"

[weirdo-sed-sum-verus]

i created one more playlist.it is for a series that has come out recently and it is called ''fellow travellers"

i hope you'll enjoy it

[sillycowboys]

I just love consuming media

[dance-with-me-tonight21]

Pieces already covered:

Fellow Travelers

My Policeman

Operation Hyacinth

Karppi (Deadwind)

Coming soon: Love, Simon ❤️

Listen on Spotify, Youtube and Apple Podcast 😎

[pupmusebox]

Tag dump 8/?

{ Demon King and Dragon Royal - Gardonus } { Mysterious Demon and Distant Ancestor - Astaroth } { Older Half-Brother to a Human Exchange Student - Xavier } { Quiet Powerful Bird of Pride - Zephyr } { Fashionable Fellow and Aspiring Clothing Designer - Declan Crewel } { High Ranking and Odd Archangel - Michael } { Human with a Reincarnated Angel's Soul - Lilith } { Celtic Wolf and God of Light - Lugh } { Warrior Wolf Pup of a Celtic Wolf - Connla } { Beast That Calls the Moon - Lunala/Artemis } { Beast That Devours the Sun - Solgaleo/Apollo } { The Blinding One - Necrozma/Lux } { Lazy Bones Skeleton - Sans } { Robotic Soul and TV Star - Mettaton } { Spaghetti Maker Skeleton - Papyrus } { Odd Human From Above - Frisk } { Lightner of a Human - Kris } { Fastest Thing Alive - Sonic } { Two Tailed Prodigy - Tails } { Guardian of the Emerald - Knuckles } { Mastermind and Doctor Robotics - Eggman } { Treasure Hunter and Secret Agent - Rouge } { Ultimate Lifeform - Shadow } { Last of the E-Series - E-123/Omega } { Time Traveler with Psychic Powers - Silver } { Chaotix Detective Agency Boss - Victor } { Soulful and Stealthy Ninja - Espio } { Hyperactive Intuition - Charmy } { Diamond Ruler of Time - Dialga/Ruka } { Pearl Ruler of Space - Palkia/Rozovo }

[jbaileyfansite]

Interview with Backstage (2024)

Jonathan Bailey is still marinating in his thoughts, andthey taste pretty sweet. Top notes of red wine, he says. 

These are busy times for the witty British heartthrob. He’s speaking over Zoom from Malta, where he’s filming the next “Jurassic World” installment. And two days prior, he received his first Emmy nomination for his supporting turn on Showtime’s “Fellow Travelers.” 

What’s lingering in Bailey’s mind after reaching such a huge milestone? “The nature of the story, and how that story’s come to be told,” he says of Ron Nyswaner’s limited series, a decades-spanning gay drama that’s chock-full of steamy sex scenes. For him, the Emmy nod is “an acknowledgment of [the show] meaning something much bigger.” 

The 36-year-old actor radiates humility and surges with pride for his collaborators; “Fellow Travelers” also picked up nominations for lead actor Matt Bomer and for Nyswaner’s writing. Bailey believes the fact that executive producer Robbie Rogers was able to get the project on television at all is a “brilliant signifier” of changing times. He feels lucky to have been the right person for the job. And after a couple of decades in the industry, the actor’s star is about to go supernova. 

Childhood stage work and gigs on 2000s teen TV shows led to roles on acclaimed series like ITV’s “Broadchurch” and Channel 4’s “Crashing.” He nabbed an Olivier in 2019 for his performance in Marianne Elliott’s West End revival of “Company.” Households on the other side of the Atlantic learned his name in 2020 when he courted lockdown audiences as Anthony, the strident head of the titular family on Netflix’s period-romance smash “Bridgerton.” 

Then came the game-changing “Fellow Travelers.” Bailey plays the idealistic Tim Laughlin, a closeted congressional staffer who pursues a clandestine relationship with another man amid the witch hunts of McCarthy-era Washington. The actor is keeping up that momentum in the coming months with part one of Jon M. Chu’s highly anticipated film adaptation of the Broadway musical “Wicked” (out Nov. 22), followed by the fourth “Jurassic World” in 2025. 

“Fellow Travelers” is a fitting inflection point for Bailey, considering it reflects aspects of his own gay identity. Tim’s story also illuminates a thread connecting the actor’s work, both in and out of character: always embracing the truth, shame be damned. 

Born in Wallingford, England, Bailey made a beeline for the arts as a kid when he began studying music and ballet. After getting a taste of performing at a young age, he secured an agent when he was a teenager. Even now, he feels the sense of joy and wonder he discovered in those early days. 

He chose not to attend drama school, instead throwing himself into professional theater, where he encountered the performance process in its most essential form. “You start with your own instincts, and then you share with others in the room in real time,” Bailey says. “You academically approach text, then you emotionally explore it. Then, you physically put it on its feet.”

Theater taught him to be observant. In rehearsals, he witnessed actors being brilliant and bold, but also making crucial mistakes. Weeks of rehearsing helped him learn how to spend time with a character as he watched his castmates play against type and expand themselves through performance. Those lessons both tested and encouraged him, and they’ve carried him throughout his career. 

Since then, Bailey has gotten the chance to see plenty of giants at work. He reverently discusses performing Stephen Sondheim’s music alongside Patti LuPone in “Company” and reciting Shakespeare opposite Ian McKellen in the Chichester Festival Theatre’s 2017 production of “King Lear.” 

His contemporaries also made for great teachers. He worked with Phoebe Waller-Bridge on “Crashing” and Michaela Coel on “Chewing Gum”—two certified television geniuses whose creative successes Bailey likens to the magnesium flame of a meteor. It’s an apt comparison—Waller-Bridge called him “a meteorite of fun” in a 2022 interview with GQ. (“I think I’ve always been quite naughty,” he says playfully.)

“There’s so much you take on via natural osmosis,” Bailey explains. “It’s what you watch and how you interpret things.”

For example, he thinks that every actor should see Sandy Dennis’ Oscar-winning turn as Honey in Mike Nichols’ 1966 film “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Her performance whet his curiosity about the craft: “She is so fluid. I mean, that might be the most exposing answer I’ve given about what my inner world is like.”

Bailey’s technique is rooted in music. He plays piano and clarinet, and he approaches acting like an instrument, too. When reading a script for the first time, he experiences his character’s arc as the phrases in a song. “The way my brain works is that I see the images of what they’re doing,” he says. “When I say ‘phrasing,’ it’s like, how you get from that image to this image.”

When he was playing the bottled-up Anthony on “Bridgerton,” Bailey found inspiration in songs by Echo and the Bunnymen and Nirvana. While filming “Fellow Travelers” in Toronto, he went on long walks while listening to expansive pop music to help him explore Tim, a character whose energy radiates outward.

Considering Bailey’s process plays like a song, connoisseurs of his work might notice a motif. Sam from “Crashing,” a party boy Bailey calls “a wild, untamed animal in a tiny little cage,” aggressively maintains a facade of heterosexuality while pining for his male housemate Fred (Amit Shah). On Season 2 of “Bridgerton,” Anthony locked himself into a prison of duty and a loveless engagement to avoid acknowledging his desire for the fiery Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley).

Tim of “Fellow Travelers” is the latest in a series of sharply drawn characters confronting the tension between their assigned roles and their personal truths. Viewers first meet a straitlaced rule-follower whose Catholic piety is only matched by his loyalty to the infamous Senator Joseph McCarthy. All that changes when he crosses paths with Hawkins “Hawk” Fuller (Bomer), a crystal-eyed, debonair State Department official. Their respective closets combust on contact, and they enter into a forbidden love affair just as McCarthy’s Lavender Scare has begun purging queer people from the halls of government.

Bailey’s interior work tends to be more emotional than cerebral, but he’s a generous conversation partner who’s always game to riff on the deep stuff. Whether it’s yearning, going against expectations, or facing high stakes, the phrasing is what draws him in. 

He finds a lot of gorgeous notes to play across the eight episodes of “Fellow Travelers” as the action moves from the 1950s to the ’80s, making pit stops along the way. While Hawk settles for a life of straight domesticity, Tim hurtles through a sexual and political awakening: The Beltway boy becomes an activist priest who refuses to diminish himself, especially when the AIDS crisis begins to rip his community apart.

Bailey loved being inside Tim’s head; in fact, the actor thinks of him as a hero. After experiencing the isolation of his secret relationship with Hawk, he opens himself up to the world: He comes out, moves to San Francisco, cobbles together a found family, and builds a life as his true self. 

“Ron Nyswaner has spoiled Matt and me for the operatic detail that existed between [our characters],” Bailey says, “and also with Tim’s political fervor: the truth and the honesty that he demands of himself and the world around him, and the grappling with anything that is an obstacle to his own and other’s happiness.”

You can’t talk about “Fellow Travelers” without discussing its rapturous sex scenes—and not only for titillation’s sake, though the kinky encounters between Tim and Hawk certainly call for smelling salts. These sequences gave Bailey the opportunity to commit authentic queer intimacy to the screen, which members of the LGBTQ+ community rarely come across as they search for ways to understand their identities. 

The trust between Bailey and Bomer informed everything they did onscreen. Before filming those scenes, the two actors talked through their approach at a café (Goldstruck Coffee on Cumberland Street in Toronto—a ribald little detail that still makes Bailey laugh). The filming itself was incredibly technical, and the actors worked with an intimacy coordinator on set. “We sort of hit the ground running, knowing exactly what was going to be required but also how to communicate throughout it,” Bailey says. “It felt immediately quite safe.”

He sensed an exciting opportunity to tell a story about transformative love amid the “wild, oppressive moment” of the Lavender Scare, dismissing any reservations about the explicit nature of the material. “Honestly, this is exactly why this show is going to be brilliant,” he remembers thinking.

The series’ milestone dramatic moments, with buttons still done up and no skin showing, carried that same sense of significance. No matter how much Tim grew over the course of his arc, Bailey says that his bond with Hawk remained an “extraordinary, material thing.”

This summer, the actor made a very Tim move when he founded the Shameless Fund, a charity that supports LGBTQ+ causes under the tagline: “Raising cash. Erasing shame.” The initiative grew directly out of his acting work—first inspired by the platform afforded to him by “Bridgerton” and further influenced by his experience on “Fellow Travelers.” 

Playing Tim—or, as Bailey puts it, spending “five months doing a dissertation on queer oppression and liberation”—catalyzed his thoughts about the people who created a world where such a show could even exist. “I think in ‘Fellow Travelers,’ it’s so clear what Tim wants,” he says. “But as the world around him develops, you realize there’s so much that he can’t have, but that he can help change.”

Bailey sees that progress playing out in the next generation. He has a small role on the upcoming third season of Netflix’s queer YA hit “Heartstopper” as a dreamy academic who’s the celebrity crush of the series’ protagonist, Charlie (Joe Locke). Based on creator Alice Oseman’s graphic novel series, the show has found a passionate following of young LGBTQ+ fans. 

When he watched “Heartstopper” for the first time, Bailey remembers wondering what it would have been like to see such representation on television when he was growing up. “I was so celebratory of it,” he says. “But it was obviously kind of a melancholic watch for people above a certain age, because it allowed them to grieve what they didn’t have.”

Having conquered the Regency and Cold War periods on the small screen, Bailey’s blockbuster era is imminent. He’s playing dashing love interest Fiyero in the “Wicked” films (based on Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel), singing and dancing alongside Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. It’s a perfect fit for the actor’s particular lens: “Musically and theatrically, I understand it massively.”

Since “Wicked” came with its own well-known songs to study, Bailey spent a lot of time with composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz’s music in his ears rather than Kurt Cobain’s. He explored Fiyero’s interiority through the musical theater form itself: What does the act of singing express for him?

And for a character whose signature number is called “Dancing Through Life,” what metaphorical direction are his steps leading him in? 

Bailey sees Fiyero as part of the same club as Tim, Anthony, and Sam, as the heightened world of Oz sends him on a journey of radical transformation. “I think about where he starts and where he ends up; he’s literally a changed person,” the actor says. “I savored the arc over two films.” 

Next year, Bailey will become an action star in Gareth Edwards’ next installment of “Jurassic World” opposite Scarlett Johansson. Though details have yet to be announced, including the movie’s title, production is well underway; Bailey just finished filming in Thailand before shooting moved to Malta. A few days before we spoke, he was interacting with a fake blue-screen dinosaur (which is only a spoiler if you thought Hollywood has actually been cloning big reptiles this whole time).

But Bailey is still keeping his theater muscles toned. Next year, he’s starring as the titular monarch in Nicholas Hytner’s production of Shakespeare’s “Richard II” at London’s Bridge Theatre. “I have to go and sharpen up,” he says of returning to the stage. “You feel so sharp and dexterous at the end of a theater run—but also, you know, without a soul. Carcass levels of absolute exhaustion.”

Bailey lights up at the prospect of getting back onstage and experiencing the kinetic energy between the actors, crew, and director. He believes that the emotional and intellectual rigor of theater leads to a tight, specific piece of work. It’s an art form that requires continuous creation night after night.

This stamina comes in handy in front of a camera, too. “When you’re exhausted, you have to rely on technique,” he explains. “Technique does get you over the finish line, and you can deliver a performance that is honest and tell the story effectively and truthfully.” 

Until then—and until he’s back on set with those fake dinosaurs—he’s going to soak up that Emmy-nomination afterglow for a little while longer. 

“I’m actually going to go and have another glass of wine to celebrate,” he says.

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