‘Tom Swift’ Star On The Pressure & Joy Of Making Queer TV History

Tian Richards is making queer TV history. Star of the Nancy Drew spinoff Tom Swift, Richards is the first-ever Black gay lead on network television. And yet, as he shared in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor was still surprised by just how impactful this role has been both for the audience and personally. 

“I get these messages and I hear people talk about it, and it’s a little out of body, because when I’m not playing Tom and I’m not in his skin, I do see him as this separate entity from myself,” he told EW. “To see that people have this reverence for something that I was a part of, that obviously feels amazing. And to be airing during Pride Month has been such a highlight, because the show is so many different intersections and we get to talk about the queer experience, what it’s like to actually exist and not just to be entering that space by way of coming out or coming to terms with ourselves. And for it to be Juneteenth this month and with just how much Black excellence is highlighted in the show, and that it shows us freely in all spaces and fully, I love that the most.”

Along with the joy of playing the character, Richards admitted that the pressure can also feel really intense. “I did feel a lot of pressure in that I had to be this thing, this example, this role model, knowing what he meant and what it could be,” he said. “When I was a kid, if I saw someone that was chocolate like I am, that looked cool, doing these things, it makes you feel, ‘I could be desirable, I could be sexual, and I can also be sturdy and powerful,’ because I didn’t see that. The first time I saw a Black queer man that looked like me was Michael K. Williams in The Wire.”

“But I didn’t want to aspire to be Omar. But still just to see him visually, that meant a lot. If I had seen Tom Swift, younger me would’ve been more quick to allow myself to be free. It wouldn’t have been such a long journey to self-acceptance,” he said.

While the role might have started on an episode of Nancy Drew, for the spinoff series Richards was excited to show more of his own lived experience. “We get to really sift through the intricacies and the complexities of what manhood and queer Black manhood and culture looks like. I didn’t think that would get that real, but it did, in the best ways,” he told EW.

Tom Swift is currently airing on The CW. Watch the trailer below.

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