Y: The Last Man’s Elliot Fletcher on the Show’s Most Interesting Guy

Early into FX’s Y: The Last Man sequence, it’s clear that there wasn’t all that a lot that made Yorick Brown significantly attention-grabbing within the time earlier than the whole planet’s mammalian inhabitants born with a Y chromosome—except for Yorick and his pet monkey—abruptly succumbed to an unrecognized illness.

In the plague-ridden world the place the human race’s future is imperiled, Yorick’s genetics make him particular, however Y: The Last Man is cautious to element how Yorick’s being a person and his masculinity will not be distinctive to him. Other males like Sam (Elliot Fletcher), a buddy of Yorick’s sister, Hero (Olivia Thirlby) have their lives essentially upended by the onset of the catastrophe and subsequent collapse of society. But as a transgender man, a few of the difficulties Sam faces are distinct from Yorick’s. Y: The Last Man each digs into these variations and fleshes out Sam’s interiority in an effort to carry a extra sophisticated, human understanding of gender to its story that was not fairly as current within the unique comedian.

In a current interview with Polygon, Fletcher and sequence creator Eliza Clark spoke in regards to the concepts they wished to form Sam and the way, despite the fact that the character brings an essential perspective to the story, Sam being trans is just one facet of his identification. Clark defined how, as a result of there was no supply materials on Sam to straight pull from, the artistic workforce felt a good quantity of freedom to construct the character from the bottom up, and put a specific emphasis on his creativity.

“He’s maybe about to figure out his voice as an artist, and then this event happens,” Clark mentioned. “Suddenly, he’s forced to struggle just for survival, and he’s asking himself, ‘Is there art in this new world? Who am I if I’m not making art, if I’m not an artist?’ All of that is really interesting to me as a writer.”

Faced with the very actual risk of there now not being a spot for artists like himself in a world that, understandably, is a little more targeted on survival quite than artistic expression, Sam’s friendship with Hero has taken on a brand new stage of depth that’s distinct from the connection that they had earlier than the top instances. In a current episode, Sam and Hero discovered themselves on a mattress and compelled to kiss each other—one thing suggesting the potential of potential romantic problems between the 2 down the road. From Fletcher’s perspective, although, in that second, what Sam took away from that kiss was the a sobering reminder of how dire their state of affairs is, and the way a lot he doesn’t wish to lose Hero as a buddy.

“He comes back in and realizes where they are, what the situation is, and that this isn’t just another one of their random makeout sessions when they’re drunk,” Fletcher mentioned. “This is a very serious moment, and it means much more than it used to. For him, there’s a lot of weight on that kiss, and he’s not sure in that moment that she feels the same.”

Y: The Last Man airs Mondays on FX on Hulu.

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