The Real Reason He Quit 'True Blood'

Talk about a case of someone not doing their homework. Back in Dec. 2013, Luke Grimes left True Blood citing "creative differences" with his character James. He wanted to work with Deborah Ann Woll, who plays Jessica, and when that wasn't going to happen — Grimes bailed. At least, that's what True Blood fans and the rest of the world was led to believe. Honestly, I didn't even miss him when Originals star Nathan Parsons took over as James in the Season 7 premiere last Sunday. But it turns out that there's a little more to this story — Grimes quit True Blood because he didn't want to play a gay character. So, has he ever seen True Blood before or did he just audition blindly?

To be more specific, according to a report on Wednesday from Buzzfeed, a "source close to the show" revealed that Grimes quit based on early Season 7 scripts that had James and Lafayette in a romantic relationship. No, I'm not playing a trick on you. Apparently, Grimes "countered that he would be willing to play the role if Lafayette were attracted to him, but not if the attraction was mutual," whatever that means. And that the actor wasn't willing to do any same-sex kissing or sex scenes on the show. But when the writers refused to budge, he up and quit — conveniently he had just been cast as Christian Grey's brother in the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey adaptation, but still, what the hell?

Grimes' publicist insisted that the actor had no idea about the storylines when he decided to leave the series and that landing other, larger projects were the reason for his quick departure:

Luke always had an out clause as a means of pursuing other opportunities which arose in the form of features beginning with The Shangri-La Suite, followed by Fifty Shades of Grey, and most recently, Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper with Bradley Cooper.

I mean, sure, these are decent roles, but I'm not entirely convinced. Buzzfeed's source also claimed that True Blood's cast and crew were angered by Grimes' reluctance to play a gay role, considering the show has always had heavy LGBT storylines. Which leads me to my big question here — had Grimes EVER seen an episode of True Blood before he signed on to play James? Almost every character on the series has been involved in a same-sex scene over it's six, hypersexual seasons.

So, what the hell, Luke Grimes? You're entitled to your limits as an actor, but you really didn't do your homework on this one if you expected some cookie-cutter relationship between two vampires. And really, who wouldn't want to date Lafayette?

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