The Futon Critic and Huff Post have shared their interviews with Tom online. The interview for The Futon Critic is via video, but not embeddable, so watch it on their website.
In the Huff Post interview, Tom and David S. Goyer address the question of da Vinci's sexuality in the series. Read the full interview on the site.
Since the promotional trailers have shown da Vinci in bed with a woman, some have speculated that, much like the controversial 2004 movie interpretation of Alexander the Great's life, the producers might be attempting to downplay speculation about da Vinci's sexual orientation.
"The fact of the matter is that he was put on trial for sodomy twice, and given that was such a big event in his life and was documented, I think we would be doing the character and the show a disservice if we didn’t delve into it," Goyer insisted. "It’s kind of funny because we showed the first trailer and the reaction was, “Oh my God. He’s having sex with a woman!"
Clearly, that’s it," Riley laughed. "It’s a flash of something and trust me, there are flashes of other things. They’re just not in the trailer." Still, da Vinci was also rumored to have his share of female lovers as well.
"He certainly knew Lucrezia Donati. Nobody knows if they were ever together, and supposedly one his lovers was the Duchess of Milan, and various other people. And the woman -- whose name escapes me right now -- who was possibly the identity of the Mona Lisa," Goyer observed.
"There’s no mention of any lovers particularly, male or female, in his entire diary," Riley pointed out. "I find that fascinating -- that either there’s no mention because he was some kind of renaissance Morrissey or because something about that was so painful he got rid of it all, which is far more dramatically interesting to us anyway."
GQ listed Tom as one of the week's most stylish men, accompanied by a photo taken at Cannes.
Tom Riley Apparently there's a great deal of onscreen nudity in Riley's new series Da Vinci's Demons – frankly we prefer him clothed in Dolce & Gabbana...
