Jack Innanen has opened up about playing Paul Baker on Adults, and whether he feels pressure around accusations of “queerbaiting”.

In an interview with Variety, the Canadian actor was asked if he feels pressure to accurately represent Baker’s experience as a sexually fluid character. Innanen said he doesn’t, “because it is so encapsulated in who the character is”.

“I hadn’t experienced it until this season that people were coming up to me and saying that Paul Baker helped them learn about their own sexuality, or that they discovered that they weren’t bi, they were fluid,” he said.  

“I’ve really felt — not pressure, but that there’s some type of representative responsibility here. I was just really glad that it could do that, and that it could be represented so well.”

As a straight actor, Variety questioned whether he is “sensitive to charges of queerbaiting”, a term generally used when a character or performer appears to hint at LGBTQIA+ identities or relationships without explicitly confirming them, often as a way of attracting viewers.