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"It's Not Just Sex": Why Beyond The Gates' Groundbreaking Intimate Scene Is So Important Revealed By Star
Beyond The Gates continues to break down barriers with their most recent intimate scene between the Dupree family’s Chelsea (RhonniRose Mantilla) and her new partner, Madison (Kenjah McNeil). Chelsea’s sexuality has been a hot topic in the CBS soap opera as of late. As her relationship with Madison blooms, new possibilities have been opened up for soap operas everywhere.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Mantila opened up about the true importance of her intimate same-sex scene with McNeil’s Madison. Mantila pointed out that “it’s not just sex, but making love and having a connection.” Her scene with McNeil was the first same-sex sex scene on daytime television at all.
Mantila and Beyond The Gates‘ executive producer, Sheila Ducksworth, wanted to use Chelsea and Madison’s scene together to encourage viewers to see that people are multidimensional. The scene not only broke boundaries for daytime television but also added a contemporary quality that is often missing from soap operas. Read their full comments below:
Mantila: It was my first on-screen intimacy scene, so I was kind of terrified. The importance of this [storyline] kind of helped me get over my fear. We haven’t seen this in daytime before, and it’s not just sex, but making love and having a connection.
Mantila: The cameramen were super respectful, and on set was very quiet just so it felt like something deeper.
Ducksworth: It was really important that we have true representation on the show, and that’s across all lines.
Ducksworth: We’re the first [soap] of the millennium, so we’re looking at things from a very contemporary point of view, and we really embrace that.
Ducksworth: People are not put in any boxes whatsoever. Some folks who are watching may have a view of ‘that’s not what a typical Black person is or does. That’s not what a typical Latinx person is or does. That’s not what a typical white person might do or be.’ We’re looking to really flush out these characters beyond something that feels one-dimensional because nobody is one-dimensional.
What Beyond The Gates’ Intimate Scene Means
Beyond The Gates Continues To Break Barriers
Beyond The Gates‘ intimate scene between a same-sex couple means that soap operas as a genre are growing. Beyond The Gates has already broken barriers by being the first new soap opera since 1999, when Passions premiered. The soap opera is also the first show to focus exclusively on a prominent Black family, when most soaps overwhelmingly focus on white characters.
In addition to all the ways that Beyond The Gates is changing soap operas, the show is also giving same-sex couples the same attention as heterosexual ones. This is a first. Beyond The Gates‘ treatment of same-sex couples via the intimacy scene between Chelsea and Madison is just another way the show is expanding the genre.
Our Take On Beyond The Gates’ Intimate Scene
Soap Operas Should Reflect Aspects Of Reality
It is refreshing to see a soap opera treat a Black, same-sex couple with the same attention and respect that white, heterosexual couples have received for so long. Mantila’s and Ducksworth’s comments about wanting to show the multidimensional aspects of characters are also noteworthy. Same-sex couples deserve the same treatment as heterosexual ones.
By showing Chelsea and Madison’s scene as a way for the characters to form a deeper connection, Beyond The Gates also introduces a new way to show same-sex couples on daytime television.
By showing Chelsea and Madison’s scene as a way for the characters to form a deeper connection, Beyond The Gates also introduces a new way to show same-sex couples on daytime television. Same-sex couples could now start to have intimate scenes in other soaps as well. With the barrier broken, anything is possible.
Related
This Week on Beyond The Gates: Will Martin’s Secret Tear The Duprees Apart?
Next week’s Beyond The Gates promises more drama from Smitty’s investigation and Martin’s secret that could tear the Dupree family apart.
Soap operas have also long been associated with older generations. Beyond The Gates is changing that by bringing modern topics to the forefront and showing that same-sex couples are normal, but also that not every same-sex couple is the same. As Ducksworth said, people do not fit into boxes, and neither should Beyond The Gates‘ characters.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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Beyond the Gates
- Release Date
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February 24, 2025
- Directors
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Phideaux Xavier, Steven Williford
- Writers
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Robert Guza Jr., Ron Carlivati, Christopher Dunn, Lynn Martin, Danielle Paige, Gregori J. Martin
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Clifton Davis
Vernon Dupree
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Daphnée Duplaix Samuel
Dr. Nicole Dupree Richardson
