How ‘Perry Mason’ Tackled Queerness With a Contemporary Lens: “You’ve Been Gay, But You’ve Never Been Gay in the 1930s”

In the first season of HBO/Max’s Perry Mason, the 1930s-set series unspooled the origin story of the titular defense attorney, first made popular in Erle Stanley Gardner’s series of novels and the subsequent CBS legal drama starring Raymond Burr. With a modern lens, however, HBO’s reboot brings more depth to the series’ supporting characters in its second and final season — in particular, Mason’s devoted legal secretary, Della Street (Juliet Rylance), and his courtroom sparring partner, district attorney Hamilton Burger (Justin Kirk).

“I signed on only knowing I was playing this famous character in Perry Mason iconography — the losing lawyer from every episode,” says Kirk. But this iteration of Perry Mason forgoes the case-of-the-week format, instead focusing on one case for an entire season. “[As the writers] filled in the details, we found out that Paul Drake [the private detective who works with Mason, played by Chris Chalk] would be Black, and Hamilton and Della would be closeted.”

Naturally, their sexuality is too taboo to live openly in such a fiercely homophobic era, and thus Della and Hamilton’s friendship is also mutually beneficial: They can go out together publicly so that Hamilton in particular can evade questions about his private life, with Della posing as a romantic interest. “Hamilton has checked all the other boxes as a man in society who is powerful and white,” says Kirk, who adds that there’s fun in playing a character who has a secret.

In season two, however, Della pushes the boundaries of her privacy when she meets Anita St. Pierre (Jen Tullock), a screenwriter who is instantly attracted to her. Inspired by Gentlemen Prefer Blondes scribe Anita Loos, who boasted over 100 writing credits in her Hollywood career, Tullock’s Anita is brash and confident — essentially Della’s opposite.

Like Kirk, Tullock found her character’s double life exciting to play. “I’m always drawn to characters that have to hide their inner worlds,” she says. But Tullock, who is also queer, leaned into what she shared with her onscreen persona. “I’ve never done a period piece where I got to explore a gay experience,” she says — while admitting the era in which Anita lives is far different from her own generation, despite their similar identities.

“I told my therapist, ‘This is going to be great. I can pull from my own life,’ ” says Tullock. “And she rightly said, ‘Well, you’ve been gay, but you’ve never been gay in the 1930s. Don’t get ahead of yourself.’ ”

This story first appeared in a June stand-alone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.