Sex Education star told white people wouldn’t understand his ad-libs

While Ncuti Gatwa may be making it big as an actor, his performance has been criticised for not always catering to a white audience.

Ncuti Gatwa is making big leaps in the entertainment industry as of late. Not only has he been cast as the lead role in the upcoming Doctor Who series, he’s also appearing in Barbie, a major summer blockbuster.

But perhaps the actor is still best known for his role as Eric Effiong in Sex Education, the hit Netflix teen comedy-drama. Eric is arguably the most iconic character of the bunch, with “Wash your hands, you detty pig” still being quoted today.

However, it turns out that producers of the show weren’t a fan of all of Gatwa’s lines, as often his ad-libs would be shot down, and for rather controversial reasons.

Ncuti Gatwa reveals that his ad-libs aren’t “for white people to understand”

The upcoming season of Sex Education is set to be Eric and Gatwa’s last. When discussing his time on the show with British Vogue, he revealed that he had a hard time with the producers during his very first season, as they didn’t quite get Gatwa’s performance. Particularly, his ad-libs.

“There were producers coming up to me like, ‘This ad-lib, I don’t feel like white people will understand it,’” he explained. “And I was like, ‘It’s not for white people to understand. There are many white people in this show for white people to understand, but I want this other group of people to understand Eric. And that’s what you want too.’”

Thankfully, Gatwa putting his foot down worked as he added, “And [the producers] got that. We were all constantly learning on that job.”

The actor also revealed how playing a gay Nigerian-Ghanaian teenager had seemingly impacted those around him: “When the show first came out, I was living in Tottenham, and the amount of young boys from the block that would come up to me and be like, ‘Oi, I love Eric you know!’ I was like, ‘Wow,’”

“I used to train at this gym with a lot of ex-cons and bodybuilders, and these guys would come up to me like, ‘Eric’s my favorite character,’ or ‘You’re my girlfriend’s favorite character,’ and I’m like, ‘Don’t lie!’ It was so cool because I could see the show opening up people’s minds.”

Gatwa wrote “the ending I wanted” for Eric in Sex Education Season 4

Sadly, in the interview Gatwa did not reveal any particular plot points about Sex Education Season 4. However, he did say that Eric “gets the ending I wanted for him.”

“Things get tied up. And there was one scene that I particularly fought for, and I managed to get it in, which was great,” he hinted. “Aimee [Lee Wood, who plays Aimee Gibbs] and I wrote it, and we were redrafting it until like 3am the day before. I’ve never written for Eric before so that felt big, and it was a scene that meant a lot to me in terms of Eric’s journey and relationships. It felt very necessary.”

Sex Education Season 4 is expected to premiere later this year. Click here to find out more.