What does it take to make a gay icon? Sometimes all it takes is five feet of height, a lot of violence, and a never-ending supply of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.
James Gunn’s hyper violent, hilarious, and heart-wrenching HBO Max series Peacemaker is wrapping up its second season, and one character – Judomaster – has become a new gay icon. You can thank the actor who plays him, Nhut Le (pronounced like the first syllable in Nathaniel and Lee).
Le was born in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and then moved to the U.S. as a child. While he’s had some roles in Hollywood before, most movie and TV fans are just getting to know him now through Judomaster.
Growing up in Vietnam, he was very familiar with Superman and loved superheroes through anime and manga.
Nhut Le
Nhut LeStef Ceretti (provided)
“Sailor Moon was a huge influence of mine, and so I drew my own version of that. And of course, Dragon Ball and Pokémon and all that kind of stuff, I’ve always been involved in that realm,” he says. “So it’s surreal to be able to portray one of the characters that’s in the comic books.”
If you’ve seen Peacemaker, you know that the characters are over-the-top, willing to kill at the drop of a dime, and in many ways, are kind of insane. Judomaster fits right in.
He’s a five-foot-tall ball of fury known for kicking ass while delivering great quips like “Ding Dong, bitches” and “Are you the dumbest c*nt who’s ever existed, or just top five?”
The charisma that Le brings to the role has made him an instant fan favorite and an icon in queer and Vietnamese communities.
Le says he feels like he “won the lottery” when he got the Judomaster role. Many comic book characters have decades of lore and stories, and fan bases that want to see the characters adapted exactly as they picture them in their minds. With Judomaster, Le was able to bring a lot more of himself to the role.
Nhut Le
Nhut LeStef Ceretti (provided)
“At first, I was sort of nervous because a lot of the research that I did on Judomaster was from the comic books and from the script in season 1. There’s not a lot of background story or not a lot to pull from,” Le says. “So it was just using the script as my bible for what this character is and then trying to infuse things that I think this character would do.”
“And to be honest, after season 1, after we finished filming season 1, I was super nervous about the reception of my portrayal because he’s such a weird character, and I’m like, I don’t know if I portrayed him correctly or well enough. And if I did, are people going to even understand what this person is doing?”
Fans didn’t just get the character; they fell in love with him. Le said that after seeing the positive reaction to the first season, he was excited to dive deeper into the character.
“Having the fans really take to Judomaster, it felt like a security blanket coming back in season 2, as like, I’ve done this once before, we get a little bit more time with Judomaster too, so let’s try to define his limitations and expand and see what we can get away with and what resonates with fans,” he says.
In the second season, fans have learned more about Judomaster, including that he’s Vietnamese and that he’s gay.
Nhut Le as Judomaster in green on Peacemaker
(from left) Danielle Brooks and Nhut Le in PeacemakerCourtesy HBO Max
In the second-to-last episode of the season, most of the Peacemaker team has traveled to a parallel world, only to find out that it’s a world where Nazis won World War II. In a moment straight out of a horror movie, former A.R.G.U.S. agent Leota Adebayo is being chased by an angry crowd of white people shouting, “One got out!”
Thankfully, Judomaster is there to save the day, electrifying an entire swimming pool of racists while shouting, “Zippity Zap, bitches!”
After they get to safety, Judomaster explains to Adebayo that in this world, Nazis won World War II, and adds, “You don’t want to be a minority here. Or gay, or Buddhist, or… anything I am, really.”
While this is the first time Judomaster has talked about his sexuality in the show, queer fans have been seeing themselves in the character since the beginning. Le knows why.
Nhut Le
Nhut LeStef Ceretti (provided)
“I think because I am gay in real life and I obviously have my mannerisms go through and filter through Judomaster, that he is a certain way, and I think that’s fine,” Le says. “And I always like characters in media where their sexual orientation doesn’t define who their character is. It just is another layer, another page in their book. It is not, “This is everything the story is about,” it flavors the character.”
Judomaster is far from the only queer character in the show. Adebayo is a lesbian, and the titular character is bisexual. For Le, it’s important that this version of the DC universe is a place where gay people are normalized.
“It’s just 365; these people are always there every single day,” he says. “[Their sexuality is] not a huge deal. It can be special, but it doesn’t need to be special. It’s just a part of life, and I love that.”
Peacemaker season 2 airs its finale this Thursday on HBO Max.
This article originally appeared on Out: Meet Nhut Le, the out actor behind ‘Peacemaker’s chaotic gay icon Judomaster
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