Sweet Tooth Star Christian Convery on Having Antlers, Reading the Intimidating Jeff Lemire Comics

For Netflix's Sweet Tooth, young actor Christian Convery takes on the part of a Gus, a [...]

For Netflix's Sweet Tooth, young actor Christian Convery takes on the part of a Gus, a half-deer/half-human hybrid boy that is a tiny ray of sunshine in a grim and gritty world. Based on the comics by Jeff Lemire, the TV series adapts that core throughline of the graphic novels and its in part thanks to Convery's portrayal of the optimistic little boy with antlers. That doesn't mean it wasn't a little intimidating, Lemire's comics are very gritty despite the young characters that are front and center (they were originally published under DC's Vertigo banner) and Convery told ComicBook.com that he got a little intimidated reading them.

"When I first got the comic books, I was reading them, and I noticed how it was so dark," Convery revealed to us during the show's press junket. "And I was like, 'Is it going to be like that on set? Are they going to change it' And it got really dark sometimes, more of a rated R thing. That kind of intimidated me. I was like, 'I wonder how I'm going to play Gus' role properly.' But when I got to set and I read the script, I realized that it was immediately less dark, and a bit more on the family friendly side. And I kind of liked that also, because it's not as intimidating, and I got to play Gus, who's an innocent and curious, hopeful, positive, deer boy hybrid, and I figured that that was an awesome role to play."

Convery also revealed the secrets of having antlers in the series and the pratfalls that you may not expect, like how your antlers might just fall off during an intense running scene.

"Getting used to the cap, like usual, let's say you bought a new item of clothing and you put it on, it's a bit itchy sometimes, or you're trying to get used to the material of it. That's what that was kind of like, but then once you wear it a lot, then you get used to it. After awhile I got really used to the antlers, and you know what's really funny about them? On the skull cap that they attach the antlers on to, there's these little magnetic stubs, and the antlers can go on and off, which I thought was pretty funny because you get to pull the antlers off."

One thing that viewers will be quick to realize about Sweet Tooth is that it's a show about a world after a pandemic, and considering we're still in one that might be a turn off for some. Convery hopes you'll stick with it though, especially since his character can bring some positivity to the top when you're watching.

"I really hope that people can take away hope and positivity from the show during dark times," the young actor said. "And maybe families that watch the show, maybe they can discuss and converse about the show, and maybe bond closer to each other."

Sweet Tooth also stars Nonso Anozie as Tommy Jepperd, Adeel Akhtar as Dr. Aditya Singh, Aliza Vellani as Rani Singh, Stefania LaVie Owen as Bear, Dania Ramirez as Aimee Eden, Neil Sandilands as General Abbot, Will Forte as Father, and James Brolin as Narrator.

The first season of Sweet Tooth will be released on Netflix on June 4th.

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