‘Beyond the Gates’ pushes boundaries of representation on daytime TV with same-sex love scene

“Beyond the Gates” star RhonniRose Mantilla reveals the personal connection she has to character’s queer journey.

Last week, things heated up in Fairmont Crest, the fictional town where the soap opera “Beyond the Gates” is set, when the character Chelsea Hamilton shared her first same-sex love scene with Dr. Madison Montgomery.

Since Chelsea came out last month and her sexuality has become a hot topic on the show, the actress who portrays the daughter of the notorious Dani Dupree, RhonniRose Mantilla, has been “so game for it” as she explores her own sexuality. 

“I think art should be a reflection of the current times,” the 25-year-old soap star told the Hollywood Reporter. “And personally, I’m figuring out my queerness as well. So it’s really been a fun journey to tell Chelsea’s story.” 

“Beyond the Gates” arrived in February as the first new soap opera since 1999 and the first to center Black characters in 35 years through a partnership between CBS and the NAACP. Since its explosive premiere episode, the story—which follows the prominent and distinguished Dupree and his family as they navigate life in an affluent Maryland suburb just outside of Washington, D.C.—has been filled with all sorts of melodramatic twists and turns. 

When Mantilla first took the role she didn’t know Chelsea’s arc on the show, which has already included the twenty-something quitting modeling to start a purse collection with her cousin, would involve a queer storyline. 

“I knew that she was trying to find her own way and figure out her own path,” she explained. “The subject of her queerness didn’t really come in until I met in person with [executive producers] Julie [Hanan Carruthers] and Sheila [Ducksworth].”

The scene between Chelsea and Madison (Kenjah McNeil) marked the first between two Black women in daytime television and the first on-screen intimacy scene for Mantilla, who said she was “kind of terrified” at first. 

“The importance of this [storyline] kind of helped me get over my fear,” she said. “We haven’t seen this in daytime before, and it’s not just sex, but making love and having a connection.”

Chelsea and Madison join the show’s other queer characters, the ambitious congressmen Martin Richardson, who is the son of Dr. Nicole Dupree Richardson and Ted Richardson, and his husband Bradley “Smitty” Smith.  

Mantilla expressed how vital the show’s representation is.

“Maybe someone who’s trying to figure out their queerness can see Chelsea and Madison and be inspired to live out loud or to make that jump into committing to someone that they’ve been eyeing for a while,” she said. 

“Beyond the Gates” airs weekdays at 2:00 p.m. E.T. on CBS and streaming live on Paramount+ +.