My Brilliant Career Gives Julius a Secret Romance the Book Never Had, and It Completely Rewrites Everard Grey

Netflix’s My Brilliant Career spends most of its romantic energy on Sybylla, Harry and Frank, but one of the adaptation’s biggest departures from Miles Franklin’s novel is happening more quietly inside the Bossier family. Julius Bossier, played by Alexander England, is hiding a relationship with Everard Grey, played by Alex Fitzalan. Yes, Julius is gay in Netflix’s version of My Brilliant Career, and Everard is his secret lover. Their relationship is an invention of the series rather than a storyline taken directly from Franklin’s 1901 novel. More surprisingly, Everard himself already existed in the book, but Netflix has given him an entirely different romantic role.

That makes the storyline more than a new side romance. The adaptation has taken two established male characters and changed what each represents, while using their secrecy to show another kind of life that respectable Caddagat society would never openly permit.

Spoilers ahead for Netflix’s My Brilliant Career.

Is Julius Gay in My Brilliant Career?

Yes, Netflix clearly presents Julius Bossier as a gay man whose relationship with Everard Grey has to remain hidden. Julius is regarded as one of Caddagat’s socially secure men, the sort of person expected to fit comfortably into the conventions surrounding his wealthy family. His private life tells a different story.

The series does not frame the relationship as a passing attraction or an ambiguous friendship. Julius and Everard are a couple, but they cannot behave publicly with the freedom Sybylla has when arguing about Harry, Frank or whether she wants romance at all. Contemporary reviews of all six episodes likewise identify Julius and Everard as the series’ secret gay couple.

That secrecy also gives Julius an interesting parallel with Sybylla. She openly resists a society trying to decide what her adult life should look like, while Julius has learned to survive the same society by hiding the part of himself that does not fit its expectations.

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Who Is Alex Fitzalan and Who Plays Everard Grey?

The man Julius loves is Everard Grey, while Alex Fitzalan is the actor playing him. This distinction is easy to miss because Fitzalan appears only in part of the six-episode season, and some early coverage has confusingly referred to the relationship using “Alex” when discussing Everard. Official cast databases credit Fitzalan as Everard Grey, including his appearances in Episodes 3 and 6.

Fitzalan may already be familiar to Netflix audiences from projects such as The Society, while Australian viewers may also recognize him from Prosper and The F Ward. Here, however, the interesting part is less the actor’s résumé than what the series does with the character he has been given.

Everard is not somebody Liz Doran’s adaptation simply created as a boyfriend for Julius. He comes directly from Franklin’s novel, and that is where the change becomes much more substantial.

Were Julius and Everard Lovers in the Original Book?

No. Julius and Everard are not a couple in Miles Franklin’s My Brilliant Career. The novel’s Julius John Bossier, sometimes called Jay-Jay, is described as a jovial bachelor around 40 years old who is notably fond of women. Franklin even jokes that he is too fond of the opposite sex to have permanently fixed his affection on any one woman.

Everard Grey has an entirely different function on the page. He is Grandmother Bossier’s adopted son, a successful Sydney lawyer and another man who becomes interested in Sybylla. He recognizes her artistic ability, encourages her interest in music and the theatre and eventually becomes a potential husband. Sybylla ultimately rejects him after deciding that his attitude toward her is too condescending.

Netflix has therefore done something more inventive than adding a new LGBTQ+ character beside the original cast. It has taken Sybylla’s former suitor and reworked him into Julius’ lover, while changing Julius from Franklin’s woman-loving bachelor into a man concealing a relationship with another man.

It is one of the adaptation’s boldest pieces of character reconstruction.

Why Did Netflix Change Julius’ Story?

The change grew out of showrunner Liz Doran’s interpretation of Franklin’s characters and the adaptation team’s decision to expand lives that the original novel did not explore. Doran has said that while reading the book, the idea that one of its existing characters was gay occurred to her naturally. The writers then approached the adaptation by considering which people would have lived in Australia around 1900 even if the original story had not represented their experiences.

That same philosophy shapes several of Netflix’s other major departures. Harry’s Chinese Australian heritage is newly developed for the series, while Nell Kirby and other First Nations characters expand the social world surrounding Sybylla. Julius and Everard perform a similar function without feeling completely detached from Franklin’s material because both men already have roots in the Bossier world.

The smartest part of the change is Everard. Rather than discarding a secondary suitor who would have been difficult to fit into Netflix’s already expanded Harry-Frank love triangle, the writers give him another dramatic purpose. Sybylla loses a suitor. Julius gains a love story.

Why Do Julius and Everard Have to Hide Their Relationship?

Their secrecy reflects the legal and social reality facing two men in New South Wales around the period in which the story is set. Netflix places the series around 1900, when consensual homosexual activity between men remained criminalized in New South Wales. The state would not decriminalize such activity until 1984, more than eight decades later.

The legal threat is only part of what Julius stands to lose. He belongs to a wealthy family whose lives are governed by reputation, inheritance, marriage and the performance of respectability. Sybylla can scandalize dinner guests and still argue publicly about whether she should marry. Julius cannot simply introduce Everard as the man he loves and expect Caddagat society to accommodate them.

That gives their scenes a very different tension from Sybylla’s romances. Harry and Frank are competing possibilities available to her, even if she ultimately rejects the institution surrounding them. Julius and Everard are denied the possibility of publicly choosing one another in the first place.

Related: My Brilliant Career Filming Locations

Does Julius’ Story Change the Meaning of My Brilliant Career?

It broadens the series’ central argument about freedom without replacing Sybylla’s story. Sybylla is fighting against the idea that adulthood for a woman must end in a respectable marriage. Julius has already achieved much of the social security she is being encouraged to pursue, yet his status cannot give him the freedom to openly live with the person he wants.

The contrast is useful. Sybylla feels trapped because society insists that she marry. Julius is trapped because society insists that a relationship like his cannot be recognized at all.

That also explains why the storyline works better as something relatively private rather than another sweeping romance competing for screen time. The secrecy is the story. Julius has spent years learning how to be the Bossier family’s acceptable man in public while keeping Everard in a separate part of his life.

Netflix’s My Brilliant Career changes plenty of Franklin’s novel, but Julius and Everard may be one of its most revealing alterations. The original Everard tried to become Sybylla’s husband, while the original Julius was cheerfully interested in women. The series takes both assumptions away and finds another story underneath them. Sybylla may be the character loudly demanding the right to choose her future, but Julius quietly demonstrates what happens when that same right is not available to everyone.