[A scene from Kiss Me Deadly.]
AB: Let’s get on a little less of a serious note. One of the first times I saw you on television was on Melrose Place. - which is still one of my favorite shows. You played two different characters on that show.

RG: I did. Good awareness, I mean you’re clearly a fan of Melrose Place.

AB: Oh yeah. When you got called back for the second time–I guess it was like two or three years later–did they address that to you in casting?

RG: Not even a little bit.

AB: They must have remembered you, right?

RG: Yeah, you know there’d been a lot of time that had passed; the first role wasn’t all that significant.

AB: You were like a waiter or something…

RG: I was a room service waiter, which was second job as an actor, at least with a speaking part. My first was one line was on Ellen, the first episode that it was called Ellen actually. And I had an unspoken part on a show called My So-Called Life. Claire and her friend were in the bedroom watching their parents’ “How to Improve Your Love Life” video…

AB: You were in the video?

RG: I was the guy in the video. [Laughs] We were kneading bread together and I was combing her hair - it was all these non-sexual ways to be sexual and intimate or whatever. It was really funny.

AB: So you had My So-Called Life, you had Ellen, you had Melrose - these are all pretty gay shows.

RG: (Laughs). Well, I mean, certainly for a gay interviewer or audience member, the context would be gay, but I’m sure there were people who didn’t see them as gay shows at the time.

AB: Yeah, you’re right.

RG: But it’s funny - there are things we [gays] fit within the rubric, we certainly—for whatever reason, gay people were/are drawn to certain shows and those are some of them. It’s a matter of perspective, I guess.

AB: Speaking of being gay and acting - do you feel that being openly gay has limited your career in any way?

RG: There is no way for me to really measure that. That said, I would venture that there are parts that I have not gotten because I’m openly gay, and there are parts I have gotten because I’m openly gay, and that there are plenty of them that just didn’t matter one way or the other. I think that is pretty much going to be the case across the board.

Now, I think the determination is really a personal one and an individual one; it has to do with where you are as a person. I wouldn’t trade coming out for the world, and I would even say that it was good for my career. I say that because, one I want to affirm that, one, and two, because I think that… Russell Davies said that being a gay man gave him his career and I got it - I was like, yeah, you know, certainly, God knows with “Queer as Folk.” And so much of that for me has to do with what it’s done for me as an actor, and what it’s done for me as a human being—it shows up very differently in my life across the board.

In terms of my acting work, my acting work has improved vastly as a result of not having to use so much energy to maintain the façade. And to keep that in place also keeps a certain amount of inauthenticity in place, so as a performer or actor, I think that can be very detrimental—it was for me, certainly.

But I think there’s plenty of phobia. There’s homophobia along all ranks, certainly there’s plenty in Hollywood and there’s plenty of internalized homophobia. And at the same time, there are younger generations coming into power. I get emails from agents and writers and producers who are now in some positions of power who are like, “You know what, I really have a lot of respect for you…” I’d say it’s a little bit of the older and even middle-aged guard who still haven’t processed as much of that stuff, even though they may have kids and a full life as a gay person. It’s generational.

It’s also because this town, as much as entertainment is intertwined to some extent with messaging and social consciousness, it’s really a business. Above all else, it’s about ticket sales. So even if something wouldn’t really compromise ticket sales, there are going be some people who just don’t want to take a chance.

AB: We are also seeing a change in Hollywood in another way—we’ve also got Neil Patrick Harris and T.R. Knight who are out, and I think that’s really incredible.

RG: The last great frontier is the openly gay leading-man-type guy, and that’s the frontier that a number of us are all slowly crossing. Neil Patrick Harris playing that part, it’s a contribution in that direction. It’s a comedy, and that’s easier for people to embrace, and he’s probably not as much your classic leading man type, although he’s certainly more so than we’ve seen. And T.R. also, like it’s another move forward, another contribution to the whole effort of crossing this frontier. And gradually that’s happening, it’s like all progress: you make small steps here and there and eventually there’s a big leap. Forward progress is also not a straight line–we’ll move forward and we’ll move back a little bit–which is why I’m not so concerned with all the minutiae, this or that state statute. Collectively we’re moving forward, and I really enjoy my life.

AB: I’d imagine. It seems like you probably have a pretty good life.

RG: I do, I really do.

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