If you’re still watching daytime soaps, you’ll know Young & The Restless has been trying hard to introduce a gay storyline, given all the buzz As The World Turns enjoyed from Luke and Noah. And producers thought they had one with Chris Engen, who’s been playing Adam Wilson since last year. That was until Engen walked off the set when the script called for him to kiss another dude.
One rumor going around is that the storyline goes against Engen’s personal beliefs; he graduated from the Bishop Montgomery High School in California and is reportedly still involved there.
Engen’s character has been going down a darker path (trying to have his father killed, going to prison, pretending to be blind to get out of prison). His next stunt was to become lovers with the character Rafe Torres, played by Yani Gellman. Because, you know, gays make great villains!
Reports SoapCentral.com: “Months of frustration over the direction of his storyline and lack of airtime exploded in a confrontation between Engen and the show’s production team. According to sources, Engen has long felt that the writing for Adam was going in the wrong direction.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
If Engen had any hope of making amends and returning to the set, it looks like he lost his chance: Reports say his replacement has already been cast (even though he’s still under contract).
mikeandrewsdantescove
He was looking for more airtime and this could have done it. What an idiot.
Mike
Dante’s Cove Over The Lair (Here TV)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ps6d8H1WZy8
Chris
I think you are blowing this out of proportion, it seems clear to me this guy had more concerns about where the show was taking his character than he did about a silly kiss.
Surely if he were a professional actor he would have grown up acting in an industry filled with gays. I just hope if this show does cast a gay character they will do so in a positive light. Its oh so tired to constantly have the gay guy be the villain. Thats where this post should have concentrated on rather than whether or not this actor wanted to kiss another guy, grow up.
Dabq
This would have made no sense to the story line at all he has now, Y&R is usually better with this stuff. he is a great actor, hot as all out to look at, and, now, the show is left with one hottie, the guy whop lays Billy, who would have been much better in a gay situation since he loves sex all the time, and, is hot as well!
They need to bring on a gay character, not turn these men who have never shown any inclination to being gay silly story lines that no one would believe.
And when they had a plan for a lesbian thing a while back, one of the actress said nope and that was it.
alan brickman
so the the y and restless are saying gays should be villians???…no wonder he walked off….
kevin (not that one)
A gay/trans role use to be the kiss of death for actors in Hollywood…not anymore!
Will Smith: Six Degrees of Separation
Forest Whitaker: Ready to Wear
Javier Bardem: Before Night Falls
Charlize Theron: Monster
Hilary Swank: Boys Don’t Cry
James Gandolfini: The Mexican
Felicity Huffman: Transamerica
It should be noted that many of these actors did these roles BEFORE they went on to bigger roles, so it would seem that playing a gay/trans character is a kiss of gold, not of death, in Hollywood.
If Engen quit because he was forced to play a gay character, he’s an obvious idiot.
Joanaroo
Maybe it’s a good thing he quit the show. You would think by now soaps would have more mature and realistic story lines. Y&TR sounds as bad as when General Hospital had the science fiction Luke & Laura romance in the 80s.
Joseph
Actually, Y&R already has a gay character who is NOT a villain, Rafe Torres (Yani Gellman), the true blue attorney who represents Adam; the theory is that Adam–who’s currently faking a blindness in order to terrorize his father Victor Newman’s current, pregnant lover, Ashley–is trying to use Rafe or deflect Rafe from suspecting him by making a pass at him, because Rafe apparently has a crush on Adam. It should also be noted that Y&R will be introducing another gay character who will likely rescue Rafe from Adam’s scheming arms. Just wait and see.
TANK
ew, you people make me sick. Anyway, hopefully his personal beliefs will make sure he doesn’t get work again.
Thom Freeheart
I would walk off a set before I had to kiss a girl. Yuck.
TANK
@Thom Freeheart:
And that’s why you’re not an actor…isn’t it…LOL!
Thom Freeheart
@TANK: You gotta draw the line somewhere.
TANK
@Thom Freeheart:
As an actor? And kissing a woman is where you’d draw the line? You’re an infant.
jason
And yet if the script had called for him to kill someone, would he have walked off the set? Some people have screwed-up priorities.
Thom Freeheart
When you kiss someone in a soap opera, you are really kissing them. When you kill someone in a soap opera, you aren’t really killing them. I think.
dgz
@Thom Freeheart: no, but you’re murdering your own credibility. and your evil twin’s.
Toby
If I was asked to do something at my job that I didn’t want to do I would probably quit as well. It’s a job. Chris Engen has been on the show for over a year and has done a nice job. He obviously accepted the job when he was told about the character. He felt he could play it. Having worked in soaps I know actors who were offered roles and turned them down because they didn’t like the story. Chris was just standing up for himself.
Jason
Chris dated a friend of mine for a little under a year. I can tell you people, with my hand raised to God, that Chris is not a homophobe, nor religious. It sounds like he walked off because the show went bonkers. He has absolutely nothing against gay people.
Lex
@Toby: He was an actor. His job was to act. It doesn’t matter if you like what you’re asked to do or not that’s the whole purpose of a c t i n g.
He’s a crybaby and he won’t be working in Hollywood again you can be sure of that. Walking off the set and going diva is a surefire way to end your career before it even begins.
anokie
@kevin (not that one):
good point..and lets not forget.
Sean Penn, Antonio Banderas, Chris Pine, Robert Pattison (not yet released?) I could go on, but your right, stupid move to make in an industry filled with “the gays”, maybe he should pick another career.
The Gay Numbers
The problem here is that we are asking people like Toby to think outside of himself for a moment. The vast bulk of people do not have this ability. Even a lot of so called actors. The best ones can. This guy is on a day time soap for a reason. talented actors have no problem playing roles that are not like them.
TANK
@The Gay Numbers:
Even untalented actors can do it, and often do… HE can’t kiss a man? How pathetic is he…how fragile is his masculinity (don’t they know that same sex kissing is more of a statement toward your presumptive heterosexuality than against now?)…how many gay actors (closeted or not) kiss women because the role demands it? It’s called being an actor…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43sbtkQM6zc
troy
This is all here say and gossip. I refuse to crucify the man based on shit like “rumour has it”, because he graduated from some dumb high school and is still involved (what the fuck does that mean?).
This is tabloid bullshit.
schlukitz
@troy:
The fact is, he did walk off the set when the script called for him to kiss a man. When he chose acting as a career, did it never occur to him that he might be required to kiss another man?
Whatever his reasons may have been, moral or otherwise, they are moot.
This situation is no different than that of the California marriage clerks who refused to issue same sex marriage licenses because it was contrary to their religious and moral beliefs. They were clerks, paid to do a job, not Supreme Court Justices whose job it is to pass judgment
Bottom line. If you can’t carry out the duties and responsibilities of your job outline, then you probably shouldn’t be applying for the position to begin with, instead of whining like a baby and acting like a victim when the time comes to carry them out.
jordan_k
If he did walk because he had to kiss a guy I do hope he gets more comfortable with his sexuality… anyway, not the point I want to make.
“Engen’s character has been going down a darker path (trying to have his father killed, going to prison, pretending to be blind to get out of prison).”
Ok, so this sucks. He ok with murder but not being gay? That is the real disappointing thing.
dvlaries
I gave up on the entire string of CBS soaps, that I used to watch faithfully, in August 1992 and haven’t looked back. They’re not getting me back either, just because they’ve discovered there’s gay people in the world.
My sister once presented me this challenge: Go to back page of TV Guide and read -out loud- the weekly recap of any soap you DON’T watch and listen to how stupid it sounds.
On soaps ALL blindness, real or faked, is always temporary, so is paralysis and amnesia. Not only do we have fathers who don’t know they’re fathers, but mothers now who don’t remember having dropped a pup 30 or more years earlier (Kay turning out to be Jill’s mother, Alexandra on Guiding Light having twins 30 years before, not knowing it, one of them sold off by their father).
Every time a given soap changes its team of writers, they eventually come up with outlandish new motivations for established characters bearing little relation to what’s gone before, or freshly manufactured backstory that renders years of earlier actions a waste of your time caring about.
Despite the outlandish twists in their lives, one thing soap characters are never depicted doing, for hours on end, is sitting around zoned out in front of TV screens. By the start of the 1990s, I stopped ignoring the lesson in that.
rick
they need a gay character? that show has been gay as hell since the day its debute when i was a kid!
blake
@schlukitz:
No, that’s not the fact! Again, this is all rumor and speculation. This rumor came from Nelson Branco from TV Guide Canada. Branco never bothered to contact Engen to find out why he quit.
Get it? You are jumping to conclusion and condemning a man without having all of the facts.
Queerty,
You should be ashamed of yourself for running such an unconfirmed rumor as a headline that could be slandering Chris Engen.
What if Engen quit because he saw the character becoming a stereotypical negative portrayal of a villainous bisexual man? What if he thought that would be unethical to push a stereotype that further serves to hurt LGBTQ people?
Hmm…
schlukitz
@blake:
What if?
Whatever!
blake
@schlukitz:
Yeah, whatever! Did you bother to read the article? This is all just a rumor. No one has bothered to speak to the actor.
Go to tvguide.ca and read the article. There was one “anonymous” source.
razz
it’s his rights to refuse doing something that he feels uncomfortable with.
but i understand how our community might take offence to that. but seriously, it’s none of our business what he feels. as long as he is not saying any derogatory remarks on our community, he have the right to practise his beliefs.
V
Idk what to make of CE leaving. I’d like to hear what he has to say from a reliable source.
Did y’all know that Clementine Ford from Y&R (Mac) is a lesbian? Her g/f is Linda Perry. Afterellen.com.
TANK
@blake:
What if the CA supreme court overturns prop 8? What if lucky charms are made out of unicorn horns? What if the enchanted rainbow forest is where everyone’s my little pony dreams come true?
Phoenix (Kiss My Pansy Ass, Chris Engen!)
@ TANK,
RE: Thom Freeheart’s refusal to kiss woman in a soap opera love scene.
Well, shit! Can you blame him? This isn’t a decorous peck on the cheek one would deliver to a female relative or friend. This full-out Soap Opera tongue bath! Slobber galore and plenty of dry-humping included. Seriously, (heterosexual) love scenes in soaps are soft-core porn. Gay men only get some hand-holding and kissing, “straight” couples don’t leave hardly anything to the imagination.
ProfessorVP
I don’t know if anybody remembers, but Will Smith signed on to do “6 Degrees” knowing what it was about and that there would be some kissing/snuggling involved with his character’s boyfriend. When it came time to do the scenes, he refused. The producer and studio fought with him, but it was too late to replace him. Things were arranged to strongly suggest the character was gay, but that’s as far as it went. I could be wrong, but I think if Smith, in real life, were straight, he would have been less fearful about it. In any event, what Smith did was unethical and unprofessional.
charlie-o
Young, handsome actor with thin resume seeks acting roles that will stretch my ability and showcase my talents. No roles portraying murder, lying, theiving, conniving, betrayal, or any other villainous activities. (Roles that all other actors would give their eye teeth for!) And no kissing other men. Who knows? I might possibly be so good at acting that someone might mistake me for the character I’m portraying. I’m looking for work where a neophyte can overrule seasoned writers, directors, and producers.
Seriously, where in the hell is this guy’s publicist? He needs to come out with some sort of statement right away – even if it’s just BS, like he fell into a hypoglycemic trance, the mercury from fish addled his brain, his Perrier addiction affected his judgment, and he’s checking into rehab immediately.
jiminportlandoregon
@Thom Freeheart: LOL!
Bill Samuels
Engen has made a statement on his My Space page. He says he has lots of “homosexual” friends. [Saying homosexual instead of gay is like saying “colored” instead of Black or African-American.] If you read between the lines of his post, which has a certain amount of gobbledygook, it is pretty clear he is uncomfortable playing gay. He also mentions he is sole father of a young boy and that entered into his decision. And this guy isn’t homophobic? — Nowadays gay men are fathers to young boys!
It would be nice if he had quit because he didn’t want to play an evil gay/bi stereotype, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
And my source is the man’s own words on his MySpace page.
c armstrong
i applaud Chris Engen for standing up to his convictions enough about gays crying discrimination…. i didn’t much like the character. but i have great respect for the actor for standing up for what he believes. he was in a nowhere role and would have been put out with the trash when the writers were through with him. good for Chris he will go far in his craft.
c armstrong
ho·mo·pho·bi·a (h?’m?-f?’b?-?)
n.
1. Fear of or contempt for lesbians and gay men.
2. Behavior based on such a feeling.
[homo(sexual) + -phobia.]
from dictionary,com.
how does a straight person not wanting to kiss another person of the same gender make that person homophobic. i am not gay and i am not a homophobe there are lots of people whom i would not care to kiss for many reasons, whether they are gay or not, but i most certainly not in fear of them. i believe in equality for gays and lesbians in most cases but i draw the line at marriage. marriage is an institution between a man and a woman, and the basis of love in most if not all religions of the world.
Bill Samuels
Jeez, this “Armstrong” guy just doesn’t get it, does he? Is he so dumb he doesn’t realizze this is a GAY blog?
schlukitz
@c armstrong:
I am a 72 year old gay man and I have kissed many women in my lifetime. I also have no problem with hugging a woman whether it be in private or in public.
I did not find it disgusting. I did not feel immoral for doing so. And I was not fearful that it might turn me str8.
I will also add that even though it is not my bent, I cannot ever recall having thought that the act of kissing or sex between a man and a woman is disgusting or repulsive.
That said, I cannot fathom why str8 people, males in particular, have such a repulsion for gays or even the idea of any kind of intimate contact as innocuous as a kiss or ahug?
And you are trying to convince me that this is NOT homophobic?
If I could not bring myself to kiss a woman, I am certain that you would be the first to tell me that I am heterophobic. And, you’d be right!
schlukitz
@c armstrong:
P.S. Dragging your religious baggage into a gay site, doesn’t win you any points either.
When are you Joe six-packs gonna get the fact that we are not looking for your approval on either social or religious grounds?
Your worn-out arguments that marriage is an institution between a man and a woman is false and has no empirical evidence to support it. You really need to brush up on your history.
The fact that you folks can bandy this lie about with such frequency is proof adequate, that you are either too lazy to crack a reference book or just do a simple Google to find out what is actually so. Just like the flat-world people who deny evolution, you CHOOSE to turn a blind eye to the facts because that would prevent you from perpetuating the fairy tales and blatant lies.
I have a number of straight friends who have no problem with gay people wanting their civil-rights. They are happily married with kids who include and share their lives with me. They do not spew religious hatred and lies at me and are very supportive of same-sex marriage and equality for all people.
I like being around those people. I’m not so sure, however, that I would like being around you!
schlukitz
@Bill Samuels:
Interesting that you should make notice of that fact Bill.
It has never once occurred to me to drag my homosexuality into a straight chat room or blog site solely for the purpose of putting heterosexuality down and hurling epithets like breeder, whore, adulterer or any other derogatory commentary associated with the str8 community.
That is not to say that I do not welcome social discourse with str8 people. In fact, I very much enjoy it. It helps to keep me from getting a “Ghetto mentality” and serves to remind me that while I am gay, I am still, nevertheless, very much part of the human community.
I have no fears or issues about possibly “becoming straight” by any contact with str8 people and I could give a fig less what they do in bed. It never even enters my mind.
So why this obsession with so many straight people (DuttyBarb comes to mind) with skulking around in a gay chat room or blog site like Queerty and the compulsion to spew their religious rhetoric, call us names and make demeaning and derogatory comments?
Don’t they have anything better to do with their time? Or, is there some other motivations that they are not being truthful with themselves about?
Reverend Haggard and Senator Craig are just a few of the examples that come to mind. You know the old Shakespeare quotation. ;o)