October 14, 2005
1. If in five or ten years, Showtime approached you about doing a Queer as Folk reunion special, would you do it?
It would depend on so many factors that it's really hard to answer that question. Where am I career-wise? How many of the original cast would be coming back? What is the script like? If the general question is: would I like to work with my QAF family again? Then I can easily answer: Of course.
2. You've said that you would be interested in another TV show somewhere down the road, as long as the material was as vibrant and daring as that of QAF. So I was wondering, what kind of challenges you will be looking for in considering any upcoming role? Acting-wise, what barriers are there that you want to break?
Oh, I think I've broken far too many barriers already in this one show. I just want to continue to find projects that challenge me on an individual basis. What those challenges are specifically ... well I can only say I'll know them when I see them. I'd love to explore a wide range of genres and character-types; to be able to be almost unrecognizable from one project to the next ... ahhhhh, heaven.
3. Xena or Wonder Woman?
Wonder Woman (I'm old school).
4. In the episode where Ted was getting even with the guy from Pride 2002, and Brian and Emmett were talking to Ted from the ceiling, can you tell us how that scene was filmed?
Well, that was the brain child of our usual DP and sometime director Thom Best. It involved two sets. One was "Ted's" regular condo set into which a scaffold was built with two parallel planks extending from one end. Now while I was lying on the ground with Lee Rumohr ("Troy") collapsed on top of me, Peter and Gale each slid out onto one of these planks above me. A camera on a crane shot down towards me over their shoulders so it seemed they were floating above me. Their side of the dialogue was shot on a smaller set of the corner of "Ted's" living room all built upside down. So the ceiling was on the ground. Gale and Peter lay down and spoke upwards to the camera as if they were speaking down to me as I read my lines off camera. The trick was for them to match their positions on the planks to their positions on the ceiling.
5. Will you share with us what you thought about Ted's ending on QAF? How do you picture his future after we last saw him?
I was quite happy to have "Ted" finally get to a place where he realized that his happiness will only come from himself and not from any outside forces. The story could have ended with his birthday wish speech and I would have been quite happy. The fact that the timing finally seemed right for "Blake" to re-enter his life was icing on the cake. I really think he's finally going to be okay.
6. Sharon Gless said she was going to be holding regular poker parties to keep in contact with cast members. Since you wrapped filming QAF, have these poker parties taken place? Generally speaking, have the cast in reality kept in touch since the spring?
Well, Sharon (who lives mostly in Miami) has passed the "green felt" on to me and the monthly poker games have indeed continued at my house here in LA. Even better, Sharon is now back among us as she's in town filming "Thick and Thin" her new NBC sitcom. So far I've been able to see most of the gang quite often and hope to continue to.
7. I've read that you listen to "mood music" on your ipod before shooting really dramatic scenes to get you "in the zone." One of my favorite dramatic scenes that you ever did was the episode where Emmett cheated on Ted with the flight attendant and said that he wished he could talk to his best friend Teddy because there were some things that he couldn't tell his lover. Ted then proceeds to carry on a conversation with him, sometimes as the best friend, and some times as the lover. What music did you listen to before that scene? Any particular songs come to mind, looking back on it?
I may be wrong but I think I listened to a song by my late friend Josh Clayton-Felt called "Waiting To Be" and some early Tom Waits songs like "Martha."
8. Have you ever met Steve Carell? I happened to notice that he lived and worked in Chicago around the same time that you did, and was curious.
I have yet to meet Steve but it's odd as we share a number of friends and acquaintances.
9. Even though the entertainment industry is supposed to be so liberal, I've heard rumors that you weren't offered too many other roles during hiatuses because of the "stigma" of being on QAF. Now that QAF is done, what is the reaction of casting directors, etc. to seeing "QAF" on your resume?
So far reaction has been positive as far as I know. If we're not being offered roles because of a "stigma" our representative are keeping that a secret from us.
10. What do you think about a Ted spin-off of QAF? If offered, would you take on the role again?
I adore "Ted" and as long as he wasn't subjected to as much torture as he was on QAF I would be happy to play him again ... after a long break.
11. You seem to be a fan of offbeat comedies like "The Office" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm". What do you think of "Arrested Development"?
I have A LOT of catching up to do with "Arrested Development", but what I've seen of it I like A LOT. It saddens me that such a smart, innovative show has had trouble finding an audience in spite of all the awards and accolades it has earned. Come on, America!