Hair Raiser

Did your hesitance to come out officially have anything to do with fear that the admission might negatively affect your transition to film and television? Truthfully, yeah, because that's what everyone tells you. You grow up with people telling you that you're going to hell. Then you realize you're not going to hell, but now you're going to showbiz hell to be blacklisted. Now I don't give a shit about that. So you're not going to put me in the next 7th Heaven ? Well, fuck you. Whatever. It doesn't matter. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't want to do a TV show or movie, but life comes first, and then there's business. If this business doesn't allow me to have my life, then I'll do something else and be a happier man.

You last appeared on Broadway in the 2004 revival of La Cage aux Folles as Georges's son Jean-Michel, one of the few straight characters in the show. Were you secretly jealous of the drag queens? Fuck, yes. They were having a blast, and I was pretty much playing a villain who asks his parents to deny their existence for his own benefit. Those Cagelles were the stars of that show, and they were incredible.

You also performed on Rosie and Kelli O'Donnell's very first R Family Vacations cruise in 2004. How was that experience? That's what really changed my life as far as loving and accepting myself for who I am. It's one of the things I'm most proud to have participated in, and I continue to be a part of and an advocate for R Family. It's an incredible opportunity for people who live their lives with their shoulders held back to just be -- and maybe have a piña colada while they watch their kids splash around in the pool. It's like that speech Margaret Mead gives in our show: "Be who you want to be. Go home and tell your kids to be free." If I ever win any award, I'm using that in my acceptance speech.