David Moretti may
look like an Italian film star, but he's just like
you and me: He puts his cock sock on one ball at a
time. Or at least that's how the 26-year-old
actor describes the way he dons his "privacy
patch" for his role on Here network's
upcoming Dante's Cove spin-off, The
Lair. For those of you not in the business, the privacy
patch is basically a condom that also covers the
scrotum, thus keeping your genitals from touching
those of your acting partner during a "love"
scene--reportedly pinching off all circulation in the
process.
It should be
noted that it took two hours of sweet talk and
trust-building over lunch at the Hotel Sofitel near West
Hollywood, Calif., to drag that cock sock secret out
of Moretti. And then he whispered it in a voice so low
it could barely be heard in the loud dining room.
Showered and
shaved, with his muscular build practically bursting out of
an Abercrombie and Fitch shirt and tight jeans, Moretti
arrived at our pride weekend Sunday lunch with an
aw-shucks grin. The Cranston, R.I., native is polite,
reserved, and by his own admission, nervous as
hell--this is his very first interview for his very
first real acting role. Still, he is forthright and
earnest like most of us were while fresh out of the
closet, when everything in the world seems possible.
Moretti's
story isn't new: Young man with big dreams moves to
Hollywood, signs with an agent, and lands his first
big acting gig. What's different about Moretti
is that he has decided to start his career out of the
closet, beginning this afternoon, with me and my tape
recorder.
Which brings us
back to the cock sock: "They just threw Jesse
[Cutlip] and I into a room and told us to put it
on," says Moretti. "We had no idea. But
the trick is to put one ball in first, then the other, then
to pull it over your member."
He has trouble
with this last word, his mouth contorting into a tight
smile, eyes wide. Moretti has the good sense to know he
shouldn't have given me such a salacious quote.
Throughout the conversation he will reveal himself to
be modest, but definitely not stupid.
Moretti was
straight, or at least pretending to be, all the way through
his undergraduate studies at the University of Southern
California, where he majored in English with a minor
in film and belonged to the Delta Chi fraternity.
(Notorious for its gay membership, the frat later earned the
nickname "Date a Guy.") After Moretti
graduated in 2002, a fraternity brother spotted his
picture--hat pulled low to obscure his face--on
a networking site where Moretti had identified himself
as gay. The brother sent an e-mail outing him to his
entire fraternity class. Ironically, Moretti was only
testing the waters when he posted the profile; he
hadn't even kissed another guy yet.
Nevertheless, what followed was one of the worst
periods in his life--the struggling actor broke up
with his college girlfriend, came out to his friends
and family, and ultimately had to face himself.
"I was
freaking out," he says. "I needed that year of
transition in my mind to sit with it and accept it.
But when it's forced upon you, it's the
worst feeling. Your stomach drops; it's like the
carpet was pulled out from under you."
Moretti was
struggling, as many of us did, with the idea that being gay
would fundamentally change him, particularly his
masculinity, a word he drops frequently in the
conversation. He was initially attracted to his
boyfriend's masculinity and the idea that Moretti
couldn't tell if he was gay. He tells me later
that he thinks audiences want their leading men to
represent "the epitome of masculinity." And
his primary aversion to gay sexuality, he says, was
his inability to identify with all the
"flamboyant" gay men he'd met. One of
my first questions to him is to ask if he identifies
as gay, to which he says, "Yes, absolutely. I am as
gay as the day is long," then quickly adds,
"but not in a flamboyant sense."
Moretti was
hesitant about answering an open call to audition for The
Lair, a vampire-themed gay soap opera. He had never seen
its antecedent, Dante's Cove, the occult
show that proved so popular Here president Paul
Colichman decided to turn it into a franchise.
Colichman personally chose Moretti for the lead role of
"Thom" on the day of his audition,
giving him just 24 hours to decide if he would be gay
for pay. Moretti called everyone he knew in the industry to
ask whether accepting the role would be the end or the
beginning of his career, and reaction was fifty-fifty.
His manager at the time told him it would be career
suicide. A prominent agent told him that if he took the role
he would never have the same opportunities as his
A-list clients. However, a closeted actor friend who
is quite well-known--and whom Moretti prefers
not to name--gave him perhaps the most surprising
advice: "You're 26 and you're not
the new lead on ER," he said. "I
realize it's contradictory, but my
career's established. There are going to be a lot
of opportunities for you."
His friend Jason
David, then a talent agent at Venture IAB, gave him
similar guidance. "Do it," Moretti recalls him
saying. "You have the opportunity to be on the
cusp of a movement."
So Moretti took
the plunge for a second time and a few months later found
himself filming six episodes of The Lair in about 11
days. "It was another of those moments when I
said, Screw it. It was absolutely the best decision I
ever made. I am talking to you at the Hotel Sofitel right
now, setting a positive example for my peers, not to mention
having fun."
Moretti's
decision to do the show, even his decision to do this
interview, seems motivated by a genuine if ambitious desire
to recast the mold for actors in Hollywood. "I
refuse to accept the norm of the way that Hollywood
is," he says pointedly. "I am here to make
changes; I am here to give us all the same
opportunities that we deserve. And I want to work in
mainstream film and television."
But for now
he'll take premium cable. On The Lair, Moretti
isn't just playing gay, he's playing gay
in a genre many consider soft-core porn. Remember the
cock sock? The premiere episode of The Lair
features a lengthy shower scene in which Thom's
boyfriend spies on him soaping up his buttocks and
abs. The scene serves no purpose but to show us skin.
In a later episode the leader of the vampire coven (Peter
Stickles) introduces a new recruit to his flock of muscular
half-naked men who conveniently perform nonstop orgies
for his viewing pleasure. When Stickles leaves the
room the camera pans back to give us a couple of
minutes of naked kissing and groping before returning to the
"plot."
Colichman
doesn't see Dante's Cove or The
Lair as soft-core porn. In fact, he finds the
suggestion downright insulting. "That is a
double standard," he says. "This kind of sex
on-screen has been going on in pay television in the
straight community now for decades." (Well,
maybe not the full-frontal nudity part--unlike Logo,
Here is a premium subscription channel that
doesn't rely on advertising--but we get the
point.)
You won't
be seeing Moretti's nether regions anytime soon,
thanks to a clause in his contract prohibiting
full-frontal nudity. "That would be pushing the
line a little too far at this point," says Moretti
who calls the overt sexuality in The Lair
playful and camp. "I'm a modest boy, and
I am just not at a point where I am ready to show the world
my penis." Still, that's about the only
part viewers won't see of our demure friend,
who kicks off the first season with some lengthy oral sex
courtesy of Cutlip, whom Moretti believes is straight. He
spent some time prior to filming trying to figure out
his on-screen boyfriend's personal boundaries.
"You know, Are you going to be weird if I kiss you
that way?" Moretti says. "I
didn't want him to be like, Cut, cut, this
guy is raping me."
According to the
network, it was neither his looks nor his sexual
orientation that landed Moretti the role. "Finding
guys who look good with their shirt off in this town
is not a problem," says Colichman. "The
first thing I look for is a role model who is a great
representation. I thought he was a terrific actor; I
didn't know he was gay till later."
It sounds like a
pat response, but the truth is, Moretti does stand out
on The Lair. That could be the result studying acting
at Janet Alhanti Studios, where his classmates
included Ashley Simpson, Nicole Richie (then known
only as Lionel's daughter), Kristanna Loken,
Backstreet Boy Kevin Richardson, and even Paris Hilton (who
"didn't stick around long").
After college he blanketed the town with resumes
and head shots, landing a big-time old-school agent
with an independent shop and a laundry list of
successfully launched careers. But the agent sent Moretti
on only two auditions in two years and spent most of his
time sexually harassing him. "I was like, Is
this how it works? It gave me a bad impression
of gay culture and a bad impression of Hollywood. But when
you're 20 years old and you look like a deer in
headlights--but you're a cute
boy--you are going to get a response that isn't
the most professional."
Moretti should
have no trouble finding an agent now, but will his
optimism about a sea change in Hollywood match the reality
faced by a young gay actor with a gay soap opera on
his resume? The answer is anyone's
guess, and he knows it. But Moretti was dragged out of the
closet once, and now he intends to walk out on his own two
feet.
"You see
all these closeted actors who feel this mental anguish and
internal struggle, and you just really feel for
them," he laments. "Which is why
I'm coming out right in the beginning, because I
don't want to be outed. I don't want to
have to sacrifice my social life. I want my boyfriend
with me on the red carpet. And if I'm going to miss
out on a couple of big blockbuster movie roles, then
so be it."