Interview With Eric Millegan

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Interview With Eric Millegan
by Jenny Sherwin, February 27, 2007

Sporting boyish good looks and disarming talent, Eric Millegan has quickly becoming one of TV's hottest character actors. As Dr. Zack Addy on Fox's Bones, Millegan dons a lab coat and sports a vocabulary that gives Stephen Hawking a run for the money. In doing so, he has quite possibly earned the title of prime time TV's sexiest geek.

But beyond his acting chops, Eric Millegan is a gay actor who was out long before T.R. Knight or Neil Patrick Harris. He heads the growing list of prime time actors who are openly gay and play straight characters who American viewers love just the same. AfterElton.com recently talked with him about his decision to be openly gay, his take on the Isaiah Washington controversy and which gay actor he'd like to work with.

AfterElton.com: You've been out professionally for quite some time. When did you make that decision and why?
Eric Millegan: I did a movie called On_Line in which I played a gay role. It went to Sundance in 2002. There's a gay brunch there, and the On_Line people wanted to send me. I knew that they were going to ask if I was gay, and I thought, "Yeah, that's fine. I'll do that." The Advocate and Out magazine interviewed me then, and Out named me Hottest Up and Coming Gay Actor of 2003.

AE: Were you out to your friends and family at that time?
EM: I came out to myself and the people around me in 1993. I had a summer stock job and I fell in love with a guy, but I still didn't consider myself gay. I thought I was just in love with him. But he really broke my heart and so I thought to myself, "Well, maybe you are gay."

AE: Was there ever a time that you regretted coming out?
EM: No. It feels totally great to be out. When I came to Los Angeles, people told me to lie about my sexual orientation and lie about my age, and I thought, "Nope. I'm going to be open about my sexual orientation."
It felt so great to get this job playing a straight character knowing that I was totally open about being gay. If I had tried to be closeted, I always would have thought I only got the job because I was in the closet. I'm on a TV show; people know I'm gay; people know I have a partner; and I don't feel like my career is being affected.

AE: Are there any openly gay actors who inspired you?
EM: I'm not sure if Nathan Lane had come out yet, but Rosie O'Donnell, Ellen DeGeneres, of course. Will & Grace was already popular so there was a gay character on a mainstream show. There were certainly people out. But you know what it really was … I remember going to my agent and asking, "Is this going to be OK?"
And he said, "I don't think that your being out is going to change anything because of the kinds of roles you're going to play," because I get the quirky kind of character roles as opposed to, say, action hero. If he had said, "Yeah, it is a problem," then maybe I would have stayed closeted, so my agent definitely made a difference with that.

AE: It seems like your experience as a gay actor has been pretty positive. Do you think there is a still a bias against openly gay actors in Hollywood?
EM: I'm having a great time doing Bones, and I feel very grateful that I can be out and have a TV show and have the success that I'm having. But I hadn't really been tested before I came out. I always wondered: What if someone had come up to me and said, "OK, we're going to give you this major film role; you're going to get paid five million dollars, but we need you to be closeted." Would I have been able to have principles like I've had if the stakes were higher? Would I have had the guts to come out? I don't know. It's easier to have principles when it's not hurting your career so much.

AE: As an actor and a celebrity, you're used to being in the public eye. How much info about your private life do you think fans deserve to know about? Is it fair for the general public to want to know which celebrities are gay?
EM: I think it's a private and personal situation, and I don't know how I feel about people going out of their way to out people who are closeted. I certainly think it's just better if you're out so you can end that and you don't have to deal with rumors. I think if I was in the closet, people would already be speculating about me. One good thing about being out is that you can just end that. You don't have to deal with the rumors.

AE: Still, many actors have been outed professionally … Lance Bass and Neil Patrick Harris, fairly recently. What's your stance on outing?
EM: I do get a little pissed off at people being closeted because they think it's going to help their career. Somebody who I knew in New York who everybody knows is gay, and who has a boyfriend, did some interviews where he was talking about how he knew if a girl was right for him. I was kind of pissed because you don't have to do that. You don't have to be closeted for your career.

AE: Have other gay actors or gay fans spoken with you about whether or not they should come out?
EM: Yes. I get emails from people who tell me, "You've really inspired me because you're out there as a TV actor and you're openly gay."

AE: Do you find that the response from your homosexual fans has been greater since you've been openly gay? 
EM: I definitely have gay fans. I have a guestbook on my website, and I get posts from gay men all over the world. I can't believe it, but Bones is in Croatia, France, Hungary ? and so many of my posts are from overseas. I get a lot of posts and emails from people who say it means a lot to them that I'm out. They saw it online that I'm gay and then they started watching Bones, which is cool.

AE: What about your straight fans?
EM: The response I get is great. I get emails from women even though I'm openly gay, so I don't think the fantasy is ruined. I've read responses from fans online where they say, "I know he's gay but it doesn't change the fact that I think he's really cute," and "I don't care if he's gay; I still want to have his children."

AE: You've played quite a few gay characters. As a gay actor, do you find that your gay fans react with the same enthusiasm when you're playing a straight character?
EM: I haven't experienced that. I've done interviews with a lot of gay magazines and online publications, so the gay people definitely know I'm gay. I don't think that playing a straight character affects that in any way. I've seen on the internet where sites have listed that I'm not playing a gay character but I'm openly gay so they recommend that gay people watch Bones. That's the kind of gay support that I've seen. When they list what gay people should watch they say, "Watch Bones because of the gay actor."

AE: Both Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother) and T.R. Knight (Grey's Anatomy) play heterosexual characters with romantic lives. Do you think mainstream America is finally getting past the idea that gay men can play straight romantic roles?
EM: Grey's Anatomy's ratings certainly haven't dropped. [Laughs.] If I was not out right now, I would look at T.R. and Neil and think, "It's safe; the waters have been tested and it's safe," and I'd be coming out now if I wasn't already. I hope a young actor in New York or in Los Angeles will look at all three of us and think, "Wow ? I do not have to lie to get work." After all, there are straight actors who are unemployed too.

AE: Is it difficult for you in any way to play straight roles? Do you feel any less comfortable doing love scenes with women? 
EM: No. I've had more chances to play opposite women since I came out.

AE: What's your take on the Isaiah Washington controversy? Have you ever encountered a situation like that and could you work with a fellow cast member making inflammatory anti-gay remarks on the set?
EM: I've really never had that experience. In New York I was in the theater, which is kind of an insular environment. I haven't had to deal with any slurs or anything like that. My cast knows I'm gay and they don't have a problem with it, and my boss doesn't have a problem with it and he knows. No one's bothering me on the set or calling me names.
I'm grateful to be open about my life [and to] have such a great job and a great career, and I'm thankful to be working with such a good cast who are very supportive of each other and are really great actors. We all like to work together and have a great time. I know that not all experiences are like that, and I feel very blessed to be to be working with them.

AE: Your character on Bones recently got a much-needed makeover. As a fabulous gay man, do you ever feel like you'd like to kick his fashion sense up a notch?
EM: Yes! I'm trapped in that lab coat a lot. I actually wear some pretty cool clothes under the lab coat but you can't really see them.

AE. Are you more at home in New York or Los Angeles?
EM: I like L.A. but I do miss New York. I thought I would spend the rest of my life in New York so this is an exciting time that I didn't see coming. I told my agent when I was thinking about coming to L.A.: "If you're going to get me auditions then I'll come out. But if I'm not going to get auditions and I'm going to be miserable, I'd much rather be miserable in New York than in L.A. "But I like it here. I like the open space and how much more room I have. And having a car is kind of cool."

AE: How do you find that the gay scenes differ in both cities?
EM: I'm not really a big club guy. When I first came out, I used to go to clubs in New York. One thing that's different is that when I'm doing musical theater in New York, I feel much more like I'm in a gay environment. I [am] used to working with a lot more gay people. I think pretty much everyone on the set of Bones is straight.

AE: Do you find you go out less since you and your partner got together?
EM: That's right. I've known him 13 years, but we weren't a committed couple at first. Once we settled down about nine years ago, I stopped really going to bars. I really enjoy being at home with him.

AE: Last question. If you could play opposite any male actor in the next hottest gay thing since Brokeback Mountain, who would you pick?
EM: I've always had a long-standing crush on Nathan Lane, but I don't know that we'd be good at doing Brokeback Mountain.

AE: Well, maybe you could do Brokeback Broadway?
EM: [Laughs.] This is the kind of question you ask me that two hours after the interview I have a good answer for. I think T.R. Knight is cute, and one of the people on my website message board recently said, "I'm a woman and I have no problem with [Eric] being gay and as a matter of fact, I fantasize about Eric and T.R. Knight being together." So, I wouldn't mind doing something with him.

Bones airs Wednesday nights at 8 p.m. EST on Fox. New episodes return on March 14, 2007, or catch previous episodes on Fox On Demand.