Michael Urie on "Partners" and Celebrity Sexuality
Posted by Jim Halterman, Entertainment Reporter on August 14, 2012
In the series, which premieres on September 24th, Louis (Michael Urie, Ugly Betty) is the lifelong best friend of Joe (David Krumholtz, Numbers) and the two are partners in an architecture firm. Louis has a boyfriend in Wyatt (Brandon Routh, Superman Returns and Chuck) and Ali (Sophia Bush, One Tree Hill) is Joe’s girlfriend. The lines between all these relationships cross and get tangled providing (hopefully) enough laughs to be on the air for a long time. The series is created and inspired by the real-life friendship of Max Mutchnick and David Kohan, who created Will & Grace.
At the recent Television Critics Association press tour, AfterElton sat down with the uber-friendly and super cute Urie to talk about his return to series television, how he’d like see the love life of Louis and Wyatt portrayed, and the line between public and private in regards to a celebrity’s sexuality.
AfterElton: I’m so happy to see you back on TV.
Michael Urie: Thank you so much.
AE: I’m guessing that there were a lot of different things and offers that have come your way, and I know that you’ve done a lot of theater since Betty. Why was Partners the right project to commit to?
MU: Well, I have been casually looking for a TV job, but not actively. I like LA. I love working in LA, but I love living in New York. I love doing theater. So, I was very happy there. I wasn’t actively seeking a new TV job, but I was certainly reading pilots and letting them come my way, things like that. There’s not a part for me in every show, there’s just not. So I’m selective, but so are they. Do you know what I mean? But when this show came up I read i,t and I was like okay…well first of all the players, Max, David, Jimmy Burrows [TV director extraordinaire]. Yes, yes, yes.
AE: Their shows tend to run a long time.
Urie and on-screen BF Brandon Routh laugh during the recent TCA panel for Partners.
MU: [nods] Also, CBS…multi camera…all of those things are good. Then I read the script and the part is so good, I figured out that I was playing Max Mutchnick. It’s the best part I’ve ever read for a TV show that I actually could have gotten. I was like, ‘I’ve got to make this happen. I’ve got to get this job. This is going to work. I can hear myself saying these words. I can see myself playing the part.’ I can’t imagine a better role for me in a show.
AE: Is it safe to say that you know Louis pretty well?
MU: I get this guy. It’s a good fit. Yeah.
AE: And you have Brandon as Wyatt, Louis’s boyfriend. Not too shabby.
MU: He’s so wonderful and dreamy.
AE: Did you have any say in that casting? Chemistry reads or anything like that?
MU: No, I did not. I was cast first, but I remember hearing about him being in the mix. I am a big fan of Superman Returns, especially him as Clark Kent. He is a funny actor. He would be funny in this kind of a part and handsome, guileless…I was really into it. Of course he’s handsome as hell. I love that. I love who he is. I love the kind of work he’s done. I think it’s a great story, and he’s a great actor. He’s easy on the eyes. Doesn’t hurt…
AE: We have a lot of gay characters on TV now, but sex still isn’t something we go into all that much at least in sitcoms. Will we see Louis and Wyatt’s sex life? Is that something that you want to be a part of the show?
MU: I want that to be a part of the show in as much as sex is a part of any sitcom. There is a certain wholesomeness to a situational comedy. We’re on at eight-thirty. We want young people to watch the show. I think we should see us in bed together. I think we should be adults. I think we should be portrayed as adults. I don’t know how racy it should get. We should definitely keep our demographic skewing young. Part of what is so great about this show is that people of all ages will enjoy it. Regardless of who it is that’s having sex, we wouldn’t ever want anybody to get scared away by sex. But I feel like we’re playing adults. We should act like adults.
The Partners cast: Routh, Urie, Krumholtz and Sophia Bush.
AE: The whole cast seems to have really good chemistry from what I saw in the pilot. Even your scenes with Sophia are so cute. She’s adorable.
MU: I love her too. You know, four is a great number of core actors because it’s easy to get to know each other right away. David [Krumholtz] and I have spent a lot of time together, obviously. Sophia and I have spent a lot of time together. Brandon and I have gotten to spend one-on-one time together. We’re getting to know each other personally, which makes it so much easier once you’re working. You have a common emotional language, even a common physical language, which makes it a lot easier.
I also think David and Max did such a good job of creating a pilot that really picked up in the middle as opposed to like ‘Diane walks into this bar called Cheers.’ Obviously that pilot was fantastic but…
AE: I see what you mean.
MU: [Partners] starts as lives in progress rather than people who just met and now they have to get to know each other. That’s all exposition, exposition, exposition. Our show feels like it could be the third or fourth episode. Obviously David and Max know what the hell they are doing, and they are so smart about creating story, but also managing to find all of these jokes to put in it because the story is really good. The story in the first episode is really strong.
David Krumholtz and Michael Urie as Joe and Louis in Partners.
AE: Yeah, even the foundation of the show, the fact that this is their friendship from the time they were kids and one happens to be straight and one happens to be gay.
MU: Some of my best friends are straight and always have been. We don’t necessarily talk about football, but I like doing things like that. Most of my straight guy friends are also going to see musicals. So, there are stereotypes of straight and gay people, but there is also a broken rule for every stereotype about that. I enjoy going to football games. I don’t necessarily know who’s playing or all the rules but…
[Mamie Gummer, also doing interviews for her new show, Emily Owens MD stops by to say hello to Michael]
Urie on Broadway in How To Succeed In Business... earlier this year.
AE: You mentioned you were directing a movie? Tell me about that.
MU: My boyfriend (Ryan Spahn) co-wrote it with Halley Feiffer. They are the stars and I directed it. Everyone plays themselves. It’s called, He’s Way More Famous Than You. We’re shopping it right now.
AE: Is directing a new area for you?
MU: It is. I co-directed a documentary that has been in the festival circuit and hopefully will be available to you very soon, and that was my first time directing. I shot it a year ago, almost a year ago.
AE: How does directing influence acting and back and forth? Does it make you think of things differently?
MU: Absolutely. I learned when I was directing. I was also in the movie, and I learned when I was directing on days when I was also acting…I feel like I’ve had a director’s mind forever, but it wasn’t until I had to direct myself that I realized why actors are pampered. I always thought, why are we so pampered? I don’t need this. But one day I was directing and acting and I got frustrated about something and it became impossible to act. So, now I have a very keen understanding of why actors are special on a set and how to keep them in it, not necessarily happy, but in it. One day somebody pissed me off about something that didn’t have anything to do with the scene, and I could not concentrate.
AE: Wow, I guess that was a good lesson?
MU: It was a good lesson. The scene worked out.
AE: I was looking at some past interviews that you’ve done and the whole sexuality thing comes up with actors and actresses and people always seem to want to know what to label people. I’m curious, why do you think everybody is so curious and obsessive about it? I know if I don’t ask – and sometimes I know I can’t depending on who I’m talking to – readers will comment with ‘Why didn’t you ask that?!’ So, what I want to ask is, why do you think we’re so fascinated with an actor’s sexuality?
MU: I don’t know. That’s a good question. I guess…well, I think it’s easy. It’s an easy question. It’s easy when somebody is known for playing straight roles but they are not romantically linked for whatever reason, it becomes a big question. You can Google almost anyone’s name and their name with ‘gay’ comes up. George Clooney, George Clooney Gay will come up. Which is weird to me. I think that there are some people that I think insist that anyone in the public eye must put their private life in the public eye…
AE: Like it’s part of the package.
MU: As part of the package, which I get, some people don’t. I struggle with whether or not sexual identity is private or public because, if we are to say that it is not a choice like being left or right handed, why would it be private? So, I don’t know. Honestly I don’t know.
I know that there was a period when I was being told and I wondered if my sexuality was public, would it affect my work? Then I realized that my sexuality being public would help my work actually. I’ve gotten to play so many great parts that are gay men. I wouldn’t give that up for the world at all. I certainly would never give up a great gay part for a lousy straight part So, I’m perfectly happy with where things are for me right now. But I wonder if certain other actors who might be known for their heterosexual sex appeal, if they were to come out as gay, if that would hurt them. The only times you see great actors who are known for their heterosexual sex appeal to come out as gay, they’ve already got a great heterosexual job.
AE: Interesting.
MU: It’s like this Chick-Fil-A thing, eventually we all are going to look back on this time in the same way that we’ve looked at all of the generations before us who have had inequality with shame. You know, we’re going to be ashamed that anybody ever was not equal the way that we look back and can’t believe women couldn’t vote, can’t believe…
AE: Oh yeah. I can’t wait for that day.
MU: …the holocaust and slavery and all the way back to anytime that anybody was oppressed. Obviously ours is far less violent than many have been, but it’s the same thing. Eventually it’s going to be ridiculous for anyone in a seat of power, like the CEO of Chick-Fil-A, to come out against any minority. There was an interesting article that my sister-in-law’s brother wrote, I don’t know who he wrote it for, but I read it on The Daily Beast. It was about the politicians who have changed their stance on…
AE: Equality and gay marriage.
MU: …and all of them changed their stance because they know somebody or they’ve met somebody and they’ve gotten to know somebody and they’ve come to realize, ‘Oh yeah, they’re nice.’
AE: Yeah, we’re not scary.
MU: We’re not scary. And nobody has ever changed their mind the other way. Nobody has ever been in favor of equality and then changed their mind.
Partners airs Mondays at 8:30pm beginning September 24th on CBS.
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