Gays of our Lives (May 26, 2009)

AE: Given that, what would you say to closeted actors in the soaps or in the industry? Do you think more of them should come out? Do you think it would be easier for them now if they did?
TB: I'm still not sure. I'm not on the show long enough to give advice there. I don't know how much sponsors have to do with the deciding factor. Unfortunately, so much of it relies on who is putting money into the show, and that's the advertisers. I don't think, today, that it does matter, but I'm not an expert and I don't know at this point.

AE: When you were on the show before, were you out to your costars? Did the show know you were gay or were you completely closeted to everybody?
TB: I wasn't completely closeted. I got the feeling that these people thought I was gay because I didn't say that I wasn't. Afterwards, I had heard from Eileen Davidson's [Ashley Abbott on Y&R] agent, who was involved in the show in some way, that they knew like a week after I was hired that I was gay. So I think the powers that be knew. I wasn't sure who knew and I was too afraid to come out. When I did have relationships, I didn't talk about it.

AE: Were you advised to stay in the closet?
TB: Yes. By my agent and my publicist, certainly.

AE: Why did you decide to leave the show?
TB: It was a three-year contract, and I wanted to do features. I come up from Wisconsin. I'd never been on stage before, and here I was on this number one soap opera. I was just full of drive and ambition. I said, "Okay, now that I've done this, I can go and be Tom Cruise, be a big movie star." Of course, all that changed with the family tragedies, and deciding what my priorities would be after that.