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In Gods and Monsters, Plotnick had the opportunity to act alongside another gay icon, Sir Ian McKellen. Plotnick explains that, oddly enough, it was his first performance as Evie Harris at a friend's birthday party that got him the audition for the film. “We put on this whole show, and it happened that [director and writer] Bill Condon was there,” he says.

McKellen, Plotnick reports, was a delight to work with. “He's like a playful teenager — sweet and funny and running around making jokes,” he says. “But then the camera would roll and he would be so professional and such a great actor.”

Plotnick estimates that it's his role in Gods and Monsters that people most often recognize him for — next to, of course, Evie Harris, who fans see in him despite the fact that he plays the role beneath layers of age-intensifying makeup. “I wouldn't hazard a guess about how many procedures she's had — she probably [will] just hit a wall in the next few years and her nose will fall off. … So it's really funny when people come up to me and tell me ‘God, you look so old and haggy.' The funny thing is that I made that movie five years ago now, and my actual thought watching it was, ‘Oh, I look so young.'”

Upon being asked what the sum of all these gay roles have been like as an out actor in Hollywood, Plotnick initially offers the joking response: “really, really gay.” All in all, however, he says that he feels his sexuality hasn't restrained him as an actor, though perhaps being located in Hollywood offers a different social experience than other places might.

“I don't know anything else,” he says. “I've been an old woman for a while. I think I like being a gay man better. … I never was in the closet myself. But the thing about being an openly gay actor in Hollywood is that the crew you work with is generally 98 percent straight men. I think about when I used to do theater. There, I'd be surrounded by gay actors. Here, I sometimes feel a little sad. I talk to my friends who are doing theater and say that they're doing their summer thing and they're going to date this chorus boy and that chorus boy. And I want to date a chorus boy.”

Plotnick also says that his status as a character actor has made his sexuality less of an issue than if he were a leading man. “People have a hard time fantasizing about a gay man as a leading man if they know he's gay,” he says. But he is quick to point out: “The thing with Hollywood is that if you can deliver the goods, then you're accepted. In that way, Hollywood doesn't care if you're gay or not. I mean, Boy George made it.”

Some would say that with such an impressive filmography already under his belt, Plotnick is well on his way to making it — if not as the kind of actor who dazzles with leading roles, then certainly as one who can consistently entertain in whatever work he appears in. In addition, and perhaps more significantly, his performances frequently bring gay issues to light in offbeat but ultimately positive ways.

Plotnick will star in Cook-Off!, an ensemble comedy feature, written by his Lovespring co-star Wendi McLendon-Covey, that is scheduled to hit theaters later this year. He's also adapting a play he co-wrote with Lovespring co-star Pancake into another feature.

“I love doing this because you're free to do whatever you want,” he says of his improv comedy work. “It's amazing work, and I feel just so lucky that I'm doing it.”

Lovespring International airs on Mondays at 11 p.m. on Lifetime.

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