Cheyenne Jackson: Buzz and Movement

As you may have noticed, we have a thing at AfterElton.com for Cheyenne Jackson. We first interviewed him back in July of last year, just before he was about to make Magic in the Broadway show Xanadu (and it's taken me some time, but I've come to terms with the fact that he called the original Xanadu movie "wretched".) Then Michael and Brent hopelessly devoted an entire 2 Gay Guys Vlog to an interview to him last November. Not to be outdone, our readers made him #36 on The AfterElton.com Hot 100 List.

Now, Brandon Voss has interviewed the United 93 star for the upcoming issue of The Advocate. Among the revelations that come out is that special moment when he knew...

“The first time that I knew I was gay — I think I was, like, 7 — I was watching this Valentine’s Day Popeye cartoon episode that would play every year. There was this scene where Popeye was captured by Brutus, tied up with no shoes or socks on, and Brutus starts tickling his feet. I remember getting a little boner, and I didn’t know what it was about that scene that was creating that, but I knew that it was something naughty that I couldn’t tell anybody, and I definitely knew it was something that made me different. But every year, I couldn’t wait for that episode.”

I can't believe how similar Cheyenne's moment is to mine (except mine didn't involve Popeye, it involved Thundarr the Barbarian and his "companion" Ookla the Mok). He also talks about the fact that his sexuality has not (for the most part) prevented him from nabbing straight roles. He was cast in a pilot for a Lifetime drama series called Family Practice, playing the womanizing son of Anne Archer and Beau Bridges, but unfortunately, it was not picked up for a series, and he played a straight starring role in the thriller Hysteria. Another subject broached in the interview is the enormous pressure he's under to be an out role model for the gay community, and his "love-hate" relationship with the gay press.

I feel that we're really on the brink of something huge with Cheyenne, and it's exciting to watch it grow. We have a shot here at witnessing the emergence of something almost unprecedented - an openly gay Hollywood leading man. No matter how big he gets, though, we'll always have the memories of Cheyenne in tight shorts and roller skates. After the break, you can see him perform Suddenly from Xanadu, on The View