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TV viewers first connected with Cruz during his run on My So-Called Life, alongside Claire Danes. Cruz was pursuing a double major in theater and English at California State University at San Bernadino when he was cast as troubled gay teen Rickie Vazquez on the show. It remains a highlight of both his life and of television history for many, many viewers.

Fans still remember Cruz's pitch-perfect turn on the series, and he looks back on it with a rewarding sense of reflection

“I don't know that I'll ever be more proud of anything, in my life or career,” Cruz says. “I hope to be as satisfied in my work someday as I was when I was doing that. My So-Called Life is part of my DNA. If I hadn't been a part of it, I would've been a fan. The fact that I got to be a part of that, and will always be a part of that, is surreal to me. I think, on a personal level, that it was one of the best things on television. It was one of the most brutally honest portrayals of what teen life is really like.”

Indeed, MSCL offered complex, unflinching portrayals of adolescent life in all its shapes, colors and sizes. Cruz's character dealt with a hostile family atmosphere, alienation at school and unresolved romantic feelings. It was a storm of emotions the young actor related to all too well.

“I remember at that time being really aware of how important it was and what an opportunity it was. When I read it, I remember crying, thinking how much of a difference it would have made in my own life had that been around when I was growing up. It would have saved me so much turmoil, just in the sense that I felt really alone, felt like a freak and kind of ashamed," Cruz says.

“I think Ricky was really a vessel to say to the youth at the time… being gay or lesbian is nothing to be ashamed of, but it's just part of who you are. Self-acceptance is a journey that you take. That's what Ricky was doing. He was on this journey of self-acceptance and awareness.”

Despite his own inroads toward gay visibility on TV and on the big screen--which have been commendable--Cruz is still perplexed by the ecstatic adulation given to straight actors who go “gay-for-pay.” It's an issue that incites strong opinions from the articulate actor.

“Straight actors … have done a great job, but when they're interviewed and they talk about kissing another man, it was like somehow the most difficult task they've ever done as an actor. What?! It's a pair of lips on a human. We're not asking you to kiss the ass of a pig,” Cruz says.

“On the other side of that, we have people who are being honest and using their life experience and who could really bring truth to those roles and aren't given the opportunity to do it because of the bottom line. I get that. I understand that, but to hold these straight actors up and say that because they're straight that it's harder or better work--that's ridiculous to me.”

Cruz continues to fight the good fight, auditioning for--and earning--gay roles in varied, interesting projects. Upcoming is the independent film Bam Bam and Celeste, alongside Alan Cumming, Kathy Najimy and Margaret Cho, who Cruz calls an “insane, crazy woman. We love her. I had, like, whole portions of her stand-up memorized. I love it.”

There's also Coffee Date, another big-screen flick about a straight man (Jonathan Bray, The Young and the Restless), who strikes up a friendship with a gay guy (Cruz) after they are jokingly set up on a blind date. Sparks fly, and the lines of sexuality are blurred. It's a screwball affair featuring an eclectic cast--Oscar nominee Sally Kirkland, ‘80s icon Jonathan Silverman, gay comic Jason Stuart, and pop star/Broadway diva Deborah Gibson.

Coffee Date's first public screening is March 19 at Cine-Space in Hollywood.

What lies ahead for the gifted, gracious Cruz is anyone's guess. He does admit to a pair of fun dream projects--the lead roles in bio-pics on Prince and tortured actor Sal Mineo, both of whom he calls “fascinating.”

And as he has done with so many of his projects, Cruz yearns for something new he can identify with and relate back to his own search and struggle as a young, gay man.

“I would really love to, at this point, be on a show that's just really well written and that can hold a mirror up to our community,“ he says. “I think there's a lack of programming out there that really talks about how we really live our lives. I think so much of what we see right now, we're like the joke or in on the joke. I kind of want to have a real honest conversation about what it's like to be us right now, in this time.”

In other words, it's time to move past our so-called lives and on to the real thing.

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