Interview with Greek's Paul James

AE: I'm curious, and I kind of have a sense of this already from what you were saying before, but playing a gay character, do you feel a greater sense of responsibility in how you portray that character than maybe just a regular role?
PJ: Yeah, I definitely do. When the fourth episode that just came out [last week] ... we were arguing about it and it had been rewritten so many times because originally my father, they wrote him as not tolerant. I was arguing with Sean. I wanted to change it to being very supportive. I'm like, this gives me less to act against. This gives me less to do. He was like, yeah, we've seen the whole like angry father so many times that I don't want to do that again.

I sort of realized then that my character was probably the one character out of everyone that was going to have to different standards to live up to. He [Sean] really is using Calvin sort of to say how he feels about being gay. Calvin is a character, but he's also sort of a little bit of a mouthpiece of what Sean has seen in his life and how he wants to portray a certain character, whereas the other characters are written purely as entertainment.

AE: I'm curious, your attitude about gay people and gay issues seems really progressive. Is that something you learned at home from your parents or was that something that you sort of encountered when you went to college and just sort of being out in the world. Where does that come from?
PJ: Yeah, it does come from my parents. My parents are very great people. My dad grew up in Alabama, in the Civil Rights movement, and so there just wasn't any tolerance for bigotry in the house at all.

And then I went to college and I majored in theater and was around a lot of gay and lesbian people. Everyone was shocked at first, [because] you know in high school you weren't really around that. But you just realize that they're the same people as you are. It probably comes from being black, too. You hear people discriminate against gay people, you can just replace gay with black and go back 30 or 40 years and it's the same thing.

AE: Well, it's interesting you say that because not everyone - in some segments of the African-American community don't really see the connection that way -
PJ: Oh, yeah, they're just -

AE: Is it kind of important to you to try and change that perception?
PJ: No. You can't. It really isn't. My parents said you can't argue with ignorance. I mean what can you do? A lot of people in the Black community are from a really religious background and for some odd reason, or actually it's not odd, it's not surprising that a lot of times religion goes hand in hand with intolerance. They come from this perception that, they go by this book. … For them being gay is bad and there's nothing you can do to change their mind.

AE: I thought it was interesting what you said in a different interview about there just aren't that many interesting black roles written so you're not really picky.
PJ: There's not. And all the ones that are, they go to Nick Cannon automatically for some reason. That's why the movie The Architect, I mean it turned out actually pretty terrible, but it's an interesting movie and the acting is great and the idea was great and I took it because the character was beautiful.

AE: How is Shawn the gay character you played in The Architect different from Calvin?
PJ: Oh, completely different. Night and day. Shawn was this like very delicate creature who grew up around a lot of ugliness in the projects and so he sort of lived an imaginary life. He sort of walked around like very spacey. He was looking for love, you know, in any place, just wanting someone to love him. That's all he wanted.

Calvin is very different. Calvin is not looking for that. Calvin's got some walls up ... I wouldn't say [he's] wary of people, but I would say he's definitely, he talks a good game and fits in really well, but at the same time he doesn't really trust that many people. But he's very confident in himself, which is different than Shawn, and he's very sure of who he is. I guess he's just unsure of how other people will respond to him and in his life that's his whole world, he thinks that's the most important thing, so that's very important to him.

AE: Which is real and believable and again, I think that's part of what people are responding to. Does having Sean Smith, the creator and head writer, who is gay himself, writing the show, does that make you more comfortable and confident in how you play the role? Do you go to him or do you go to gay friends with questions about how to play Calvin, or do you just make those choices on your own?
PJ: No, I just make those choices on my own pretty much. It's hard because they're, Sean and Carter, another writer, are coming from their experience and like there was in one episode … where everyone was sitting around cleaning stuff, an Omega Chi project, and the guys were talking about girls. Calvin gets annoyed by the conversation and I was like, if he's joined a fraternity, I feel like he wouldn't get annoyed about guys talking about girls. I feel like that wouldn't annoy him.

I don't know about Sean, but Carter wrote that episode and that was something that he felt from him being in a fraternity. And I was like, well, that's not where I would come from. I couldn't imagine feeling that way. So there's some times where it's different and there's some times when it's great and if I have any questions, I can ask Sean, like how would you react in this situation ... But for the most part, when I was cast, I was told just to play it like a regular guy.

AE: You said you were in a fraternity. Did you know any gay frat brothers?
PJ: Uh, no. Not when I was there. I remember there was this one time when a gay guy was actually in theater with me, we did a play together, he wanted to rush our fraternity, and it was like a big deal. We had a huge talk about it and we ended up giving him a bid, but he didn't end up accepting. He was accepted at another house. But no one that I knew was gay in the house.

AE: Thanks for talking with us and doing such a great job with the role.
PJ: It's been a lot of fun and I really can tell you that. I've never had more fun working on a project and I'm not sure I ever will, than I've had on this one. Thanks for doing the article and supporting the show.

AE: I'm glad it's such a success and I'm glad you guys got picked up. I'm really looking forward to the next season.
PJ: Thanks so much, Michael. It's been great talking to you.

Greek airs on ABC Family on Mondays at 9 PM.