A Tale of Two Cities: How New York and Los Angeles Treat Their Out Actors

According to Bryan Batt, a longtime theater actor who now plays a closeted gay man on AMC's critical darling Mad Men, he never saw much obvious anti-gay prejudice in the theater community. But even in New York, he’s known agents to counsel actors to stay closeted if they wanted to play straight roles.

And when he was cast as the understudy for the male lead in Sunset Boulevard opposite Glenn Close and Betty Buckley, Batt remembers concern on the part of some that he couldn’t play a convincing heterosexual. “There is this preconceived notion your [gay] personality is going to come through,” he says. “But what’s the difference, you’re playing a role. How many straight men are playing gay, but that’s okay?”

Bryan Batt

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Neil Patrick Harris Breaks the Hollywood Curse

By voluntarily coming out, Ellen DeGeneres broke a major barrier, but for closeted male Hollywood actors, Neil Patrick Harris’ 2006 coming out may have been just as important. Why? Because soon after coming out, Harris found himself the Emmy-nominated breakout star of a hit television show, How I Met Your Mother.

“He broke the curse,” Ehrenstein says. “He finally officially came out, and he’s a bigger star than ever.” Likewise, DeGeneres saw a major career resurgence in the 00s.

Neil Patrick Harris

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The decade has seen an increasing number of Hollywood celebrities come out, with some of them, like Rosie O’Donnell and David Hyde Pierce, claiming they were never “in” to begin with. But while they may have been out to their peers, their gayness was big news to the rest of America.

In any event, according to Chad Allen, Hollywood isn’t the town it used to be. For example, he doesn’t know of any actors who have fake marriages or girlfriends. “If they're doing that, they're not talking to me about it!” he says. The decision most closeted actors make today, he says, is to simply not talk about their personal lives. “Which is fine, but not if everyone makes that decision. How are we ever going to clear those final hurdles unless some people are willing to be openly gay?”

“I don't think everybody needs to be out like me,” Allen adds. “I made a very clear decision that, even if I never worked again, I was going to be politically active. That's the kind of person I am, but I don't think it's necessarily the best choice for an actor. If my paramount goal was to be the best actor possible and to be available for a wide range of roles, then I wouldn't be as open and vocal as I am, because your personal life can overshadow the role you're playing. It's the same thing with an actor who aligns himself with the NRA, or whatever. If you're mostly famous for your political beliefs, it's harder to disappear into a role.”

Next Page! Are gays in Hollywood our own worst enemies?