Exclusive: Scott Evans' First Interview

AE: I've followed you for a while and know who you are, but when we posted the story about your upcoming storyline on One Life to Live, our readers went a little crazy with excitement. I was really amazed by how excited people were for your storyline.
SE: It definitely came as a shock to me when it all happened. I didn't know it was going to be as big as it was. It's exciting!

AE: There's another daytime actor who reportedly reacted poorly when he learned his character was going to be involved in a same-sex relationship. When the writers approached you with this plot twist, what was your reaction?
SE: This is a job, it's an acting job. No matter what happens, I'm telling the story of a person. It doesn't matter if he's gay, straight, man or woman. It doesn't matter. You're telling the person of a real human, a story they want to tell. No matter what you're portraying, you should take it as work and you wanting to get the story out there for people to see.

AE: That answer makes a lot of sense in a perfect world, but unfortunately, as we all know, it's not a perfect world. Presumably, the other actor was straight and had some concerns with playing a gay role. Flipping that on its head, as an out man, did you have any concerns about playing a gay role? I know some gay actors I talk to are worried about getting stereotyped with "the gay guy has to play the gay character." Do you worry about that?
SE: I don't worry about it. I've been playing a straight man on the show for so long and didn't have a problem with that, and now that I'm playing a gay man, I don't have a problem with that. As long as I keep telling Oliver's story and his adventures, that's my job and that's all I need to do.

AE: I'm sure you're aware that there are still gay actors in Hollywood who are so concerned about being gay hurting their careers, they remain closeted to some extent. What informed your decision to be an out actor? I've interviewed Chad Allen about this, and some other actors, everyone has a slightly different take, so I'm curious about your thought process.
SE: You know, I have to tell you, I don't think I ever really had a thought process about being an out actor. I came out when I was 19-years-old, and then I became an actor. I didn’t want to be one of those people who goes back into the closet and tries to hide because I knew it would come out. With the success of my brother, I didn't feel it was necessary to hide it once I'd come out. I'm an out person, as opposed to an out actor, I suppose.

AE: You didn't to talk to an agent or anything? You just said this is who I am and I'm not even going there or worrying about it?
SE: Yes. He [my agent] didn't worry about it too much. A while ago, something had come out about me being an out actor, a few months back, and I talked to my agent about it and we decided not to do interviews, because who wants to read about someone they don't know anything about? We decided to wait a little bit to do interviews. It wasn't like we were hiding it.

It's nice, because it definitely is easier now. We still have a long way to go, but it is easier now.

Cheyenne Jackson, Chad Allen

AE: I mentioned Chad Allen before, and another actor I've talked to about this was Cheyenne Jackson, and they were both up front that, "Yeah, I had no choice but to be out because this is who I am. But possibly it has cost me some roles and been limiting to a certain extent." Are you concerned about that at all, or again, are you just going to be who you're going to be?
SE: I think there's always a concern because there's always going to be closed-minded people. There's always going to be those people who say, "I don't want to watch a gay actor play a straight man. It's unbelievable." Little do they know there are a lot of them out there that they don't know about. It is a little bit of a concern, but if it prevents me from getting jobs, bummer. As of now, I'm happy.