Interview: Scott Evans Looks Back on an Amazing Year!

It’s been quite an amazing twelve months for Scott Evans, who until mid-summer of last year, was a minor recurring character on the ABC soap One Life to Live. But that was before the talented and daring writing crew at the show decided to reveal nerdy cop Oliver Fish as closeted and in love with his college lover, Kyle Lewis (Brett Claywell). Thus Kish was born and the couple quickly became one of daytime’s most talked about duos.

While other soaps have feared to tread too far into gay territory, OLTL has gone full bore crafting daytime’s first same-sex love triangle, boldly tackling the topic of gay marriage and giving fans the romantic payoff of the first love scene between two men on daytime television.

We talked to Evans about the past year, how it’s affected his life, his views on political subjects, working with his movie star brother Chris Evans, and much more.

AfterElton.com: How did you feel when the writers told you about the coming out storyline and the romance with Kyle?
Scott Evans: I was excited. It’s tough when you have no ties to the canvas. You never know what to expect so I thought it was great. I just never expected it to grow into what it has. I couldn’t have imagined that it would become as big as it has that people would be talking about Kish. It’s been great.

AE: Why do you think that the Kyle and Oliver romance just took off the way it did?
SE: I’d like to think that people looked past that it was a gay romance and saw that it was a good story. And that they were accepting [of] seeing gay people on TV. I mean you see it everywhere and you think people are just starting to accept it and things are changing, but then you hear about things like the ruling in New Jersey and you wonder.

AE: How did you feel about the New Jersey ruling when you heard about it?
SE: I was watching the hearing online and saw the ruling. People were cheering when it came down. It made me sick to my stomach.

AE: Do you get a lot of fan reaction to Oliver's story?
SE: I have gotten the most amazing responses to his story. There's very few people who can say they didn't struggle with [their sexuality]. I love those stories where they're like, "Oh, I was 8-years-old and I was out of the closet and telling people already." .

That's great, but you know, there's always a struggle whether it's internal or external. The reactions I've gotten, the people I've heard from, the people who aren't out and don't know how to do it. I'm always afraid that some fan mail doesn't get to me, but hearing some of these people's stories is amazing.

Hearing people say that they watch the show and it's helping them, that's completely boggles my mind. Having that happen is absolutely life-changing for me, knowing that I am doing some good for some people out there.

AE: Have most of the letters you've gotten been positive? I'm sure there's been some negative.
SE: I think anyone that sits down to put a pen to a piece of paper isn't going to take the time to write something negative. All the negative stuff comes on websites or blogs. People can be anonymous and say whatever they want and not get any backlash for it because it's anonymous. They can be a coward and say what they want.

The people that actually put pen to paper are the ones that are praising what's going on, and have a story to tell themselves, and they think I'm an ear to listen. And by all means, I will listen. I will read. It's amazing to me how many people out there have been affected so far. .