Interview: Matthew Rhys and Luke Macfarlane Aren't Just "Hollywood Actors"

Luke Macfarlane, Matthew Rhys

It’s a warm January day on the ABC studio lot in Burbank, California as I wait for Matthew Rhys and Luke Macfarlane, who play Kevin Walker and Scotty Wandell on ABC’s Brothers & Sisters, to arrive for a joint interview – an interview that’s been quite some time in the making. So after having first toured the set where Rhys and Rachel Griffiths will later film a scene in an art gallery (a scene that will have major implications for Griffiths' character Sarah Walker), hanging out a few more minutes is no big deal.

Ten minutes pass before Calista Flockhart, Emily VanCamp and Griffiths arrive at the stage via shuttle, while Rhys and Macfarlane turn up a few minutes later … on bicycles. It turns out that this is how they usually get around the lot, which isn’t surprising given how down to earth both men are during our subsequent interview.

It also isn’t surprising that the duo, who play one of the few same-sex couples on broadcast television, also display an easy rapport and chemistry, both teasing and complimenting each other. That chemistry is something viewers noticed almost right away during the show’s first season, and why many fans lobbied for Macfarlane’s character to return after Scotty and Kevin first broke up.

Fortunately, Scotty did return, with the two men subsequently falling in love, dating and then having a commitment ceremony, all of which led to their current storyline where they are using surrogacy to become parents.

Over the next half hour we discuss whether each actor would like to one day be parents themselves, what the success of the show means for them, and for Rhys, who recently made his directorial debut on Brothers & Sisters, what it’s like directing, or at least trying to direct, a cast of such strong women. Hint: It's a challenge.

AfterElton.com: Your characters came along when gay and bisexual men were starved to see themselves represented on television, especially as couples. Now that you've got some time and distance, what was it like dealing with the intense reaction and expectations at the time?
Matthew Rhys: Primarily I was very buoyed by the fact that we had this very positive reaction from the get-go. That's always very heartening to hear. That's owed primarily to Jon Robin Baitz and the way he wrote Kevin very specifically from the beginning. There wasn't meant to be that much emphasis or definition through his sexuality. That's what was refreshing.
Luke Macfarlane: He was the brother, not the gay brother.
MR: Yeah. The lawyer.
LM: Not the gay lawyer. People do want to know the writers consider storylines. They pay attention to what's happening in politics and they do want to represent the characters now in perhaps a more ... I don't know. I don't think it started off that way. As the characters have grown, I think there's been more attention paid to how to portray them as decent and good.

AE: Do you even think about the weight of the expectations as one of the few gay couples on television? A lot of people tune in to the show specifically to see you guys, and are really invested in your relationship and how it's going to develop and how they can relate to it.
LM: I don't think you really can. I met recently with someone who is working on the case in California, the Proposition 8 case, and he said to me, "You know, your names and your characters always come up in our meetings as a representative of good gay people in the media. But I think as an actor, you really can't take that into consideration. It's nice to hear, but it doesn't help our work.
MR: Without shirking, I always think it's the writers who bear the responsibility. They're the ones who forge ahead and do it up for us. We're just very fortunate to say the words.