SPOTLIGHT
in the theatre. That wasn’t the way I was raised. When I made that sort of change and started studying what it was actually like…the method of putting a character across, I studied three years straight before I went on an audition. It wasn’t like I was selling ice cream and the next moment I was on television…you know? (laughter) I moved to Los Angeles and was fortunate to meet some really great people and started studying. It just grew very naturally. I was very lucky. Not only to get a break but to be able to work around some people who I really loved and trusted who were good teachers for me.” Asking Harold about the recent Newsweek article by
openly gay Ramin Setoodeh in which the writer ques- tioned the ability of gay actors to play straight roles (Sean Hayes for one), Harold weighs in by saying, “I think that was ill-conceived, and a little strange for someone who should be supporting his comrades to take a shot like that. But, hopefully he’ll learn a lesson when he goes to “Glee” school and understand things better. To take a shot at Sean Hayes who has a really established career on stage and on screen. Someone who now is a successful, out, working actor and to take a shot at him in Newsweek just seems so petty, you know?” Gale offers up an additional memory of Queer As Folk
that still resonates with him today regarding actress Sharon Gless. “There’s a scene that Sharon and I did in my loft smoking a joint. It’s probably one of my most favorite scenes. I feel it’s some of the best work that I did in the show. It’s a moment where Brian is so alone! He actually gets to jack into someone in a way that’s just about love you know? It’s about what he couldn’t get from his own family; he got it from his best friend’s mother. I think that’s a beautiful thing. It’s kind of how life is more often than not. Sometimes we have to take love where we can find it. He was fortunate to have Michael [actor Hal Sparks] as a friend and then to have Michael’s mother, Debbie [Sharon Gless] give him some heart. He didn’t have a lot of it in his own home.” The whole cast of Queer As Folk contributed so much
to the exposure and visibility of gays and lesbians on television. Gale Harold describes the impact of being on the show and says, “I think as an ensemble, or as a production, that whatever your sexual orientation is…if you happened to see it, hopefully you enjoyed it (laughter).” “First of all, it was some sort of a calling card or announcement. This is where it gets difficult for me because I never want to play the part of tooting our own horn. The stories were told by these characters who lived their lives and we as actors were just given the oppor- tunity to portray them. People who had seen the show and were able to relate to the story and to the characters were contacting a lot of us. A lot of young kids that I met when we were out there, were very happy and excited to have the opportunity to watch a story that was like theirs. To have those tables turned and be able to find yourself or some part of yourself, your own dreams or struggles that you have gone through…we were very grateful to be a part of that.”
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RAGE monthly | JUNE 2010
“It’s hard to look back over a couple of years and say this or that ‘has or hasn’t changed’ but I did my first role singing and playing guitar in front of a live audi- ence [in Orpheus Descending] which was terrifying so… that was certainly a new thing.”
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