It's entirely possible you missed a small revolution that played out on daytime TV this year, in a gay storyline on One Life to Live involving Officer Oliver Fish (Scott Evans, the younger, openly gay brother of Fantastic Four star Chris Evans) and Kyle Lewis (played by straight actor Brett Claywell), an old college friend whose sensitive hunkitude draws Fish out of the closet. Sure, gays on TV are nothing new, but Kish, as fans began to lovingly refer to them, shattered the age-old image of the gay eunuch, while demonstrating, in a New Year's Eve consummation scene for the ages, that two masculine men in a committed relationship could make sensitive love without the use of a Lady Gaga backing track or cardboard box of sex toys. (Pottery Barn candles of varying heights, on the other hand, are another story.) It was transfixing, paradigm-busting stuff, heralded by media advocacy groups and perfectly timed to coincide with the gay marriage legislation fiascos of 2009.
Unfortunately, it didn't add up to ratings, which were some of the lowest in One Life to Live history. Last week, both men were informed by producers that the storyline is being dropped and that the characters would be written out of the show by April. We approached Claywell, who was still a little stunned by the news but upbeat, for the real story. What we found was a brave, thoughtful and affable actor who seems to realize he was just a party to something big.
You seem in good spirits!
That's one of your jobs as an actor -- you try to keep yourself in good spirits as much as possible because you don't know what tomorrow can bring. Certainly better news than last week. [Laughs]
Can you talk about how you found out?
I had stopped into One Life to Live's production office to drop off my Emmy reel. And then they saw me there and called me in and told me the storyline is no longer continuing. So I found out the same day I was handing in my Emmy reel. That was quite ironic.
Had they already told Scott?
Scott found out the same way everybody else did, which was a little unfortunate. He told me somebody tweeted him. But they might keep him around a little bit longer. As an officer, there might be more work for Officer Fish that does not involve Kyle, but I think that's part of the reason that he wasn't informed the same way I was. I'm just trying to look at it in the most positive way. I don't think it was a slight to him that he wasn't informed. I think it probably had a little more relevance to Brett Claywell than Scott Evans at the time.
To be honest, I'm not a One Life to Live watcher.
That's OK, I wasn't before I was on the show either.
But I became aware of it when I kept stumbling across these steamier and steamier clips of the two of you.
There was lots of steam in that relationship. [Laughs]
Can we go back to how you first got the part? Were you forewarned of what would be required of you?
I was actually hired to play another part, a high school teacher. But the dynamic wasn't what they wanted it to be between me and the high school student I was supposed to be dating. It wasn't supposed to be an evil villain preying on a high school girl, but because of the age difference, that's how it came off. So they hired another actor to play that role, but told me they liked me and would create another role for me. They did, and over time this is kind of the direction it went.
They told me Kyle was going to be a gay character, and I took a week to mull over what's going on. I could never have played this role without the support, belief, patience and communication of our executive producer Frank Valentini. The whole One Life to Live family embraced Scott and I on the journey. There was a physical relationship that developed, as might develop in any relationship, that might have been an unexpected journey for me to go on, but in a testament to how truthfully we told that story it was absolutely the right decision to be made. I'll forever be proud of everything we did last year.
You really should be. What you guys did was really brave and necessary right now.
I know we're in daytime television and not many people have seen what we did, compared to certain other things. But I feel very strongly that if you put our work up against Brothers and Sisters or Mad Men or Milk or Brokeback Mountain or anything else that has gotten critical acclaim for the work being done, I think that we would stand up next to any other work that's told stories like this. I'm really proud of everyone involved. And I know that everyone's upset because it's ending, but I feel that when we look back on this, I feel like we told a story in a world where most people are afraid to tell it, and we told it without fear, without hesitation or reservations. We told a truthful story, and in the end isn't that what daytime television is really all about. I'm really proud of what we did.
You won a GLAAD Award for your efforts.
We did win a GLAAD Award. We didn't get presented with an award, we just somehow got it. I think they slipped it into our gift bag. But we won it, and we're very honored to be recognized.
Obviously you've spoken with Scott since this. What was that conversation like?
We're kind of doing our own things since this all broke out. We didn't talk too much. But the night of the GLAAD Awards we actually arrived together and went together, and when we were in the car, we definitely said to each other that tonight, it's kind of the culmination of the whole journey, and we wanted to make sure that we didn't allow any emotions to get involved about anything we've filmed.
At the end of the day, Scott and I will go on to great work. By no means will this be the last job that Scott Evans and Brett Claywell will have. At this point last year, nobody had any idea that we would make this big an impact in the television world. And in so many people's personal lives, which is the most important things. There's so many human beings out there that we touched on an individual basis, or we affected, or changed, or encouraged, or supported all of the things that so many people needed.
Recently there's been a couple high profile, openly gay professionals working in the industry who have taken some heat for saying gay actors should stay in the closet. What's your response to that?
I understand that it's a personal choice, for themselves. I don't know exactly who's saying these statements. But I think any time that you feel like you need to keep a truth about yourself secret, you're allowing the people oppressing you to win. I in no way feel like anyone should have to oppress who they are. The talent that one human being has to play a role is in no way affected by their sexual orientation. And I think the more actors who come out and say they are gay or lesbian will only continue the progress being made towards wider acceptance that they are gay or lesbian.
Equality only comes when you fight for it, and if you stay quiet, you're not fighting. So I completely disagree. I worked opposite a gay man for a year, and for the first few months we worked together, I didn't know he was gay. I couldn't have had a better experience working with another man. I played a gay man opposite a gay man, and I would have been upset at Scott for keeping it a secret.