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Matt Ross talks to The Advocate about tonight’s debut of his gay love interest on HBO’s “Big Love”

http://static.tvfanatic.com/images/gallery/matt-ross-as-alby-grant.jpgTonight is the fourth season premiere of HBO’s Big Love and the character of Alby Grant, whose struggle with his sexuality has just been glimpsed at in past years, gets a boyfriend!

Matt Ross, who plays Alby, talked to Brandon Voss of The Advocate about what is happening with his character. Here is a portion of the interview:

When you found out that Alby would have a love interest this season, did you as a straight actor see that as a challenge?
No, because love is love. The challenge for me was just making the emotional adjustment to being more emotionally present. He has many wives and he has children, but he’s obviously not heterosexual, so he’s clearly suffering a great deal. I always thought of Alby as this sort of junkyard dog who’s been kicked and beaten for his whole life by his father, so I had this idea of him as this emotionally disturbed, soul-deadened individual until I learned that he was living this secret life. To open that up and actually feel love was difficult for me to navigate.

The gay community appreciates representation on TV, but not so much when the gay character’s a ruthless villain like Alby. Will having a love interest make Alby a more sympathetic character?

That’s an excellent point, and I hope so. I’m clearly built as an antagonist on the show, so when his homosexuality began to be sketched in, I worried about that too, because you don’t want to portray a community’s negative characteristics. But then I also thought, Well, we’re not a public service announcement; we’re a narrative drama and people are complex. I applaud what we’re doing because it’s more truthful not to worry so much about creating a positive image of a gay man, but instead try to create a complex image of a man who happens to be gay. That’s at the heart of what we’re doing here. Alby’s not defined by his homosexuality, and I think that’s a very mature, evolved way to write drama.

http://www.tvfanatic.com/files/benjamin-koldyke.jpg

Tell me about working with Ben Koldyke, who plays Dale. Was it easy to be intimate with him on camera?
Well, we didn’t know each other before, but I was very fortunate to have Ben, because you never know who you’re going to get. Ben is just a very open, present, serious actor who’s really game for anything, which is what the role required. Frankly, intimate scenes are no less awkward if it’s with a man or woman, but it can be awkward when you view the other person as a close friend, so I was happy I didn’t know him. You just sort of show up, do the work, and let go. It was very comfortable. We both just wanted to do justice to the relationship and make it real.

http://www.channel4.com/film/media/images/Channel4/film/A/american_psycho_xl_01--film-A.jpgYou mentioned the truck stop restroom scene in season 3, but that wasn’t the first time in your career that you’d played a closeted gay man getting attacked from behind in a bathroom.
Oh, in American Psycho? I think I was attacking Christian Bale! [Laughs] No, you’re right. He came in the bathroom to kill me and I turned around and kissed him. So it was sort of the same, only last time I was singing Les Misérables.

FILE UNDER: Television

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