Tuesday Morning Man: Eric Mabius!

Eric Mabius is one of the more thoughtful and LGBT-friendly actors I’ve ever met.

His character of Daniel Meade on ABC’s Ugly Betty has a transsexual sister, Eric was once a regular on The L Word, and he played gay in Cruel Intentions waking up in bed with Joshua Jackson!

I’ve interviewed Eric on several occasions and think it’s cool that we share the same birthday (The photo of us below was taken at the GLAAD Media Awards a few years ago).

Eric once told me that he is glad to be on Betty because it’s a show with heart that portrays tolerance of people of different cultures and income level and sexuality: “Being consistently employed is one thing but being a part of a show that is truly trying to, without preaching, trying to make a difference. Actors are always sort of at odds with themselves but to be part of something that’s putting good out into the world definitely helps with one’s sense of self. ”

His sister, Alexis Meade was played by Rebecca Romijn but was written out of the show when production of Betty was moved from Los Angeles to New York. But Eric said people got some good insights through her storyline:

“I think it’s funny because Rebecca Romijn to a lot of guys is one of the most beautiful women alive and you see guys start to look at what they understand as beauty and what they understand as orientation roles and identity roles. It’s forcing people to re-examine things. Like Middle America saying, ‘Oh wow. That’s a pretty heavy and odd storyline but if someone is meant to be something they are not because of a random genetic choice, we get to see how difficult that can be to get back to what they essentially believe to be their true identity. It’s really important.”

Eric first got our attention as a buffed-out stud in the indie fave Welcome to my Dollhouse. He once told The Advocate that he had not problems playing gay in Cruel Intentions: “Listen, I went to Sarah Lawrence [College]. I went to high school in Amherst [Mass.], and nearby Northhampton has the largest lesbian population on the Eastern seaboard. So I’ve been user-gay friendly for a while (laughs).