Heartthrob Raul Castillo on ‘Looking’ finale: ‘I’m happy with it. It went where I wanted it to go’

Raul Castillo is featured in The New York Times today. Here are some excerpts:

Raúl Castillo was nervous the day he had to come out as straight.

“It was that first day we were shooting on Muni, going back and forth on the train,” said the 38-year-old star of “Looking,” the short-lived HBO drama that followed a group of gay friends in San Francisco. His scene partner was Jonathan Groff, the gay actor playing the main character, Patrick.

“We were talking about a love affair, or at least the beginning of a love affair between these two guys,” Mr. Castillo recalled, walking around Hell’s Kitchen on a recent Friday afternoon. “And I brought up meeting my girlfriend for the first time. But I did so trepidatiously, because I didn’t want to spoil any kind of chemistry that was beginning to happen.”

Mr. Groff, to his relief, “didn’t bat a lash.”

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“Early on, people would ask me if I thought playing a gay character would pigeonhole me,” Mr. Castillo said. “If anything, because the character had the profile that he did, it’s opened up more doors than anything.”

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During shooting, Mr. Castillo was full of nerves, he said: “I always felt like I was going to lose my job.” But he had an easy rapport with Mr. Groff, with whom he shared several detailed sex scenes. As one of the few straight cast members, Mr. Castillo had some catching up to do. “I learned a lot about gay male intimacy on the show,” he said.

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Of the finale, all Mr. Castillo would say was: “I’m happy with it. It went where I wanted it to go.”