Robert Gant to come between “Mike & Molly”
Shhh. Don’t tell anyone, but Robert Gant is an openly gay actor who regularly gets cast in straight roles.
According to a certain Newsweek writer, Richard Chamberlain and even Jane Lynch, this isn’t the way it works.
But in getting cast as the hunk who threatens to come between the leads in the CBS sitcom Mike & Molly, Gant is once again paving the way.
The actor came out publicly during his run on Showtime’s Queer as Folk and since then has regularly accepted both gay and straight roles on television and in film.
According to TVLine, Gant will guest-star as Kyle, a bakery boss who is very sweet on Molly.
Mike gets wind of Molly’s never-divulged relationship with Kyle when he happens into a conversation with the handsome gent during a visit to Molly’s (hmmmm) “favorite bakery.”
Gant’s appearance will come in episode 16 of the season.
Before Queer as Folk, Gant had mostly been cast as “the boyfriend” on such shows as Caroline in the City and Friends and had a recurring role on the cult favorite Popular as the young high school principal who all the female students were in love with.
He also played a very straight guy from Texas in the UK series PAs.
In a 2009 interview with Greg In Hollywood, Gant talked about playing it straight: That was most of what I did before. It’s actually really refreshing to go back to my roots a bit that way. I just appreciate getting to expand again after having the concept of me contract somewhat. You have to deal with people’s own mindsets and people’s own limitations and, fortunately, that’s all expanded.”
He has no regrets but it’s taken awhile for the industry to realize that he is just as capable of playing straight roles as he was before he went public. He believes “the last real frontier in Hollywood” is an openly gay leading man type actor playing a romantic straight role.
“What helps is that I know what I’m capable of and I think when you have a sense of yourself that way, the rest follows,” he says. ” The problem is when we as individuals don’t know all of who we are which is really the whole issue around being gay. I think as we as a community have come into our own in terms of our recognition of who we really are and our innate equality, then the laws are following.”
It’s not that Gant has shied away from gay roles since the end of Queer as Folk. He starred opposite Chad Allen and Judith Light in the acclaimed independent film Save Me as man struggling to live by the rules at an “ex-gay” ministry. He also played the lead role in Kiss Me Deadly, a gay spy in the adventure flick co-starring Shannen Doherty.
Comments
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Jason says:
Hey, you forgot to mention one of his best early roles: as the actor in the sex video Angela’s parents rent in My So-Called Life (1994)!! LOL
jacey says:
I’m so glad to see Bobby Gant back on screen…in things other than Olive Garden commercials. He’s so good at what he does and such a nice guy. I’d love to see him land a role in a good series.
Karenanna says:
Robert Gant is a wonderful actor – it would be great if he’d get a recurring role on “Mike & Molly” or his own series of some sort.