Nelsan Ellis, who plays the mostly wonderful Lafayette on True Blood and who I just actually learned is not actually gay in real life, has Very Strong Opinions on Luke Grimes — the actor who we previously mentioned quit the series after he found out his character was to have a gay storyline involving Lafayette. (Just to clarify, he quit over the gay storyline itself, not because the gay storyline is also terrible.)
In an interview with Vulture, Ellis responded to a question of whether or not he had a chance to bond with Grimes before he homophobed into the sunset.
I didn’t, but I’m completely … I mean, I can say I’m not going to make a comment, but I just think that, you’re an actor, you’re an actor on a show that’s True Blood, we’re all sitting there going, “You quit your job because … really?” I’m just… I’m over him. You quit your job because you don’t want to play a gay part? As if it’s … You know what? I’m going to stop talking.
Yet, he went on to say…
You have to be open. But more importantly, you make a statement when you do something like that. I did a documentary called Damn Wonderful, about gay suicide, and you make a statement, a big statement, when you go, “I don’t want to play this part because it’s gay.” If you have a child, if you have a son, and he comes out as gay, what are you going to do? If you have a daughter who comes out gay …? You just made a statement, and it has ripple effects.
Well said. As I kind of stated before, I’m sure it’s a pretty sucky bait and switch to have to go from Jessica Hamby’s love interest to literally any other love interest on the show — but this is True Blood and no one stays with anyone for very long. So just suck it up, be a man and kiss a boy.
