From: GREGINHOLLYWOOD

Robert Gant Can Play It Straight

By Greg Hernandez on Mar 10, 2009

It's always so good to see Robert Gant at an event because you know he's going to have some interesting things to say.

The out actor best-known for his role as gay college professor Ben on Queer As Folk has been plenty busy since the end of that Showtime series with both straight and gay roles.

Robert came out as openly gay shortly after joining the cast of Queer as the boyfriend (and later husband) of Michael played by Hal Sparks. Burt before the series, he 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.

Gant recently wrapped a series called PAs (stands for personal assistants) for the BBC that airs in the UK this month then will make its way to the US somewhere down the road.

"It's a very sexy, fun show," Robert said during our chat a few days ago. "I'm the sole American in the cast and crew. I play a guy from Amarillo, Texas. He's very straight."

Straight? A gay man playing a straight role? What is going in here!

"That was most of what I did before," Gant explains. "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."

Gant decided to come out publicly several years before such young stars as T.R. Knight, Neil Patrick Harris, Lance Bass and Luke Macfarlane followed suit.

He has no regrets but its 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 - the first of a planned series of Jacob Keane movies.

But tomorrow night (March 11), he's back to playing it straight ion an episode of CBS's CSI: New York. But wouldn't tell me if he's the killer or victim.

Teased Gant: "You"ll see!"