Robert Gant can't keep his shirt on at work. Directors, it seems, can't get enough of that six-pack, which is so cut it calls to mind a topographical-relief map. "I have to take my shirt off a lot," concedes Gant, who has played supporting roles on Friends, Veronica's Closet and Ellen. "Not that I mind it. But I think there is definitely a danger of getting lumped into that category, the beefcake type. It's funny, because of all the other things that you do, of course, they remember when you take your shirt off."
Fortunately, he's found a role that has people talking about a lot more than his taut tum. As the latest addition to the cast of Showtime's gay soap Queer as Folk, Gant plays an HIV-positive college professor who falls for Michael (Hal Sparks). There have been a few HIV-positive characters on TV before, but never have their sex lives been so graphically depicted. "It's all well and good to talk about AIDS at arms length, but we're right up in there," says Gant. "After my character had sex for the first time, I talked to some friends who said they watched it with a whole group--they gasped and said, 'Oh my god, oh my god.' Well, guess what, that's life."
Gant, a Georgetown law grad who dumped a promising legal career nine years ago to pursue acting, knows that his bedroom work is opening more than a few minds. "I was in a Duane Reade recently," he recalls, "and this really big, heavyset truck driver-y kind of guy looks at me and says, 'I just want to tell you I really love the show. My wife and kids love it.' When I thought about the implication of that, it was really sort of amazing. --By Erik Meers