Robert discusses his character, Ben. 2005

Courtesy of the Showtime website

Caps made by Abisel

I've loved this guy from the start. I've loved his spirituality, and I've loved his intellect. I get a lot of emails from a lot of you guys, who say ... particularly a lot of young men who feel like Ben is in many ways the ideal gay man. He's the guy that they, they look up to and they aspire to be. And that's made him a real joy to play for me. So I loved the stuff where I really got to break out of that. I also loved the marriage storyline because it was something that's never existed before, and because of what it means to me personally. I as a gay American, want to get married someday. When I can find the right guy. And ah lets see, what else? Other little things. The set was a big help to me in preparing. I'm a bibliophile as it is, and Ben is certainly one. We have so many of these things in common. And I would draw upon all the books that were on the set. I would draw upon the spiritual icons that we had on the set. The Buddha's and they very much informed my state of mind. And my glasses. We, I used my glasses ... we tried to use glasses ... Early on the network said that they really liked Ben with glasses. That they really distinguished him. So we pretty much ... you'll see in every episode I wear them at least once. And it's funny, it's part of the perfect garb that really helps inform that professorially quality.

I made a conscious choice to have Ben's pills disappear. I got so much information, and so many letters around pharmaceuticals and that sort of thing in terms of AIDS and HIV, that I thought it would be an important choice to just remove that from the equation, and let that be up to the individual. You know, I didn't want to push a particular... I don't know, I didn't want to back the pharmaceutical companies. I didn't want to back a particular ideology that conflicted with what so many other people were walking through with HIV and whatnot. So that was a very interesting thing. I's a tough thing to talk about because it's such a hot button issue. But I intentionally backed off from that and tried to let Ben, be about being a man who was HIV positive, but that wasn't his defining characteristic.

And I guess finally I just love that, I love that Ben was about family. My... I dream of having a family and this is something that we very much have in common. It was something I was able to bring to him, and to watch that come to fruition was a real gift ... for me. You'll really get to see it in the 5th season as he finally realizes that some of his dreams around creating a family for himself. So, thanks you guys... It was... It's been a pleasure to have you out there watching and giving us the opportunity to bring these characters to life. So, thanks.