Get Out! GAY Magazine – Issue 528

That is not necessarily
something he did. He did
sing in some choral numbers
with some of the female
impersonators. So I would
say the fact that he sings in
this show is probably distinctly
pulled from my skill set.
After the show is over, what
you have planned?
I go right into and maybe
even overlap with Water for
Elephants on Broadway. I am
playing a character named
Wade. We just shot the
commercial and we did an
out-of-town run at a theater
in Atlanta this past summer.
That is going to the Imperial
Theatre in February, officially
opening in March.
Thus far, what’s been the
highlight of your career?
Have you had one? Are you
still looking for one?
I’m terrible with superlatives.
I am hopelessly optimistic.
I definitely haven’t reached
the highlight of my career–I’ll
say that. But if I had to sort
of r etrospectively analyze
what would be the apex at
this point, there have been so
many high points, but actually,
I’d have to say right now is
really great.
If you could have me ask
you any question on the
planet, what would you have
me ask and how would you
answer it?
I think I would have you ask
me what my interests are
outside of either television and
acting.
Okay, I will ask you that.
When you are not acting,
singing, composing etc.,
what do you like to do?
I am getting a neuroscience
degree. I am working on a
doctoral thesis around the
neuroscience of narratives
where the emotional life of
characters versus
the emotional life
of actors lives in
the brain. If there
are specialized or
augmented parts
of the brain that
actors possess
that may be helpful
for people that
are not actors in
terms of emotional
resilience,
emotional agility.
And also, looking
at perhaps
adaptations of
actors who are
having to create
a multitude of
trauma several
times a week.
And how we can better take
care of our actors in that
situation and perhaps help
them not hurt their brains
with their emotional health by
undergoing imaginal trauma,
which the brain doesn’t really
know the difference between
the two. I am intensely
curious, and then the past
three years or so, I have
actually sort of formalized my
scientific training. I feel like
a whole person now. The left
brain quantitative person is
now getting their time to shine
as well.
I don’t know where you are
finding the time to do this but
you are also a composer. And
composers have very strange
brains. Composers never
sleep.
No, no. There’s a quietude in the
middle of the night and I think I
do some of my best composing
at 3:30 AM, when most people
are asleep. There’s a physical
quietude that somehow allows
the listening to be clearer, at
least in my universe.