John Driscoll Interview

Michael Fairman has a new interview up at Advocate.com with The Young and the Restless star John Driscoll, who plays Chance. Among other things, Driscoll talks about the early rumors that his character was going to be a love interest for Rafe:

Your debut on Y&R was so highly anticipated. There were online rumors and reports about if your character was going to be gay or straight. Were you aware of this?
Yes. I was trying to do some homework before I started, and one of the websites said there might be a budding relationship between Mac, Chloe, and Rafe. And I said, "Rafe? What? That does not sound like a female’s name. This character has been gone such a long time they don’t know what his affiliation is. Is he gay? Is he straight? What’s the deal?" I thought, You know what? If it’s going to play that way, that’s OK. As an actor, you are always looking for the next challenge. I don’t find anything taboo behind it. I have played a gay character before on a short-lived show called The Book of Daniel with Aidan Quinn and Ellen Burstyn on NBC. I actually worked opposite Christian Campbell, formerly of All My Children, where he played Bobby Warner. We had this romance on the show, and if the show had not been canceled, you would have seen the budding relationship between our two characters. It was really funny doing double duty while I was doing Guiding Light. So during the day I was having bedroom sexual scenes with a female, and then at night on set in bed with a man. It was crazy. I needed a couple of drinks! [Laughs]

As an actor in this day and age, do you still find a stigma attached to a straight actor taking on a gay role, and that it could ruin your career? It certainly didn’t for Sean Penn.
If you look back at the classics, you had a lot of gay actors playing straight men, and a lot of times they kept it very secret. You had women swooning over these guys, and they just kept it a secret. But nowadays it’s cool, and who cares? If you can pull it off as an actor and make it work, more power to you.

Can we at this point say that Chance is straight?
At this point, yes.

It's nice to hear him talk about The Book of Daniel. I really thought that show had potential, especially with his and Christian Campbell's characters, but it was another show that was gone before its time.

I also find the subject of Chance's sexuality interesting, since the character is a virgin. I doubt that Y&R would actually go there and add a third gay character, but it would be interesting to see Chance question his sexuality. It would at least provide him with something in common with his father!