Nelsan Ellis, the beloved Lafayette on ‘True Blood’ only plays gay on TV. The actor is actually heterosexual in real life, but that doesn’t stop him from glamming it up in his flashy role on the hit HBO show. However, recently, actor Luke Grimes quit the show because his character, James, previously romantically involved with Jessica (Deborah Ann Woll), was supposed to become romantically involved with Lafayette. Let’s keep in mind that nearly every male character has had at least one man-on-man scene, even just in dream sequences, including Bill Compton (Stephen Moyer), Sam Merlotte (Sam Trammell), Eric Northman (Alexander Skarsgård) and Jason Stackhouse (Ryan Kwanten). What did Grimes think he was getting into? (His part has since been recast with Nathan Parsons taking on the role of James.)
While those most associated with the show, which is airing its last season now, have remained mum on the topic, when pressed, Lafayette himself, Nelsan Ellis, came clean and expressed basically what we were all thinking.
Ellis admitted that he never had the chance to bond with his now-former co-star, stating:
“I didn’t, but I’m completely … I mean, I can say I’m not going to make a comment, but I just think that, you’re an actor, you’re an actor on a show that’s ‘True Blood’, we’re all sitting there going, ‘You quit your job because … really?’ I’m just… I’m over him. You quit your job because you don’t want to play a gay part?…
“You make a statement when you do something like that… If you have a child, if you have a son, and he comes out as gay, what are you going to do? If you have a daughter who comes out gay …? You just made a statement, and it has ripple effects… I can’t approach a character with judgment. I certainly can’t tell my boss, ‘I can act what I want to act, but not what you tell me to act’, especially on a show where you come in, knowing what it is… I didn’t like what he did because he made a statement, and sometimes you have to take responsibility.”
The heterosexual Ellis has embraced his gay character and allied himself with his sizable gay following, accepting the Logo TV ‘NewNowNext’ award in 2009.
What comes next for Ellis and Grimes? Was this career suicide? Maybe Kirk Cameron has a movie coming up that Grimes can act in.
Source: Huffington Post
