THE VOICE OF CHICAGO'S GAY, LESBIAN, BI, TRANS AND QUEER COMMUNITY SINCE 1985

"My new tag line is, 'They come for the Queer but they stay for the Folk,'" said actor Peter Paige on the success of Showtime's immensely popular original series, Queer as Folk. It is safe to say that if there is one thing actor Paige is not, it is a shrinking violet. Indeed, the handsome, warm and good-natured star of Showtime's Queer as Folk is one of the nicest guys you'd ever want to meet. In that sense, he mirrors the lovable and altruistic Emmett Honeycutt, perhaps the most flamboyant of "The Boys from Liberty Street," and the character he has become famous for portraying on Showtime's blockbuster groundbreaking original series.

From a rather humble beginning playing The Scarecrow in a school production of The Wizard of Oz at the tender age of six, Paige has always found the art of stepping out onto a stage to be one of life's greatest thrills. "You never feel more alive than that moment when you are about to walk onto a stage for the first time." Ever since that modest initiation into the world of entertainment, Paige has gone on to become a rising star of many mediums, most noteworthy, stage, screen and television. Perhaps best known for his continuing role as Emmett on QUA, Paige is a versatile, dedicated actor who has continually challenged a command of his craft by portraying a variety of diverse characters in venues running the gamut from Shakespeare ( A Midsummer Night's Dream ) to the role of Snoopy in a Boston production of You're a Good Man Charlie Brown.

Born in West Hartford, Conn., Paige attended high school in Raleigh, NC, and studied theater arts at Boston University. Paige has also distinguished himself as an upcoming playwright and theater director.

As quick witted and funny as he is intelligent and warm, Paige has managed to carve out an impressive career encompassing acting, singing, writing, producing and directing. Most people do not realize that Paige originally screen tested for the role of geek "Ted Schmidt" on QAF before the role was offered to Scott Lowell. "I have a lot of schlub in me," Paige confided during a backstage interview at the "Distinctive Dialogue" event presented Aug. 21 at Chicago's Circuit, benefiting amfAR and sponsored by Tanqueray. QAF Executive Producers Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman ultimately decided that Paige was better suited to portray the feisty, somewhat effeminate, sexy Emmett Honeycutt.

Paige's ample roster of TV roles have included spots on some of TV's most successful sitcoms, including: Will & Grace, Caroline in the City, Suddenly Susan, Undressed, Movie Stars and Time of Your Life. Paige's original projects include successful collaborations ( with Abraham Higginbotham ) on Pantophobia and Twisted, both of which have tallied successful runs at LA's HBO Workspace. Paige also starred alongside Robert Sean Leonard in High Concepts, and appeared in Tartuffe, Les Deux Precieuses, Blue Window and The Rivals. Paige shared a billing with Martin Landau in the film, Joyriders, and costarred with Elisa Donovan in the 1999 independent film, Pop.

Paige recently completed the Showtime original film Our America opposite Josh Charles and Vanessa Williams. Paige gives a stirring performance as the best friend/producer of an NPR DJ who helps change the lives of two misdirected inner-city youths. During last year's summer hiatus ( from QAF ) Paige also returned to the stage in the world premiere of Jessica Litwak's Secret Agents.

Paige, who now calls Los Angeles home, was recently in Chicago to appear in Tanqueray's "Distinctive Dialogue" series debuting in the Windy City at Circuit. Paige shared the stage with TV Guide columnist and The Daily Show mainstay Frank De Caro.

DAVID GUARINO: It's great to have you back in Chicago. Is this the first time you've done a benefit for amfAR or Tanqueray?

PETER PAIGE: It's great to be here, thanks! Yes, it's the first benefit I've done for Tanqueray, amfAR as well. I've certainly been to functions benefiting amfAR as an attendee; this is the first time I've been available to do something as a guest.

DG: Your character, Emmett, was involved with an older man in the last season of Queer as Folk. It was an intimate relationship. ( Paige nods ) What are your personal feelings about ageism in the gay community?

PP: It's certainly prevalent, and you certainly feel it, although I have to say that several of my boyfriends have been significantly older than me. Not as much older than me as George was to Emmett, but I have definitely dated men who were significantly older than I was. But I think ( what ) you're speaking to and what I see really all around me is, you know, this obsession with youth and beauty. I think it's sort of part of the eternal adolescence that gay men tend to get trapped in. I was thinking about "why is that happening?" I think because so many gay men, and I think this is changing with the youngest generation, because they're getting to come out younger and have their adolescence during their adolescence. But gay men, we didn't get to do all the sort of dating rituals and things like that when he had boundaries and restrictions imposed on all of us. So you come out, all of a sudden you're as free as a bird, ( you're ) in your 20s, you have disposable income, and you have nobody telling you "no" in any way, you have no restraints. And I think that that much power, combined with the rush of really experiencing that stuff for the first time, just becomes addictive. And I think people get trapped there. They don't move through it, looking for something more meaningful.

DG: We've all heard about the great benefits of being part of the cast of Queer as Folk. Tell us some downsides.

PP: Um. We live in Toronto, which is a great city, but it's far away from home. We're there a lot, a good portion of the year. That's the biggest downside. Other than that, we're really insanely lucky. My agent, who has been in the business since … he was a child actor … and he came up to me and he said, "Peter, I've been on a thousand sets of a thousand different TV series, and none of them feel like this one ( Queer as Folk ) . This is magic, what you have here." And it's true, I believe that. It's such a wonderful place to go to work everyday. I know it's Pollyanna and I know it's ( sometimes ) irritating to hear, but that's the truth.

DG: Well it felt that way when I was there ( on the set ) last February. The only thing is I remember how thankful I was for the few minutes I had alone on the set of Woody's in between the first and second part of the interview I had with Hal ( Sparks ) . Because the amount of people that are there milling around … it would seem to me by the end of the day … well, let me ask you. Do you ever feel like you just want to be alone?

PP: Oh my God, yes! But you know what, I have a place to be alone. I have a trailer. I don't really need that very much. I'm very social and when there's something social going on I usually want to be a part of it. So I probably spend the least time in my trailer of anyone. But even I, you know, sometimes ( Peter waves and laughs ) it's like, "BYE!"

DG: You're a graduate of Boston University, The School of Theater Arts?

PP: Yes. That's a place I loved. You know, my first love is the stage, and I will always go back. I love doing the classics, I love doing Shakespeare. And Moliere, and Coward and Shaw. And those are the things that just get me all worked up! But I feel quite privileged to be working on Queer as Folk. Yet there is something so unbelievably exciting about being on a stage. You never feel more alive than that moment when you are about to walk onto a stage for the first time.

DG: What is by far the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you on stage or on the set of Queer as Folk?

PP: Oh my God! I don't know! My friends are really good at remembering all these stories for me. I tend to shut them out. The most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to me on the stage ... I was doing a production of You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, which is embarrassing enough. ( I laugh ) In Boston. Playing Schnoopy.

DG: Schnoopy?

PP: ( Nods ) Schnoopy, yeah. I was having a blast, it was great. And one night during a group number, one person got the giggles; the next person got the giggles. I wasn't supposed to sing in the song, cause I'm a dog. And I decided to jump in and sing to kind of save the song. But I should know better because I'm one of those people who, once I open my mouth, I can't control what happens. I opened my mouth, I lost it. ( There were ) six people onstage, howling with laughter, no song going on. ... It was a youth matinee, so they didn't quite know what to do with it. I think an adult audience actually probably would have gone with us and just enjoyed it. I think the kids were like, stressed out, and didn't know how to handle it. I'm sure I have other stories… yeah, I don't know, I just block those things out! Then I just don't remember them. Or I'm not that easily embarrassed. Or I have no shame. Maybe that's it, I think that's it, I have no shame!

DG: Who, in your opinion, is the shyest member of the Queer as Folk cast?

PP: Randy? ( Harrison ) Yeah, it's a toss between Randy and Gale ( Harold ) , but it's probably Randy. There's certainly a gray area that Gale shares with his character, Brian Kinney, but he's very much a different person ( in real life ) .

DG: How similar is Peter Paige to the character Emmett Honeycutt?

PP: Well, I'm certainly an outgoing person. I don't think I present myself to the world quite the same way Emmett does. That's sort of how I describe it. In my best moments, we share an openness that he has. But that's not true all the time. I think I'm more jaded, more grounded, more sensible than Emmett, which is both a good and a bad thing. I learn a lot from Emmett every day, and it's such a privilege to go to work and play him. It's really taught me a lot. I love it, here's this effeminate gay man who just loves himself. He just thinks he's great, and it's so unusual to see. You know, it's just a really revolutionary thing, you don't see it.

DG: Our culture is largely driven by the premise that most desirable gay men are butch, "straight-acting and appearing." How has Emmett Honeycutt impacted the image of the more effeminate gay man?

PP: David, one of the best compliments I've gotten, actually it's become sort of a little tag line that gets thrown at me every once in a while is ... somebody said, "You give nelly queens a good name." ( I laugh ) And I think that's a great compliment. And I take it as such.

DG: The sex scenes that we see on Queer as Folk, particularly like the ones at Babylon, where the characters are having anonymous sex downstairs. Many of these sex scenes do not show a use of condoms. How do you address the criticisms that have arisen surrounding depictions like those?

PP: They don't show the use of condoms necessarily, but series-wide it's implied that it's very important to most of the characters. When there's not a condom use, it's a depiction of a real thing that happens to gay men. People slip, people make mistakes, people make bad judgment calls. It's usually very clear how important condom use is. Brian is usually in that back room ( at Babylon ) . It's very very clear about his policies about condom use. He makes the point to Justin in no uncertain terms; Justin has a scene where he's asking Brian to fuck him without a condom, and Brian says, "You want me to do you, you want me to stick it in raw?" and Justin says, "Yep," and Brian says, "Fuck you! Don't ever do that. Don't ever do that!" So yes, you don't always see them ( the characters ) putting them ( the condoms ) on. Because that's as much a feature of storytelling as anything else. I think, though, that the condom thing is regularly addressed on the show and I believe that the characters have been fairly clearly drawn in terms of their thoughts about it.

DG: How do you personally feel about Robert Gant recently coming out in the Aug. 20 issue of The Advocate? Had he confided his sexuality to you prior to doing The Advocate interview?

PP: Oh, of course.

DG: Was Bobby's sexuality a known fact by all of the cast prior to his coming out?

PP: Yes, absolutely, David. And by the way, he was never closeted on the set in any way, shape or form. His decision not to come out initially was something we talked about for hours and hours and hours in his trailer. Like over and over and over again. You know, because he wanted to hear my experience in coming out; what I thought the benefits were … what I thought the concerns might be. I was heavily invested in that decision with him and I'm also so proud of it. I'm so proud of him and happy for him. It seems like a great weight has been lifted off him. I was with him presenting awards at the closing night of the Gay and Lesbian Film Festival in LA and there was this one window where the ( Advocate ) article was about to come out. And the article had been released, so he was finally allowed to talk about it. Because he wasn't allowed to scoop his own article. So he was finally allowed to talk about it, he had a public setting, he went up on stage, and he came out to this entire audience live.

He almost didn't do it, and it was like, "Bobby, don't deprive yourself of this opportunity. Take this moment for yourself. You will never forget it. Even in the most difficult moments when you're not getting an audition because they now perceive you in a certain way you will have this to remember. This will mean something to you for the rest of your life." And he did it, he got a standing ovation, and it was such an amazing moment. I was so privileged to be there.

DG: That's such an amazing story. What's the most important thing that Queer as Folk has taught the American people, GLBT and straight?

PP: It has normalized the idea of two men or two women being in love and/or having sex. I can't tell you how many people come up to me; straight men now. It started with gay men, it moved quickly to the women ( gay and straight ) , and now it's moving into straight men. Who just say, "Oh, you know, I love you on the show; my wife and I watch all the time." Not too long ago a guy on a plane, I walked ahead because I was going to the bathroom, we were getting on the plane, and this guy said to me, "Aren't you Emmett on Queer as Folk?" And I said "Yeah, yeah." And he said, "Oh, I watch that show; I love him." He said, "My wife and I watch the show all the time." And I said, "Why? Why do you watch it? What is it that you see?" And the guy said, "I like the stories." I love it that there's nothing else there, there's no big cryptic answer. There's no "WELL, I THOUGHT THIS," there's no defensiveness in it. It's just, "I like the stories."

DG: Let me talk about a few of the things you're doing now. You just appeared in a Showtime original movie called Our America?

PP: ( Peter nods ) I play a producer who works at NPR.

DG: And that experience was … fun?

PP: It was great! I worked with Josh Charles. All my scenes are essentially with Josh; he's a great actor and he was a real joy to work with. I love the story. It's a true story about this DJ who gets involved with two kids in Chicago who live in The Ida B. Wells Housing Project.

DG: Did you film it here in Chicago?

PP: No. We shot it in Toronto. ( Peter scratches his hand signifying lack of $$$ )

DG: I like Toronto. When I visited the QAF production office, that was the first time I was ever there.

PP: I love Toronto. I really do like Toronto, but it's too friggin' cold. Of course, it gets really cold here ( in Chicago ) too. This whole year was pretty mild, but the first year I thought I was going to kill myself. It was brutal! But I loved being part of Our America. It's a really inspiring story, I think. A true story about the power of possibilities. This DJ teaches these kids about their own possibilities. He doesn't patronize them, he doesn't give them a leg up, he doesn't give them any charity, he just tells them what they're capable of. And they run with it, and it transforms their lives. And I felt so proud to be a part of it. I've been very fortunate that way. The projects that I've worked on are really things I believe in both artistically and sociologically and politically and that's so rare. To actually get to work in the entertainment industry and be allowed to maintain some sort of social conscience. I feel really lucky about that.

DG: You also appeared on the stage last summer, starring in Jessica Litwak's Secret Agents, which was a world premiere, was it not?

PP: Yep! It was a play I had been workshopping for seven years! And I was really so, so thrilled to be doing it. We actually finally had put together the money to do a production of it when I booked Queer as Folk. And we had to postpone doing the play until I was on hiatus. It is really a gorgeous, three-person play about a brother and a sister and their mutual obsession with James Bond. An amazing, amazing piece of theater.

DG: And how long were you in it?

PP: Eight weeks, I think? Maybe six. All I know is the day that we closed, I got on the plane and flew to Toronto to shoot Our America. It was the summer. I went into rehearsals when we wrapped the first season ( of QAF ) . After I finished Our America, I went home for two weeks, and then we started with Season Two of Queer as Folk, so it was a busy time.

DG: Your best friends would probably say your most endearing trait is …

PP: God, that's a hard one. I have so many! ( laughing ) My best friend would probably say my most endearing trait is my … compassion.

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Like I said, Peter Paige is anything but a shrinking violet. But when it comes to promoting and working for the GLBT community that he is proudly part of, Paige has become both an outspoken advocate and a respected activist.

Multitalented, delightful, witty and wise beyond his years, Paige is a rising star who raises the bar as he sets the example. Surely this is one newly famous gay man who is not afraid to stand up and be counted.