Van Hansis Talks About His Role As
Daytime TV's Most Visibly Gay Teen
AfterElton, May 10, 2006
This week, however, CBS' As The World Turns has been dealing with a more real-life drama: the revelation that a child is gay.
On Monday's episode, 17-year old Luke Grimaldi, played by Van Hansis, finally told his parents he is gay. On Tuesday, we witnessed the repercussions of that revelation: anger, betrayal, confusion, and hurt, all played in a surprisingly understated way, especially given this is a medium known for over-the-top acting and writing.
Naturally, Luke's coming out has been filled with some melodramatic twists and turns, most provided by Jade (Elena Goode), a con artist who used Luke 's fear of coming out to manipulate him and his parents (played by Martha Byrne and Jon Hensley). But melodramatic soap opera conventions aside, the show has done a laudable job with this storyline. Ironically, Luke may be one of the most believable, and realistic, gay characters currently on television.
This isn't the first time a soap opera has dealt with gay teenagers. All My Children introduced a teenage lesbian back in 2000. And both ATWT and General Hospital introduced male gay teenagers at almost the same time late last year. But while ATWT has made its gay storyline integral to the show, General Hospital's has been rather lacking of late.
Indeed, CBS is so committed to the show that they teamed with GLAAD to create a Public Service Announcement to encourage viewers "to be an ally and a friend" to gay people. Naturally, some on the right have reacted negatively to the venture.
Recently, AfterElton had the chance to speak with Van Hansis, the actor who joined ATWT just before Luke began his journey out of the closet.
AfterElton.com: You and the others on the show have done a terrific job with Luke's coming out. As a gay man, I've been very impressed with how it's unfolded.
Van Hansis: Thank you.
AE: How has the role of Luke Grimaldi affected your life?
VH: Well, being on a TV show, more than playing a gay character, has really changed my life. You get recognized, and all of a sudden you're put in a public medium you've never been in before. So that's been very interesting. As far as playing a gay character, it's nothing that I've ever had any negative feelings about. I love my character. In the end, I'm really glad they made my character gay. I'm able to do so much more than the average soap guy gets to do.
AE: Have you had a lot of reaction from gay teenagers?
VH: Yeah, I have. It's actually been very good to hear from people—teenagers, and even older men and women who are gay—who say I wish I had this storyline when I was a teenager. And I hear from teenagers who say they come back right after school because they have it DVR'ed.
AE: I can see that happening a lot.
VH: It's very flattering. The other thing that is really cool is that I've got a lot of mail from straight people, and also people who thought they wouldn't like the storyline because of whatever prejudices they held.
AE: What is your reaction to those on the religious right who view this character and this storyline as immoral? Just this morning I read about a bunch of them being upset by the Public Service Announcement.
VH: Yeah, I read about that, too, and I think I want to bite my tongue. (Laughs) The thing that the PSA is saying is to be an ally and a friend. I think that if these people are having such a big deal with having a gay character on a show that has adulterous people on continuously...I mean, they have lying, cheating, and you never hear anything about that. You never hear people saying this is immoral behavior. But when you have these parents trying to get this kid to love himself for who he is, and people say these things, it's ridiculous. The PSA's not asking for anything more. It seems sad they can't even go that far. Another thing—why do they care? Why do they care about how someone else lives their life?
AE: We could have a long discussion about that.
VH: It's interesting because I don't see why they care. It's not their business.
AE: I agree. On another topic, obviously soaps have all sorts of relationships between the characters—especially romantic ones. Do you expect Luke to fall in love at some point? Would you be disappointed if he doesn't?
VH: I signed a contract so there is the potential I'm sticking around for a long time. So I feel like that actually it would make sense that Luke would meet somebody. I don't know with being a soap how far they would be willing to go with that. I think it would be kinda cool to play. I don't know if there has ever been a gay guy with a boyfriend on a soap opera. I don't think there has. It would be cool to be a trailblazer. I can tell you that much.
AE: Lucas over on GH, played by Ben Hogestyn, is also gay but seems to have disappeared somewhat. Are you grateful you're on this show and part of such a prominent family?
VH: Yeah, I am. It would be very easy to tell this story for shock value and to put that feather in their cap that we have a gay character on the show and then not use them. I've never seen GH, but they just won an Emmy for best show, so they must be doing something right. But I'm very, very grateful to be on ATWT. And to be working with such a great group of actors and the writers have been writing my character so well. The producers have been nothing but positive and supportive. Everybody has been so cool.
AE: So talk about how Luke's parents react to his coming out.
VH: Lily has a hard time of it. Holden is much more accepting.
AE: I like that. Not the usual thing we expect.
VH: Martha Byrnes—who plays Lily—and I talked about it because she doesn't feel that Lily is a homophobic character. It's just that she feels very betrayed by Luke that he would lie to her about Jade and that he would trust Jade over [his] family. So she feels the fact he felt she would hate him for this makes her feel like she doesn't know him the way she thought she did.
AE: Which I think is a very common and very believable reaction. Fits quite well with those characters.
VH: And that's what we we're going for. Trying to make it as believable and—well, it is a soap opera so there has to be some bombastic stuff—but we're trying to make it as much of a true life story.
AE: Holden, your dad, seems very real in that he's a parent who is going to love his kid no matter what, but it really does seem like he was hoping for your character is going to be straight. That's why he's been willing to let Jade (Elena Goode) hang around. How does your character feel about that fact?
VH: Well, we shoot about a month in advance. So I have to go back to what we're airing right now. I think Luke's one problem is that he tells his parents [he's gay] and expects them to automatically not have any issues with it. It's a shock to them, especially to Lily, and I think that is where her issues are coming from. Luke is seeing that as her not accepting him and instead of sitting down and talking to her, he starts fighting her immediately.
With Holden, Holden is the one who comes right out and says we still love you, we want you to be happy, it doesn't matter who you love. So I think Luke is very grateful toward Holden and Holden's acceptance. Whereas I think he sees himself and Holden, and even Lucinda, his grandmother (Liz Hubbard) he sees the three of them against Lily. So he is trying to rally everyone to his side again, because in his mind, he and Lily are in a bigger fight than they are.
AE: You do a really good job of portraying a kid who is torn by all sorts of forces. He wants to be out, he wants his family to love him. It seems like he really wants Holden to be proud of him. Do you use anything from your own personal experiences to draw on to play this? Do you talk to the writers or is it from you?
VH: The writing, especially with the soaps since you get so many scripts so quickly, you're doing your best to make sure you're saying the lines in the right order. (Laughter.) I think the writers are giving me a really good base to start with. Especially with a soap, you have to bring a lot of good ideas to flesh out your character because you're usually only on for eight minutes an episode.
So I just try to get into Luke's head. I remember when I was sixteen years old. And no matter whether you're straight or gay—you're trying to figure the world out. You have so many things pulling on you—popularity, pleasing your parents, hanging out with the cool kids, growing up and being your own man. Luke's experience is definitely very heightened, but I try to get myself into his head.
AE: So you're drawing on the universality of being a teenager. Do you have gay friends? Did you talk to them?
VH: God, yes. But as an actor I don't want to feel like I have to sit down and be like talk to "a gay person about being gay" because, I guess, underneath it all we all have the same feelings.
AE: That's not quite what I was driving at. It was more if you've known gay people your whole life—
VH: I went to a performing arts high school, so I've known gay people.
AE: That right there gives you an insight into what's going on as opposed to sitting down and doing research.
VH: (Laughs.) I was doing an interview once and the reporter asked if I'd done research on gay people. It's not like biology going on a safari into Chelsea.
AE: I thought it was interesting when Jade tried to test Luke 's sexuality, trying to manipulate him. It made me nervous the show was going to waver on Luke 's being gay. When you were creating the character did you talk to the writers—
VH: You don't get to talk to the writers.
AE: So it was the writers then who decided Luke would know for certain he was gay, that Jade couldn't get him to say he was confused.
VH: Yeah. One of the really interesting things when the speculation started that Luke was going to come out of the closet was the audience was saying on some of the message boards, "I'm not going to watch this show anymore". Then after the story line got going and people got into it and people thought the show was going to backpedal and make Luke bi or straight, again that's when the fans again said no, no, no. He should be gay.
AE: The fan's said that?
VH: Yeah. That's what I read on some of the boards, but I try not to read too much stuff on the internet. It's just everybody else's opinion of you and if you just listen to that you're going to go nuts. But I check it out sometimes and when the fans started not digging the story too much was when Jade was meddling too much trying [to get him to think he was straight].
It's strongest when it's a family story. That's the strength of it. It's not just Luke 's story. Yes, he's the center of it, but it's also Lily and Holden, Lucinda, Will (Jesse Soffer), and Damian (Paolo Seganti), who is my birth father and is coming back now. He's part of the Maltese mafia. Kind of debonair, suave, very James Bond. Soap fans are just like any fans. They want a good story and a well told story. They're willing to go along. One of the really cool things the writers did was to make Luke really identifiable to a wider audience.
AE: He's just a typical teenager.
VH: Yeah. And that's a very important thing. He's probably the worst dressed kid on the show.
AE: If you could project Luke out ten years from now do you he think he'd want to get married and settle down?
VH: Yeah, yeah. This is what I think Luke is going to grow up to do. I think Luke is going to become a novelist and write about his crazy family. But one of the things about Luke [he] is one of the most normal people on the show, you know what I mean? He's not crazy. His issues are very normal issues. I don't think Luke is going to be a wild and crazy party kid. In the real world he would move to Chicago
AE: And meet Mr. Right?
VH: Yeah. Yeah. Something like that.
AE: Well, thank you, Van.
VH: Thank you. I just want to add the show has been a blast. Thanks for all the great response from everyone. It's been great.
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