John talked to AfterElton.com editor Michael Jensen about the show, about Torchwood, his stint on Desperate Housewives and more. Here is an excerpt:
AE: When you first started out in television, I read you were advised to keep your sexuality quiet and now as an openly gay man you are the presenter of a family show on BBC prime time – how much have attitudes changed in the industry?
JB: To be honest with you I don’t care about the industry’s attitude because by being truthful about who I am and encouraging others to be truthful; this contributes to change. When I had already been on television for quite a while, there was someone that told me I should keep my sexuality a secret, but I just looked at them and said, ‘You can’t tell me to do that.’ Why should I hide who I am when that should be an asset?
AE: Given that, what do you think of the recent Newsweek Sean Hayes controversy? It seems pretty clear that the UK is more accepting of gay actors – would you agree or disagree?
JB: I certainly think there is more tolerance on this side of the Atlantic than in the US. With regards to Sean Hayes I didn’t see it play out so I can’t tell you all about it, but there are a lot of gay men in Hollywood right now that are playing straight men – not just in front of the camera but also in their everyday lives. I might be stepping over the line here, but maybe Ramin Setoodeh didn’t like Sean Hayes and felt like being a bit of a bitch that day. The fact that he himself is gay and wrote what he did is really detrimental and quite frankly an asshole thing to do.
AE: There are rumors that you will appear on a future episode of Glee - any truth in that?
JB: The whole story is that I told my manager Gavin that I wanted to meet the Glee people. They then asked me to come to a meeting – it wasn’t an audition just a meeting. I thought that it went well but I never heard back.
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