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  GO BACK  Eminently Emmett, Perfectly Peter  A wise 'mo once said all good things must come to an end. For the cast of Showtime's hit series Queer As Folk, the beginning of that inevitable end comes this Sunday with the premiere of the show's fifth and final season. Actor and QAF costar Peter Paige, otherwise known as the eccentric Emmett Honeycutt, recently sat down with Out in America to bid adieu to five years of fab fun. Did you originally expect QAF to be as well known as it is? Nobody believes me when I say this, but I somehow knew when we signed up for this that it was going to go for five years. Something in my gut told me that. It had been a hit in the UK, and I knew that we as a cast had chemistry. I knew we weren’t pulling any punches, and I thought that was the only thing I could think of. I just had this gut feeling that we were going to be around for a while and have some sort of impact. How do the British and American versions compare? It was actually a huge phenomenon over there, but they did eight episodes total. It was miniseries, and that’s all they intended it to be. I’m thrilled that we got to explore these characters for a more extended amount of time, especially because in the British series my character was kind of peripheral, and it was really nice to get to explore him in a more meaningful way as seasons progressed. How has your character progressed over the course of the show? The executive producers always said the show was about boys becoming men. Emmett, despite being the most effeminate of the crowd, was always the most grown-up in a lot of ways. But I feel he really came into his own and became a man that I would be proud to know. Who loves Emmett Honeycutt the most: gay men or straight women? Straight women for sure. Lesbians love Emmett. What I love about Emmett – that’s all I can really talk about – is his vibrancy and his openness and his way he maneuvers the world. I think a lot of people really respond to that. He’s open, he’s out there, he’s emotional. You know what you’re getting with him. I think people really dig that. Who hits on Peter Paige the most: gay men or straight women? I have to say gay men. It didn’t used to be that way, though. Initially I think everyone kind of thought that I was Emmett. As it became more apparent that I was in fact playing a character… it usually starts with this sentence: “You’re so much more attractive in person.” After a while, instead of taking that to heart and getting offended by it, I realized people mean it as a compliment and that it also has a lot to with effeminacy. Emmett’s a pretty effeminate bird and not everybody is down with effeminacy. A lot of gay men have issues with it. How do you relate to Emmett? It’s a really hard question to answer. There’s a lot of weird, intangible things that are hard to describe – little ways that I understand him, little pieces of me that we brought to him, or things that the producers would see me do in real life and work that into the script. Like what? Well, I love donuts. So they gave Emmett a thing where he was always eating donuts. I think in my best moments I share some of his openness and kindness. In my best moments. How has QAF affected mainstream TV? It has normalized the idea of two men or two women being in love and being physical for a lot of people. Not for everyone of course. I mean, we weren’t on NBC. But I think it has inserted in a pretty dynamic way into the blood that is mainstream media this idea that gay people are complicated and sexual. And they need to be treated as such. Has the show helped or harmed the GLBT community? It’s helped enormously. I certainly think there are people who would challenge me, and I understand that sort of “best foot forward, let’s all put on our suits and ties and act like lawyers” kind of thinking. But I know when a 16-year-old stops me on the street and says, "I came out to my family because of you," I know we’ve done something right. How do you feel about gay-specific television networks like here! and Logo? I think it’s fantastic. Anything we can do to saturate the media with images of ourselves, to tell our own stories, to make our voices heard – it’s profound. It matters. I grew up with RuPaul on a good day and reruns of Bewitched on a bad day. And that was it. I don’t have to tell you what it means to see yourself reflected in the media. It’s why we have art and entertainment. We use that as a medium to understand ourselves and to reflect on who we are and who we want to be. To be absent from that entirely is really painful and really difficult. Where do you see gays on television over the next 10 years? I hope we continue to be integrated into the fabric of television the way we are integrated into society at large. I hope in five or 10 years we look back and think, “Oh, Queer As Folk – it was so cute and quaint. We thought we were so edgy, and look now! Look what we’ve put in motion and what it’s come to.” How does QAF compare to a more mainstream gay-themed show like Will & Grace? It’s hugely popular and it has reached a lot of people. That’s important. I’m glad we’re going at it from both angles. It’s sort of like having the mainstream civil rights movement and the radical civil rights movement going on at the same time. Being one of only a few openly-gay actors on the show, have you felt any added pressure? No. We’re all there to do a job. I’ve occasionally felt pressured to answer to the community in a way that other people on the show haven’t. And I’ve occasionally been asked things like, “Do you really do it like that?” But most of that went away after the first season. Who has been your favorite to work with? I quite love a lot of those people, but Scott Lowell has become one of my closest friends and always will be. After playing such a successful gay role, do you fear you’ll play gay forever? Sure I do. It wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world, quite frankly, because there are a lot of interesting gay stories that haven’t been told. I try not to put a lot of energy into thinking about that. Since the series started, I’ve done three gigs outside of QAF, and two of them were playing straight characters. Some people won’t see me for some rolls because they assume I’m some big queen. I have to jump though hoops that other people don’t have to. I have to go pre-read for casting directors, for example, and other things an actor who’s had a hit series wouldn’t have to do. But I’m willing to do that. I love the work, and the right jobs will come to me. One of the main themes of last season was Ted’s crystal addiction. What are your thoughts on crystal meth use in the gay community? I think it’s pretty much the most horrible thing we’re doing to ourselves right now. I think it’s worse than anything being done to us by anybody else. Crystal is a deadly, deadly evil drug. People – gay, straight, black, white, Hispanic, it doesn’t matter – have holes. What you look toward to fill those holes can be really dangerous. It has taken hold of the community and I think it’s eating people alive. What can we expect from season five? The tagline is, we came in with a bang, and we’re going out with a bang. So think about that what you will. Emmett gets a new job, which of course causes some hilarity that keeps him occupied for the first half of the season. In the second half of the season we see the return of someone important to Emmett; I don’t want to say who. I particularly like the last few episodes; I think they’re really good. What sort of future projects do you plan to pursue? The next part of my life is about getting my movie Say Uncle out into the world. After that, I don’t really know. I’ve started writing another movie script and I’m out pitching ideas for TV series to networks, so we’ll see what takes shape first. | QAF Season 4 | QAF the final season | QAF Peter Paige | | Calendar | QAF | | Return Home | Klick N Read | Venue Photos | SYM Photos | News Etc | VALENTINOS | My Space | SYM RADIO | Great Links | FAQ Page | Contact Us | |
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