True Blood's Nelsan Ellis Interview Posted At AfterElton.Com
October/26/08 22:21 Filed in: Off-Site
Brian Jeurgens of AfterElton.com has posted an interview with True Blood Actor Nelsan Ellis. Nelsan plays the wild and lovable Lafayette in the series.
“AE: What were your concerns in playing your first gay character on screen? Were you afraid of reactions from gay people or straight people or Southerners?
NE: I didn’t care what straight people thought. I cared what gay people thought, to be quite honest. Because Alan didn’t want a caricature. He said that quite early on, because I was a caricature the first audition. My concern was if I was going to offend anybody. I don’t want to offend nobody. So I had great concerns with black people and gay people. Black people are going to say this, gay people are going to say this .... My career is going to be over. People are going to hate my guts if I don’t do this right.
But then I was like, forget it. Now I don’t care, to be quite honest. I’m going to do the work and if people either like it or hate it, I can’t be concerned. I actually took on Alan’s – his thing. He’s goes, I can’t be concerned with what everybody wants or what they like or dislike. I can only be concerned with what I think is good and if I like it and if I’ll see it, so I’m like, okay, I’ll just do the work and hope for the best. Be true to the story and to the work. And I have him there to rein me in or let me loose, which he is good at doing.”
Full Article, with video clips:
http://www.afterelton.com/people/2008/10/nelsanellis
“AE: What were your concerns in playing your first gay character on screen? Were you afraid of reactions from gay people or straight people or Southerners?
NE: I didn’t care what straight people thought. I cared what gay people thought, to be quite honest. Because Alan didn’t want a caricature. He said that quite early on, because I was a caricature the first audition. My concern was if I was going to offend anybody. I don’t want to offend nobody. So I had great concerns with black people and gay people. Black people are going to say this, gay people are going to say this .... My career is going to be over. People are going to hate my guts if I don’t do this right.
But then I was like, forget it. Now I don’t care, to be quite honest. I’m going to do the work and if people either like it or hate it, I can’t be concerned. I actually took on Alan’s – his thing. He’s goes, I can’t be concerned with what everybody wants or what they like or dislike. I can only be concerned with what I think is good and if I like it and if I’ll see it, so I’m like, okay, I’ll just do the work and hope for the best. Be true to the story and to the work. And I have him there to rein me in or let me loose, which he is good at doing.”
Full Article, with video clips:
http://www.afterelton.com/people/2008/10/nelsanellis
