by Eric Gutierrez
The Advocate
September 15, 1999

RuPaul is fond of saying, “My artistry is my activism.” And Wilson Cruz has earned every right to quote, as he does, the diva’s mantra. The young actor, who first caught our attention as gay high schooler Rickie Vasquez on ABC’s 1994 cult hit My So-called Life, may not have yet graced the cover of Time like Ellen, but his principled choice to come out at the beginning of his career proved you could be an out gay nobody and still become a star, a feat every bit as revolutionary as an established star’s coming out of the closet.

In October, Cruz, 25, will again make strides when he becomes a semiregular cast member of the Fox series Party of Five, now entering its sixth season of issues and dysfunctions. Avoiding both the "special episode" gay saint or martyr characters of most one-hour dramas and the "three-snap" caricatures of sitcoms, he spices up the ultra-earnest show as Victor, a sassy—and sexually enigmatic—nanny hired to care for baby Diana and little brother Owen. Anyone tired of the Salinger clan’s angst-ridden riffs will be thrilled with Cruz’s arrival. "Victor is very outspoken," he says with relish. "He’ll say, ‘Julia, what are you crying about now? Puhl-e-e-eze! And, Bailey, lighten up! Have a drink!"  He’s there to be real, to remind people that they don’t have to keep making life so difficult.”

That’s also a perfect description of Cruz’s real-life mission ever since his sensitive turn on My So-called Life turned him, at 20, into a poster boy for gay youth. Bringing humor and humanity to prime time’s first recurring gay teen character, the New York native of Puerto Rican descent won the hearts and minds of viewers, TV critics, and activists.

Perhaps most gratifying, given Hollywood’s lack of casting imagination regarding openly gay actors, is Cruz’s costarring role opposite Angela Bassett and Lou Diamond Phillips in MGM’s big-budget sci-fi thriller Supernova, slated for release in January. As a shy computer engineer who saves the day in what he calls "an unassuming action hero kind of way," Cruz joins Anne Heche and Rupert Everett in proving that it’s an actor’s skills and appeal, not sexuality, that make the difference.

The Advocate: You’re known for playing homosexuals [in My So-called Life], hustlers [in the film johns and as a guest star on Ally McBeal], and transvestites [both on Ally McBeal and onstage in Rent]. Will your role on Party of Five give the right wing more palpitations?

Cruz: The role is so different from anything else I’ve done. Victor is so opinionated. As far as Victor’s sexuality, it’s not an issue at first. If anything, it’ll be pretty ambiguous. Part of the fun is finding out. He might be gay, he might be bi, he might be straight. He’s someone who really doesn’t care what you think about him or his life. His sexuality is so not an issue to him, even if it is to everybody else.

As a Latino actor going onto a white-bread show like Party of Five, what do you think of the latest so-called Latino boom?

The whole Newsweek [magazine cover story on the] Latino boom idea actually scares me because it feels very faddish. If you are hot one minute, you can be cold the next. I want to feel we’re part of the fabric of this country, not something that can be washed out with time and tide later on. Some see it as a true effort to understand what it is to be Latino in the world, and I respect that, but I don’t feel that way. I feel like the flavor of the month.

The truth is, you’re already a showbiz veteran. Back when you were on My So-called Life, you were pretty vocal about gay issues in the press. Has your perspective changed?

I used to be very angry that I had been thrown out of my house and my father was unaccepting of me and my life. But that anger had a lot to do with just being a young 19-year-old gay man. In the late ’80s and early ’90s, being young and gay was about anger, about the fact that our lives and the value of our lives was diminished, given the response to AIDS and in light of the political climate in places like Colorado. [My character on] My So-called Life was the aftermath of all of that.

What makes you angry now?

I feel like the Larry Kramer of my generation. Why am I yelling and screaming if no one’s listening to me? It’s like there’s a party going on, and I’m not at it. Listen, I can have a good time with the best of them, but I always find myself in the midst of those good times thinking about how many people are still dying of AIDS. I think we’re in the midst of a false security.

I also wish that in the gay community we could accept ourselves to be as valid as we are. The great thing about being gay is, we get to redefine what it is to be male, what it is to be female, and the nature of relationships. That’s exciting. So when we want to conform to the notions of gender and relationships inherited from straight people, we’re missing the opportunity to help them and society by challenging those definitions. Whatever happened to the idea that we could be a bridge for genders? There’s a pendulum, and we can embrace everything in the range of that pendulum.

If marriage were a possibility, would you and your partner Anthony do it?

We had a small ceremony on our own, where we exchanged a vow of commitment to one another. I don’t want a marriage like straight people. I think gays can take marriage out of the dark ages.