I did 'Malice,' 'Sommersby,' and 'Sleepless in Seattle,' and they're as disparate characters as I've ever played. But somehow, there was that thing - they were all second male leads, so they all didn't get the girl in some weird way.
As far as the lack of hits goes, I think perhaps it's because I've played a lot of different roles and have not created a persona that the public can latch on to. I have played everything from psychopathic killers to romantic leading men, and in picking such diverse roles I have avoided typecasting.
I am the actor that I am. I do what I do. I've been a 'leading man' playing romantic leads for a long time now.
Prior to Saving Private Ryan I never worked with men. I was always working with some babe, and it was always about falling in love, and it just got turned around. I'm not looking for any particular kind of story. I wait until it comes across my desk.
The conventional wisdom is that if you are gay, you cannot play the romantic straight lead in a movie.
I've done a few old-style romantic leads now.
A lot of the scripts I read and the characters I get are 'the girl' in romantic films, and I don't know how comfortable I am, or the world is, with me being that.
I'm not running about playing romantic leads. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, but it's the way it's sort of working out.
As an actor I've played a lot of gloomy, romantic leads and even though I might not want to recognize it, I actually really have a sense of humor.
I'm sick of playing romantic leads.
The characters I tend to play are a little more interesting than the standard heroes. Romantic leads can be a little more straightforward, I guess. But it just seems to be the parts I get, I don't know what that says about me. I enjoy interesting characters and interesting people, I suppose.
A handful of older, romantic leading men, like Sean Connery, Jack Nicholson, and Robert Redford are still landing parts.
Even now, there are young actors who want careers as romantic leading men, and the best thing is not to reveal you're gay.
If 'Titanic' was one of our telenovelas, we would probably have added a pair of dolphins to save Jack at the end. We don't kill the good guy.
I've been lucky enough to have a lot of romantic leads in movies and indies, and you do form a different kind of connection when you do that together as actors.
