Actor and Family Man Cheyenne Jackson on Balancing it All
advocate.comCheyenne Jackson was breezy and relaxed when he spoke to us this fall at his home in the L.A. suburb of Granada Hills. Things seemed a lot lighter then — it was just a few weeks before his costar in the Fox sitcom Call Me Kat, beloved gay icon Leslie Jordan, would die suddenly after a medical emergency that preceded a car accident.
Jackson was so distraught by his friend’s passing he declined to speak to us for a follow-up interview. His role on Call Me Kat — where he plays Kat’s buddy, Max — will continue following Jordan’s death (Jordan’s character, a cat cafe employee, is ostensibly getting a happy ending on-screen).
The quirky Kat, now in its third season, is the latest career milestone for Jackson, who has been everything from a Broadway draw (Xanadu, Into the Woods) to a major motion picture star (United 93, playing 9/11 hero Mark Bingham) to a Ryan Murphy darling (American Horror Story: Hotel and AHS: Roanoke), with a recent Daytime Emmy nomination (for the Netflix series Julie and the Phantoms) under his belt.
His comfort in the present state of his career and personal life is evident during his interview. He sits criss-cross on a pillow, speaking with pride of being on the cover of The Advocate 15 years ago, where he opined on being a working gay actor in the age of George W.
