‘Melrose Place’ Actor Doug Savant Explains Why He Dodged Questions About Being Straight While Playing Gay Character On TV
Melrose Place‘s Doug Savant recalls why he evaded questions regarding his sexuality while playing gay character Matt Fielding on the ’90s sudsy teen drama, saying he “felt a responsibility” to not distance himself from his on-screen portrayal. “I think the most shocking revelation was when the call is coming from inside the house,” Savant began telling former co-stars — wife Laura Leighton, Courtney Thorne-Smith, and Daphne Zuniga — on the Still The Place podcast about what it was like playing a gay character as a straight man amid a television landscape still lacking diversity.
The Desperate Housewives star recounted an instance with a publicist working at the Pat Kingsley-founded PMK, who repped executive producer Aaron Spelling, in which he said she did not understand the gravity of the representation. “I had said to Sam, our publicist, ‘Do you care to talk about how we’re going to handle this going forward, that there was a gay character?
I knew it was exceptional, and I thought people would be interested. And she goes, ‘Well, no, it’s not a big deal. You’re an actor, you’re just playing a character.’ And I said, ‘Oh, clearly she doesn’t get it.'” On press tours, Savant said he made a personal choice to not address his sexuality publicly, alleging that Spelling, network Fox and creator Darren Star were not fans of the decision, resulting in an office meeting with executives, Kingsley and Star. “‘We don’t see why it’s a big deal, why you just wouldn’t say, ‘Well, it shouldn’t matter, but I’m heterosexual,'” he explained. “I said ‘No.’ I was not going to make my living playing a gay man, but then say, ‘Oh, but I would never be associated with that.
This isn’t me.'” As Savant noted, his character was among the first LGBTQ+ characters on TV, following a scant list of queer characters that existed in the ’80s.
