Sean Hayes has revealed the not so shocking revelation that yup, he’s gay. He played a gay dude role for years on Will & Grace and he played it well. Life imitates art.

Sean spilled the beans in a recent interview with Advocate:

“When I play a gay character I want to be as believable as possible. And when I’m playing a straight character I also want to be as believable as possible. So the less that people know about my personal life, the more believable I can be as a character.”

He went on to say:

“I am who I am. I was never in, as they say. Never… Why would you go down that path with somebody who’s done so much to contribute to the gay community? That was my beef about it. What more do you want me to do? Do you want me to stand on a float? And then what? It’s never enough.”

Years ago if an actor came out of the closet his career was over. No one could see a gay guy as a leading ladies man. Rupert Everett had this problem but still managed to land a few good roles. Everett explained the politics of being an openly gay man in Hollywood:

The fact is that you could not be, and still cannot be, a 25-year-old homosexual trying to make it in the British film business or the American film business or even the Italian film business. It just doesn’t work and you’re going to hit a brick wall at some point. You’re going to manage to make it roll for a certain amount of time, but at the first sign of failure they’ll cut you right off.

It has worked out nicely for Neil Patrick Harris who recently came out as gay and his career has never been hotter, Maybe the tide is finally turning.