AKA William

Bryan Batt, the out gay actor who played closeted Salvatore Romano on “Mad Men.” Poor Sal got sacked after turning down the gay advances of a big client, and Batt has moved on to a stint on “Ugly Betty.” And in a new interview with HuffP, Batt is talking a bit about what it means to be an out gay actor in Hollywood.

I’ve gone on and on about the importance of actors coming out, so I won’t belabor that belabored point, but I will, however, quote Batt from his interview:

“If you are openly gay, the masses can be asses and sometimes can’t get past the fact that that’s how someone lives their private life,” said Batt, who has been with his partner, Tom Cianfichi, for 21 years. “Some actors have to make a choice. If they have the opportunity to become these huge megastars, making millions and millions of dollars and have to live a lie, that’s a choice they have to make. Not that I would ever be a big star, but I just had to live my life the way I saw fit.”

. . . “God love Neil Patrick Harris, how great is that,” Batt said. “People grew up with him, they go, ‘Oh it’s him, it’s that little boy and he just happens to be gay. How great for him!’ The more of those kind of examples that happen, the better it’s going to be.”

Yup. All the closeted gay actors who could change the world in an instant if they came out are, instead, leaving the heavy lifting to an 18-year-old Mississippi high school student.

Gotta love us some Bryan Batt, right?