Michael C. Hall addressed his sexuality in a new interview with the Daily Beast, saying he is “not all the way heterosexual.”
The 47-year-old actor, who portrayed LGBTQ characters such as David Fisher on “Six Feet Under,” Hedwig in “Hedwig and the Angry Itch,” and the Emcee in “Cabaret,” spoke about whether or not he has had same-sex experiences.
“I think there’s a spectrum. I am on it. I’m heterosexual. But if there was a percentage, I would say I was not all the way heterosexual. I think playing the emcee required me to fling a bunch of doors wide open because that character I imagined as pansexual,” Hall said.
“Yeah, like I made out with Michael Stuhlbarg every night doing that show. I think I have always leaned into any fluidity in terms of my sexuality,” he continued.
And while the former “Dexter” star has “never had an intimate relationship with another man,” Hall, who lost his father when he was 11 years old, said the absence may have prompted a “craving for an emotional intimacy with a man.”
“I don’t mean to suggest that an emotional relationship between a father and son is any way homoerotic,” he explained. “I mean an emotional intimacy or connection that at least in the milieu I grew up in was considered fey. I had an appetite to have emotional connections with men beyond beer, sports, and fist-pumping that were considered ‘gay.'”
Hall also touched upon the controversy regarding straight performers tackling LGBTQ roles.
“That was something I was aware of when David Fisher was happening. For me, I was playing this aspirationally iconic gay role as a straight man. I felt all the more charged to do it justice. I certainly understand anyone who takes issue with the phenomenon,” Hall shared.
He added, “Cate Blanchett recently said that any actor should be able to play anyone. But the fact is there are scores of heterosexual actors winning accolades and awards for playing gay and trans characters. It’s undeniable that the public finds it more palatable to see a straight actor do their own sexual or gender stunt work– ‘Oh look at him, pretending to want that man, it’s so convincing’ — as opposed to looking at a gay or trans person being themselves. It’s acting no matter what. It’s a character.”
Hall married his third wife, Morgan Macgregor, in February 2016.