Nelsan Ellis, who plays flamboyant gay
prostitute and vampire blood dealer Lafayette Reynolds on the HBO
vampire drama True Blood, says being different is beautiful in
a new video for the It Gets Better Project.
The 32-year-old Ellis is the latest
True Blood co-star to reach out to troubled LGBT teens.
“I was the odd kid in my family,”
Ellis says in his 60-second video. “Later in life I learned to
embrace who I was and all of my differences, because I realized they
make me beautiful.”
“Being different gives the world
color,” he adds. (The video is embedded in the right panel of this
page.)
Anna
Paquin, who plays Sookie Stackhouse, Alexander
Skarsgard, who plays vampire Eric Northman, Rutina
Wesley, who plays lesbian cage-fighter Tara Thornton, and Kristen
Bauer, who plays vampire Pam Ravenscroft, have also recorded videos
for gay activist Dan Savage's It
Gets Better Project, which urges teens being bullied because they
are or are perceived to be gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender to
hang in there, because life gets better.
(Related: Kevin
Alejandro promises romance between Nelsan Ellis & himself on True
Blood.)