In a recent podcast, out actor BD Wong
talked about his Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
character's coming out.
Wong, 58, is best known for playing Dr.
George Huang for ten and a half years on the long-running crime
drama. He's also appeared in the Jurassic Park movie
franchise and USA Network's Mr. Robot.
Just before his Law & Order
character left the show, he came out as gay.
Appearing on NPR's The Cooler
podcast, Wong said that his character's coming out felt
“cheap.”
“I had no idea throughout the time
that I was doing the show for ten and a half years, so it felt a
little cheap to me,” Wong
said. “I was also kind of torn because, you know, it’s
positive… But it did feel a little convenient or kind of lazy or,
you know, kind of not particularly the best way that you want to come
out as a character.
“It wasn’t like Ellen coming out.
It wasn’t a great thing that was really impactful and funny or
human or whatever; it was just kind of a minor point made,” he
added.
Wong also said that growing up the
scarcity of Asian and gay characters on television made him not want
to be those things.
“And this is a kind of denial that a
lot of ethnic kids, specifically, I think, Asian American kids and
some gay kids, have where they avoid the issue of the truth of them.
And when you avoid that, it causes only problems for you and it takes
you a long time to kind of untangle. The thing that you think is
going to kill you is actually the thing that enlivens you and drives
you and pushes you forward,” Wong said.
“It's really actually an amazingly
great feeling to be yourself. What a concept, right? And I think more
people definitely know that now than they did before, although it's
still a struggle for lots of people,” he added.