Thom Bierdz's gay storyline on the CBS
daytime drama The Young and the Restless begins today.
The 48-year-old Bierdz, who is openly
gay, plays Phillip Chancellor III, a closeted gay man who faked his
death to live his life openly elsewhere. The character returned last
summer and came out to the family he left behind, including his son
Phillip Chancellor IV.
Speaking
to About Gay Life Magazine, Bierdz said he hopes producers
of the show will give his character a love life, but suggested that's
not likely to happen anytime soon.
“I would really appreciate fans to
write into the show and ask for that,” he said. “I can't tell
you too much but I'm not satisfied where things are in relation to
that. The more viewers ask for that, the more it might happen. I
know they are going to go there. I don't know how fast they'll go
there.”
“What you know about Phillip, my
character, is that he was never able to share his sexuality growing
up so he went away and when he came back he said he'd not had a
romance. Here's a guy who has many facets to him – he's trying to
be a good father, he's a good friend to people, he's a good son. He
wants love. I want the viewers to want that for him,” he added.
John Discroll, who plays Bierdz's son
on the daytime drama, said last year's coming out storyline was
interesting because it reversed the dynamics of the story.
“Most of the time, it's the son
coming out to the father and in this case, it was the father coming
out to the son,” he
told GregInHollywood.com's Greg Hernandez.