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Ryan Phillippe Was Advised Not to Play the First Gay Teenager on Daytime TV at 17 Years Old: ‘I Was So Young. There Were Elements of Me That Were Afraid’
Ryan Phillipe made history as Billy Douglas, the first gay teenager on daytime TV, but he was discouraged from accepting the role out of fear.
Ryan Phillippe admitted in a new interview with People magazine that part of him was “afraid” to accept the role of Billy Douglas on the daytime soap opera “Once Life to Live” in the early 1990s. “I was so young that there were elements of me that were afraid because it was such a different time,” Phillippe said, adding that people close to him also advised him to turn down the role and discouraged him from accepting the part. He remembers hearing from fans who had “never seen someone represent me in any entertainment before in my life.” Phillippe would also get mail from parents saying: “Watching this show on my lunch break gave me a way to connect with my LGBTQ child.”
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