It took achieving his Hollywood dream to makePeter Paigerealize he wanted something different.
(“I was the other choice to play Jack onWill & Grace,” the actor reveals.
“There were some near misses that were painful, but kept me in the game.")
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And then cameQueer as Folk.
The series was a cultural conversation piece, skyrocketing the actor into notoriety.
“Being an actor is really being of service to someone else’s vision,” Paige reflects.
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I wanted the agency to put my voice more purely out into the world.”
When graduating from BU, the head of the acting track suggested Paige was destined to be a director.
As theFolkseries finale approached in 2005, Paige began plotting his next move.
‘Station 19’.John Fleenor/ABC via Getty Images
“It was absolutely correct,” he says of the critique.
“My character was the one who was supposed to be Black.
The other person who screen-tested for that role wasBilly Porter.
They picked me, and then it was just this all-white group of friends.”
“It was resonating with people who had never felt seen in media before.”
“That’s the whole point of what I do,” he says with a smile.
