Interview taken from AfterElton.com

CBS' The Class, which premieres tonight, has been drawing positive notices for its serialized character development, which is more typical of hour-long-dramas. But this half-hour sitcom may be of special interest to gay TV viewers because it's the most gay-friendly of this season's new shows.

According to GLAAD, The Class features the only gay lead character of any show on TV this season: Kyle Lando (Sean Maguire), a sweet-natured, cultured teacher in a stable relationship with his boyfriend, Aaron (Cristián de la Fuente). Kyle is one of the eight central characters who are reunited when Ethan (Jason Ritter) throws a party to commemorate the first day of third grade, which also happens to be the day he met the woman who is now his fiancée.

But the cast of The Class is not limited to just the eight former classmates. Among the large number of regulars is openly gay actor Sam Harris who plays Perry Pearl, the immaculately dressed husband of one of the classmates, Holly (who just so happened to have gone to the prom with Kyle).

Though Perry's mannerisms suggest to the other characters — and anyone with eyes and ears, really — that he might be gay, the character is ostensibly straight. The Class seems to build from one episode to the next, however, so viewers may find that Perry's sexuality changes as the season progresses.

Both Maguire and Harris told AfterElton that they are grateful for the opportunity to add variety to the fall lineup, which is otherwise largely barren of gay characters, through their performances on The Class. “I think it's important to see that kind of diversity,” says Maguire, whose performance as a gay American belies his true status as a straight Briton. “You don't have to be gay or black or whatever minority to appreciate seeing a character on TV who's that minority. It's nice to see the real world reflected in what we watch for entertainment.”

Harris says he is particularly happy to be playing a character like Perry, who defies viewers' expectations about what is appropriate behavior for gay and straight men. He also says, however, that the manner in which gay characters are portrayed in the media is more important than whether gay characters are merely there. “It's nice to have this presence on TV, but you have to ask what they are saying about gay people when you see it,” Harris says. He adds, “I am thrilled that they're developing a character like this.” In other words, quality counts.

Perhaps what most stands out about Sean Maguire's performance as Kyle is that a straight Englishman can so easily simulate what a gay American might be like. Aside from getting his foot in the door of a new sitcom helmed by comedy writing powerhouses and real-life partners David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik, who count Friends and Mad About You among their success stories, Maguire says he is just happy to play a gay character because doing so provides more of a professional challenge than his previous acting roles.

“Primarily, I wanted to play a gay character; to play American was a second,” Maguire says. “On [my previous show, Eve], I basically played an extension of myself, so it was really nice to have a fresh challenge, to basically build this person up from the ground.”

Maguire starred in the three-year run of UPN's Eve as Donovan Brink. According to the actor, he performed the character with the idea that he might actually be gay, but the limits of the show never let the character be more than just metrosexual. “I was a little disappointed,” Maguire says. “It would have been more fun to play a more interesting character.”

Though he may have anticipated the challenge of playing gay, Maguire admits that playing American can be intimidating. “Doing both [playing a gay and American character] in a weird way helps to sort of sidestep away from myself, though on certain days I don't know whether I'm doing too much or to little,” he says. “It means a lot to me, since I have a lot of a gay friends, and I'll really hear it from them if I don't get it right.”

Playing someone who is so different from his normal self requires a significant change in his demeanor, Maguire says. “I'm trying to build a real character here — the accent and the mannerisms and whatever. And I'm being true to what I'm trying to create. It's a bit scary, but that's the fun of having a challenge, I suppose.”

No stranger to acting with his regular accent, Maguire is The Class' cast member with the most experience in front of a camera. After acting alongside Sir Laurence Olivier in the 1982 TV film A Voyage Round My Father, Maguire starred in the popular British children's show Grange Hill. He followed this with a stint on the soap opera EastEnders and has even had a recording career, with three pop albums to his name. “I had a lot of fun getting drunk at the record company's expense,” Maguire says of his days as a singer.

After relocating to the United States, Maguire starred in the short-lived WB series Off Centre before moving on to Eve. During Eve's third season, Maguire auditioned for his role on The Class, though he didn't expect to land the role. “We didn't know if the show looked like it was coming back,” he says of Eve, “but I wanted to meet David and Jeffrey. I was a huge fan of Friends and Mad About You. But because I didn't know if I could be on this new show, I think I went in with the attitude that I probably can't get it. I walked in quite relaxed, I think.”

Whatever the reason, Maguire landed the role, which he now realizes is one that may grant him increased visibility to gay TV viewers, especially in comparison to other shows this season. “It was mentioned to me that there were only like four or so gay characters on new shows,” he says. “I didn't initially give it much thought because I knew I'd be playing the character to the best of my ability. So in that way, I don't think it makes as much of a difference to me.”

Maguire says he was pleased to find that Kyle was such a well-written character, given the more one-dimensional, supporting roles that gay characters are often relegated to. “The character is really well-written, as you'd expect from David and Jeffrey,” Maguire says. “Often times on TV you have gay characters who are stereotypes. But with this character, it's not that way. They have a nice, healthy, stable relationship, and they just happen to be gay.”

Cristián de la Fuente, the Chilean actor playing Kyle's lover, Aaron, is not a series regular, but appears in several of the episodes that have been filmed so far. “We have a great working relationship,” Maguire says. “He's very cool — a great guy to hang out with. … He's not a regular yet, but as sitcoms go, people write according to what they like, so maybe we will get to see more of him.”

Sam Harris, on the other hand, approaches his role from a perspective almost opposite that of Maguire. “It's an interesting twist, really,” he says of playing the sexually ambiguous Perry. “A lot of the time, it's an actor playing a gay role, and he won't say whether he's gay or not. But in my case now, I'm a gay actor and I'm not going to say whether my character's gay or not.”

In truth, Harris doesn't know what Perry's sexuality might be, a fact that has given the actor a certain freedom in how he plays him. “Perry loves his wife,” Harris explains, “and he loves his kid. But he's also this wonderful free spirit that has no idea that anybody might have questions about him. He's not lascivious or stashing porn magazines under his mattress or anything like that. He just has this sensibility about him that we would all perceive as stereotypically gay.”

In the show's pilot, Perry's mannerisms are not played for laughs. Rather, the comedy is derived from the awkward fact that a seemingly incompatible couple apparently works. Harris thinks that this is more of a comment on the sensibilities of the viewing audience than on gay people themselves. He offers: “People might look at somebody and say, ‘Oh, he's in Prada shoes. He's into design. He must be gay.' But they might be pigeonholing them, because they really don't know what the hell someone else's sexuality is.”

Harris believes that the character of Perry is especially enjoyable in comparison to Maguire's character, who represents more of a regular-Joe type of guy than a stereotype. “We have Sean playing the gay guy, and he's in a healthy relationship,” Harris explains. “It's kind of fun in that we created this thing where the presumably straight character is silly and girly and all that, and then the guy we know is gay isn't a cartoon.”

If anyone would have reason to be suspicious of Perry's gay-seeming flair, it would be his wife, uptight newscaster Holly Ellenbogen (Lucy Punch). But despite outward appearances, the two seem to enjoy a healthy marriage. In the pilot, they ask Kyle, a teacher, if he can help get their daughter, Oprah, enrolled in the exclusive school where he teaches. It's what any caring parents would do.

Harris thinks the relationship's quirks will make the pairing one that works well for the sitcom format. “[Lucy] is great,” he says. “I had seen her in Being Julia, in which she was hysterical. She's great fun, and when she plays Holly she does it with this great neurotic vulnerability. … And I'm so in charge, so on top of it, and Holly's just a mess.”

As a gay actor, however, Harris says he has given some consideration to how his community may react to Perry's mannerisms. “I love this guy,” he says of Perry. “He's honest, fun, creative. I have a lot in common with him. But maybe there's the twist that maybe he's not gay.”

Harris explains that because Maguire is playing such a grounded character, it allows the show to flirt with some more light-hearted representations of gay men. Furthermore, Harris notes that since TV viewers so readily accepted Jack McFarland in Will & Grace, he feels that Perry will not necessarily be an affront to gay sensibilities. After all, a certain degree of silliness is natural for sitcoms.

“Sean Hayes is brilliant, but with that character on TV people were asking, ‘Why are they portraying gay people as silly and unattached and without love?' Meanwhile, I laughed my ass off every week,” Harris says. “It's comedy. If everything was politically correct, nothing would be funny.”

Harris compares his character to that of The Class' Yonk Allen (David Keith), an aging football star who suffers from head injuries incurred during his athletic days. “In terms of stereotypes, he's the big dumb football jock, really,” he says. “Funny is funny.”

Still, Harris says that Perry's gradual development into a three-dimensional character should allay any fears that viewers might have about stereotypes. “I want Perry to have a full life. I don't want the whole thing to be ‘Is he or isn't he?' I'd like to see him be this complex, balanced character.”

The Class marks Harris' first foray into sitcom acting, but the Oklahoma native may be familiar to viewers as a performer from such Broadway productions as Grease, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Cabaret and The Jazz Singer. Harris got his start in musical theater by becoming the first-ever winner on Star Search, when he swept to victory with his rendition of “Over the Rainbow.” As he progressed as a performer, however, he began to incorporate more and more elements of comedy into his act.

“I'm a huge I Love Lucy freak,” he admits. “It's really dear to me, the whole style of it. I love writing it and performing it.” When he had the opportunity to be part of a sitcom with such high-profile names as Crane and Klarik attached to it, auditioning was a no-brainer. “I'm surrounded by the best of the best. It's exciting to be around all this experience. The whole crew, they're great. The PAs, even. They have done this kind of work more than I have.”

When Harris speaks of his work so far on The Class, he does so with the wide-eyed eagerness of someone just embarking on a new leg of his career. “I can say with great joy that they're writing great stuff for these characters,” he says. “I hope we get to do it for a hundred years. I am not unhappy with the potential for great amounts of money and fame, but I know I want to be in the room with these people for as long as I can.”

On that note, Maguire agrees. “We're all wondering when the hell [our characters] are going to get to be involved with one another,” he says, alluding to the fact that the various interactions may take more than one season to blossom into friendships. “It's all been very fun and exciting. Of course, I hope the show is a big massive hit, but I would settle for it being a good show that stays on the air. I hope the writers continue to write the way that they have.”

He then adds jokingly, “Please don't make me go back to England.”