Life

Actor Charlie Carver got slapped for acting “too effeminate”

Actor Charlie Carver got slapped for acting “too effeminate”

Charlie Carver, an actor that came out in 2016, revealed he was partly swayed to do so after a gay co-worker slapped him at an Emmy’s party in 2015. The man slapped Carver because he played his character on Desperate Housewives, Porter Scavo, in a way that offended the unnamed co-worker.

“I was told that I needed to ‘get it under control’ around people in the business,” Carver recalled to Variety, discussing his appearance in the film adaptation of The Boys in the Band, released on Netflix yesterday.

Related: Laverne Cox’s caustic Emmys monologue got censored by ABC

After the man “chastised” him throughout the party, the two met again afterward while Carver waited at the valet. That’s when Carver asked him more about his issue with the role. Then came the slap.

“It wasn’t playful but intentional, pointed, and meant to be instructive. A slap…I told him that if he ever touched me again, I would name him,” Carver said.

It’s unclear who the man is – or what time he and Carver worked together – but in 2015, the actor had just finished a turn on the third season of MTV’s Teen Wolf and the opening season of the HBO show The Leftovers. He also guest-starred in the Emmy-nominated CBS series Hawaii Five-0 and FXX’s The League.

Carver would come out a few months later in January 2016, via Instagram.

“That was the moment when I said to myself, ‘I can’t do this. I cannot police myself in that way,’” the actor, 32, revealed.

The Boys in the Band is an adaptation of an Off-Broadway play of the same name from 1968. While the focus of the film is a group of catty gay friends throwing a birthday party, none of the actors were out when it first came to the stage and it was considered “career suicide” to even appear in it, although people like Jackie Kennedy-Onassis and Groucho Marx would come to see it. It was initially adapted into a film in 1970, to controversy.

In 2018, Carver joined an ensemble that included Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer, Zachary Quinto, Andrew Rannells, Brian Hutchison, and other out actors in a Broadway revival of the play. Now, they’ve reunited to film the story – and a documentary on it, The Boys in the Band: Something Personal.

Carver had his on-screen debut in Desperate Housewives in 2008 as Porter Scavo, the teenage son of Lynette Scavo (Felicity Huffman) and Tom Scavo (Doug Savant). He would star on the ABC drama alongside his straight twin brother, Max Carver (who played Preston Scavo) for four years until its conclusion in 2012.

From there, they would land a role in Teen Wolf, where the two played twin werewolves from 2013 to 2014. Max would guest star alone through 2015, and Charlie returned in 2017, before the series’ conclusion.

Both are also slated to appear in the upcoming The Batman film alongside Robert Pattinson, expected in 2021.

Charlie starred in the recently released series Ratched in addition to The Boys in The Band. Both were released on Netflix and produced by Ryan Murphy of Glee, Pose, and American Horror Story fame.

Don't forget to share:

Support vital LGBTQ+ journalism

Reader contributions help keep LGBTQ Nation free, so that queer people get the news they need, with stories that mainstream media often leaves out. Can you contribute today?

Cancel anytime · Proudly LGBTQ+ owned and operated

76% of LGBTQ people are voting for Joe Biden but only 17% support Donald Trump

Previous article

Donald Trump tests positive for COVID-19

Next article