“Noah’s Arc” was a groundbreaking series from the Logo network that followed the lives of four black gay men in urban Los Angeles.  A cult following of the show resulted in two seasons and the feature film “Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom,” which is available on DVD today.

The film, written and directed by creator Patrik-Ian Polk, is a 2009 NAACP Image award nominee for Outstanding Independent Motion Picture and Outstanding Writing in a Motion Picture.  Here, one of the stars of “Noah’s Arc,” Doug Spearman, who is a former Associate Sports Producer at BET, chats about the movie, his character and being black and gay in Hollywood. 

"Noah's Arc: Jumping the Broom” comes out on DVD tomorrow.  What do you think the BET audience will appreciate about the film?
A couple things, the story transcends sexuality.  I think that people are going to appreciate the fact that it's about four friends who come together and their lovers to have this really interesting weekend around a wedding.  They bring everything that we as black people bring to our friends and it doesn't matter that pretty much everyone in the cast is male.  I think it's going to change minds about homophobia.  I hope that somebody is going to watch this and go, "Wow, I didn't realize that," "Wow, I didn't know that," or "Hey, it's no big deal,"—that's really what I want.  I think they are going to like the love story and it doesn't matter that it's two guys.

Tell me about your character, Chance, who is the more conservative one out of the cast.
He's a college professor, perpetually writing a book or a thesis.  When he gets upset he uses really long sentences. [Laughs] He's married in the sense that he's had a ceremony with domestic partnership.  He's in a relationship for about seven years and they are really at the point of, "Do we stay together or do we break up?" They're raising a little girl that his partner has from a previous relationship and they're trying to be as normal as possible.  They face real middle class issues.  At a point that anybody would, seven or eight years into a relationship, you say, "What are we doing?  Do I want to stay in this?  Who are you?  Who am I?  What is important here?" Chance has to ask and answer a lot of questions for himself.  I wouldn’t say he is conservative… Well, considering he doesn't wear a bustier and plaits in his hair.  He really is the most normal.  I don't think conservative is the right word, but of the four big characters he's certainly the one you're more likely to run into in your everyday life.

From the beginning of the series you were openly gay while your other three cast members didn't want to talk about it.  Why did you decide to be openly gay from the start of this series?
I've always been openly gay.  If you Google me, I’ve been out as long as I've been in Hollywood.  I've been out pretty much all of my adult life; it's never been a secret.  You are also assuming they’re gay.

No, I'm not assuming.  It’s just that the other three main cast members didn't want to talk about sexuality and you were the one person who did.  Part of what I’ve heard is if someone is openly gay they feel like they are pigeon-holed into roles.  Have you felt pigeon-holed in your career?
No.  You are more pigeon-holed if you're black.  You are more likely to come across a black role then you are a gay role.  I've been not gay enough a couple times.  It's funny, there was a role on “Girlfriends” I didn't get and it was a hairdresser.  The guy who got it was straight.  I just thought, I'm not interested in playing that kind of gay guy.  I remember having a conversation with the creator of “Girlfriends” during my audition and saying, "I really am gay!" [Laughs] They didn’t believe me; I’ve had casting directors who didn’t believe me.  Also, just to go back to your original question—it's not just that it wasn’t a secret.  It's the fact that if we don’t take a stand, just be who we are then somebody else doesn’t get a chance to break new ground.  I was a teenager looking at the world during the Harvey Milk era.  I needed role models, I needed somebody to believe in and look up to and there were very few.  We have a certain responsibility to be open about who we are.  We don’t change anybodies minds; we don’t give anybody any opportunity, hope, or just an example, if we stay in the closet.  Everybody has to make their own choice.  You asked that question about whether or not I felt pigeon-holed, if you don’t keep hitting the wall then you'll never break it down.  If you keep coming up against the fear, "Nobody is going to hire me, nobody is going to believe I'm acting because I'm gay," then you don’t get to change that.

In Hollywood, do you feel like you experience more racism or more homophobia?
Racism.  I've never heard somebody scream faggot on a set.  I’ve never been told I couldn’t have something because I was gay.  No one's ever going to do that, people aren’t stupid—99% of the people who work in Hollywood are not stupid. They're not going to openly express that kind of prejudice.  Are good gay roles hard to find?  Absolutely.  Even gay people write stereotypical gay roles.  When I walk into the room a black man walks into a room, not a gay man.  I think I’m black before I’m gay, there is a cultural history attached to that.  I look at television and thirty years ago you saw more black faces than you do now.  There are no series with the exception of “The Game” and “The House of Payne” that have a predominantly black cast.  There are certainly no major networks or cable networks series built around black characters.  We are disappearing from our culture and we need to stand up and say something about it.

Do you see this DVD release as an appropriate ending to “Noah’s Arc”?
It is what I call a pumpkin moment, when Cinderella rides away in that magical pumpkin coach with her friends. It's a nice warm, fuzzy moment and you can't help but smile at the last shot.  It's a good place to leave it.

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“Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom” is available on DVD today!  Click here to purchase.

Be sure to watch the 40th Annual NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) Image Awards Thursday, February 12th live at 8pm on FOX.