Actor Chad Allen is out, proud and gainfully employed
Chad Allen Lazzari didn't decide to come out of the closet to garner publicity for a slowing career. Although many may know Allen only from his work as an adult, in a number of independent films and as a special guest star in an array of Top 10 prime time television shows including Cold Case, NYPD Blue and Charmed, Allen has been working in show business for most of his 32 years.
"My twin sister and I started acting when we were five," Allen said by phone from the set of his current movie Save Me. "We didn't grow up in a showbiz family, but my sister and I fell in love with acting. My mother would enter us in twin contests at county fairs starting from the age of five, and that led to getting work on commercials."
While the acting bug never fully infected Chad's sister Charity, he couldn't get rid of it. Beginning at age nine, Allen starred as Tommy Westphal, the autistic son of St. Elsewhere's Dr. Donald Westphal (Ed Flanders). "And the rest is history," he laughed.
Allen went on to star as a regular in another Top 10 prime time drama, Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman, playing Matthew Cooper, the adopted son of Dr. Quinn (Jane Seymour).
While growing up on camera, Allen struggled with the issue and secret of being gay.
"I spent a lot of my teen years bitching to myself about how hard it was to be gay. But after a while, I realized I couldn't bitch about it if I kept the fact that I was gay a secret, as if it were something to be ashamed of."
There were many reasons why Allen decided to go public with his sexual orientation.
"I got a lot of letters from young gay people who heard rumors that I was gay, telling me they didn't know what to do with their lives, and many felt the only solution to their pain was suicide."
Allen doesn't think of his coming out as a message but "an example. I don't have a message. Anyone who is gay should be able to make the decision whether or not they want to come out on their own. They shouldn't be forced to. I am not an advocate of outing anyone. But, by example, one at a time, we can make a difference. I mean, look at what just one television show did," he said, referring to Will & Grace .
"The great thing we are all born with is that we have the freedom to be whatever we choose. If someone chooses to live his life in denial, that is his choice. You have to love yourself, though, and surround yourself with people who love you. The gay community faces fear by walking together."
Spear street
This year alone, Allen has challenged convention, and the right-wing, by starring in a right-wing religious film that was released in theaters and is now on DVD, The End of the Spear. It's based on the true story of a group of Christian missionaries in Ecuador who set out to reach the Wadani tribe, a violent native tribe defined by revenge killing. When five men from this group are speared to death by tribal members who believe all foreigners are cannibals, their wives and children move in with the Wadani tribe to teach them about God.
"Yes, the message of the movie is different from what I may believe, but it brought us together. I was respected on the set of the film every day I was there. I am still friends with the filmmakers. We are very fond of each other and respect each other's beliefs. I don't know what all the controversy in the media was when the movie came out in theaters. An openly gay actor in a Christian movie! If anything, it opened a lot of people's eyes in the Bible Belt to the fact that devout Christians and gays can coexist peacefully and respect each other, even when their beliefs may clash."
Allen is in a relationship that is just passing its one-year mark. "We are very happy." In his spare time, he loves "to surf, snowboard, go to the movies, hike, cycle, a lot. I like to chill. I am not really into partying."
Currently, Allen can be seen on the big screen as gay detective Donald Strachey, in A Shock to the System. "This is the second in a planned trilogy of Donald Strachey stories. Strachey beat that other gay detective, Val Kilmer in Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, to the big screen by a full year."