He’s a talented actor who played an HIV+ character on TV. Karl sits down with Mean Girl’s Daniel Franzese to discuss faith & HIV.
The following is a transcript between Karl and Daniel.
DANIEL
Live a life of service.
KARL
Hello there. Welcome to plus talk on plus Life, where we’re all about turning positive into a plus. My guest today, Daniel Franzese, has been doing that for years, onscreen and offscreen. Daniel, nice to see you, my friend.
DANIEL
Good to see you as well.
KARL
You are everywhere all the time. All at once. You’re in Europe, you’re in New York, and you’re constantly spreading the good queer word. How, what’s the secret?
DANIEL
I don’t know. Flailing. I don’t know. I always feel like my life is like this moving vehicle that I’m not driving, that I have to like run and jump in the seat every once in a while.
KARL
So I want to talk about 20, 50, 10 years ago rather playing Eddie on looking. And that was really a history making moment because he was the only HIV positive character, I think, on television at the time, and something we hadn’t seen for so many years. And that was 10 years ago. We, as you know, were still fighting HIV stigma and it’s still a big, still a big thing. What was it like for you, someone who was not living with HIV to step in and inhabit that character and realize the importance of it?
DANIEL
Well, I, you know, it, it all came out of a want to do more for my community. I had recently had come out and I was doing like a meditation challenge, and it was in one of the episodes of The Challenge was live a life of service. And I just thought to myself like, what do I do? Like at, I mean, now I do a lot, but at the time I was like, you know, I’m a good person. I’m, you know, I consider myself like a, like a supporter of the L-G-B-T-Q community as well as being a part of it. I love my L-G-B-T-Q siblings. I, but I don’t do anything. So I was like looking for something to do and I had some, a friend come to ask me for help, you know, who had become h HIV V positive and had locked himself in his apartment and didn’t, you know, get the proper medication and stuff. And I knew Elizabeth Taylor’s grandson, socially Quint, I, I knew him through friends and we had partied a bunch together and stuff, and he had asked me to do an event previously and I was like, I’m gonna call him. He’s gotta know somebody. And it just, it, it all hap it was like a perfect storm, you know, like I got offered the part right at the same time that I met the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. I was able to get my friend treatment and care like it, it just, it lit this amazing fire beneath me. And then when I realized I never got to meet Ms. Taylor, but seeing her legacy and like what she had done and going to Washington Lobby in Congress, just learning all of this stuff. And I think it was significant that my character hadn’t had been on there, hadn’t been a HIV storyline on television. It was, you know, since we found out about HIV and aids, we had a, we had decreased infections every year and then once they stopped tel telling the stories on tv, they started rising again for the first time since we even found out about it. And that was really alarming. And I became, you know, I guess a poster boy for getting that message out there in Hollywood to create more stories and then to see in the nine 10 year sense how we’ve had, you know, how to give away murder and pose and all these incredible storylines come out and be able to tell the stories and reinvigorate people, humanizing people that are living with HIV and erasing stigma because that’s where we’re at now. The big initiative of the Till AIDS Foundation now is HIV is not a crime. And you know, because there’s tons of laws that are still in the law books that are fear-based rhetoric that was put in place, you know, long ago. And now that we know better, we need to start adjusting our law books and, you know, making it more comfortable for people that are still living with HIV.
KARL
Well, yeah, and then visibility and having those conversations is key, I think. And I think back on, you know, my open status, being open about my HIV status, knowing that characters like yours had existed on television, showing the everyday life of HIV, not the Doom and the gloom and the Grim Reaper and the, you know, I think, I think it, it certainly made it easier for when I decided to speak publicly about my HIV status to go, okay, yeah, this is what HIV looks like. See I’m not emaciated and dying. And it’s, it’s not, it’s not the end of the, it’s not the end of the world.
DANIEL
We Had old stories to look at. Yeah, yeah. And you know, Michael Lannon, one of the creators of looking when he, he eats, when he took me out to breakfast to offer me the role, he said, your character Eddie is going to be HIV positive and he’s not going to be, he’s never gonna get sick and he’s not going to be loved in spite of it, but maybe even because of it. And it just filled my heart to hear that I, I know what it’s like to be an underrepresented person. I’ve history with my role in Mean girls and other things and just being present. I know that I see queer people, I see large people, I see Italians underserved in storylines all the time. And so to me it was something that I was like, wow, I’m going to be able to represent a truly marginalized community in my com within my legita be qua family, and be able to realize that I can offer something to help forward our movement. And to me that’s really appealing. I I, I became famous a long time ago with mean girls, so I, that’s not a goal for me. You know, that was maybe something I wanted when I was 12. Like at this point I have a lot of clout like I’m on your grandma’s cell phone case, I got clout, I don’t need it. I dropped two bags of clout off at the charity shop, you know what I’m saying? Like, so to me it’s like not something that I’m interested in. So legacy stuff is really important. It’s like, you know, I’m still young. How much can I leave behind? Yeah. Like what can I leave behind for other people to look at and see and enjoy and find relief or, or, or see themselves in the story. So that’s what’s appealing to me.
KARL
You know, in in, in looking back at that character and inhibiting that character, you know, you know all too well, so often the general public can confuse you, Daniel, the person for Eddie, the character. Did you experience any of the HIV stigma that we as HIV positive people face as an HIV negative person and an ally to us? Did you face it? And if so, how did that make you feel and how did you react to it?
DANIEL
That’s such a great question. I don’t think anyone’s ever asked me that before. I, I was a little nervous about it at first, you know, because I was like gold, you know, like, okay, like I know a lot of people are gonna, you know, ’cause I know sometimes if people know me from like, like a horror movie or something, like, I spit on your grave or something and they see me from a across term and they’re like, I don’t know that guy, but I don’t like him ’cause they’ve seen me like play a bad character or something. And I’ve been that way too, you know, even as a a, you know, acting professional, I’ve been out there.
KARL
That’s a Compliment by the way. That’s a compliment. Yeah, no, I know My, you’re doing a really good job.
DANIEL
My mom couldn’t watch Seinfeld because she was so mad at Jason Alexander for trying to attack Julia Robertson pretty woman. So like, so I understand because of that actual situation. I understood that that might happen, but I was like, you know, like, what’s more important, some person who would treat me differently or act differently towards me because they might think that I’m major HIV positive, like, let’s weed those people out anyway. Do you know what I’m saying? Like, it wasn’t, it wasn’t that much of an issue to me. What I really resonated with, with the people that saw themself in my character, you know, we were playing a sero discordant couple and it kind of was like the first one to really discuss what that, like, what that relationship was. We were, the first TV time prep was on tv, you know, it was like very, like, we were really doing a lot of groundbreaking stuff and that was so thrilling to me to help further the story, you know, because HIV is such an important part of queer history and, and current day queer issues. So it’s like to have a voice in that for people that didn’t have a voice. I, I had someone come up to me at an event, I think it was at Texas Bear Roundup, and they were in Tex and they were like, you know, I’m in a happy, I’m in a relationship right now. And it was very difficult in my relationship ’cause we’re a Sarah Discording couple and they were like, which they all, I, it was one the doctor that was with me on the doctor’s, I’m forget his name right now, called it a magnetic couple. Like a positive and a negative. Yeah. Yeah. So they, he was like, I’m happy in a relationship, but if I’m ever in another relationship before I will allow anyone to date me, I’m gonna say, you’re gonna have to watch season two of looking first before we can go any further. ’cause it, you guys dealt with every issue and explained everything and really kind of made it easy for someone to understand what I might go through. So to me, it wasn’t the weirdos or the haters or people that might think something about me that may or may not be true. And even if it was, who cares? Like, so to me it was kind of like more about reaching the people who resonated with it and found some light in it.
KARL
Yeah. And well, well listen, kudos to you. You did a great job with that character. And here we are, yet 10 years later and you’re still doing a great job with your work with Elizabeth Taylor Aids Foundation and everything you do for those of us living with HIV and just changing the narrative and the conversation, you and I have a mutual friend, the late Steve Peters in Common. And, and Steve was a great friend of plus life’s, Steve and I often had conversations about being HIV positive and gay and religion. Steve was a reverend. You have your podcast, the Yaaas, Jesus. I can never say, I’ll never give it credit that it deserves.
DANIEL
Yaaaas Jesus Podcast. You just see it as gay as you can
KARL
Yaaaaas Jesus.
DANIEL
That’s the way you say it. Yeah,
KARL
Thank you. And, and you’ve, you have said that no one can take God away from you. And that’s something that Steve and I talked about too. I think so many people think, oh, the gay card, I’m banished and then I really have done it with HIV. What do you wanna tell those people?
DANIEL
Well, I mean, I’ll ask you like, what’s your most prized possession? Like, if you could take one thing from your apartment, what would it be? Or your house like what would, what would you wanna take with you that you wouldn’t want to?
KARL
Probably my dog. I say that.
DANIEL
Okay, great. What’s your dog’s name?
KARL
Gus. He’s here somewhere.
DANIEL
Great. Can I have Gus?
KARL
No.
DANIEL
Right. But we give our,
KARL
I’ll share, I’ll share, I’ll share Gus.
DANIEL
Right. But we give our God away so freely, right? It’s like as soon as we, they realize that we wanna like, you know, SAD then they just wanna kick us out of the house of the God. It’s like, what? What are you talking about? Like, you know, all of the feelings that we feel sexually God created, supposedly our creator created us. So it’s like all of the things that we’re feeling, they are all natural, they are all okay. It’s I, so we have, we just created a space essentially that is free of sexual shame. Let’s throw it out the door. We’re very sex positive. You know, we believe sex work is work. We believe you can have mutual partners. We believe you can experience your life and enjoy everything that your body has to offer. You know, and our platform is a place for people to come and continue that. Let’s deep dive into it for an hour and like really talk about it and unpack it. And I don’t think we really have a safe space to kind of do that. And people might be being asked questions about their faith, but they’re never in a faithful conversation, you know, so we have that space and to have ts Madison come on and silky ganache and, and Ginger min and people come on and talk about their faith journeys. It’s interesting. You know, I wanna know,
KARL
Thanks for taking the time to chat with me, Daniel, this has been great.
DANIEL
I appreciate you so much. Thanks.
KARL
That is gonna do it for this episode of Plus Talk. If you want more information about what we do, check out our website plus life media.com and remember to like, follow and share across our socials, we are at plus life media. Until next time, be nice to one another. And yes, Jesus, see you soon.