And so to me, that was fuel for an entire career - not just finishing that show, but I understood the power and responsibility of what I did.” Claire Danes (second from right) starred in "My So-Called Life," along with Jared Leto (Jordan Catalano), A.J. “But I did receive a couple of letters and one of them, I remember quite vividly, was written in pen and you could see where the teardrops had fallen onto the page and smeared the ink, where he described to me how miserable his life was, and how seeing this character helped him understand that he just had to hold on a little longer, so that he could be around people who would someday understand. “I didn't get a lot of fan mail, because I think a lot of the young people who were affected by Rickie Vasquez in the moment didn't have the capacity to really put it into words,” he said. So, this was somebody who was truly figuring themselves out, and his arc in those 19 episodes, we get to see him from beginning this journey to actually realizing and being able to communicate the fact that he was gay.”Ĭruz said it wasn’t until about four or five years after “My So-Called Life” ended that he fully understood the character’s impact on young viewers. “He didn't hang out in the boys’ room he hung out in the girls’ room, because that's where he was comfortable, but he didn't consider himself trans. “I understood that this was somebody who lived in the in-between worlds, like he wasn't fully Black, he wasn't fully Puerto Rican, he considered himself bisexual,” Cruz said. Rickie, who sported eyeliner and a colorful wardrobe, brought a powerful authenticity to the critically acclaimed teen drama, which aired for just one season.Ĭruz recalled Rickie’s description during the audition as “15, half Black, half Puerto Rican, androgynous, like Jodie Foster in ‘Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore.’” And he was doing that for everybody who saw themselves in him.” Wilson Cruz opened up about playing Rickie Vasquez on "My So-Called Life." Mark Seliger / Walt Disney Television via Getty Images He was somebody who was demanding to be seen. Cruz has been a recurring guest on 25 Words or Less since 2020.“I mean, up until that point, we were the sidekicks, and the people that were always thought of after the fact, but Rickie Vasquez forced you to notice him,” he continued. He plays the openly gay best friend of a promiscuous woman who wants to know who got her pregnant so she can marry. In 2009, he also appeared/starred in the film The People I’ve Slept With. Cruz played Adrian in the 2007 film The Ode, which was based on Ghalib Shiraz Dhalla’s novel Ode to Lata. Cruz’s other film and television credits include the films Joyride (1996), All Over Me (1997), Supernova (2000), Party Monster (2003), Margaret Cho’s Bam Bam and Celeste (2005), Coffee Date (2007), and He’s Just Not That Into You (2009) and guest appearances on the shows Great Scott!, Sister, Sister, ER, Ally McBeal, The West Wing, Noah’s Arc, and Grey’s Anatomy. He also appeared as Rafael de la Cruz in the television series Raising the Bar. In the final season of Party of Five in 2000, he played Victor. In 1996, he co-starred in Johns with David Arquette as Mikey, a film about the daily struggles of male prostitutes. Edgar Hoover’s servant Joaquin in Oliver Stone’s Nixon and had a minor role in the television film On Seventh Avenue. Following the cancellation of My So-Called Life, Cruz went on to play J. Cruz became the first openly gay actor to play an openly gay lead character in an American television series. In 1994, he was cast in the short-lived, critically acclaimed cult classic TV series My So-Called Life as Enrique “Rickie” Vasquez, a troubled, gay teen. Cruz went to Hollywood to look for work as an actor, intending to be open about his sexuality from the start.
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