Paige: Don't be afraid to say it! You're dancing around it the same way that people dance around this issue!

Gant: It's true!

Paige: You're afraid to say what feminine is! Say it! It's OK! You're assuming that people have shame around it and that if you admit you like guys who are emotionally expressive and who use their hands when they talk, people will think it's odd.

Gant: I own that.

Paige: I'm not blaming you; I'm just saying you're dancing around it.

Gant: No, you're right. That's about my own embarrassment, me assuming that it was something to apologize for. I wasn't even aware that I doing it, so I'm glad you flagged me for it.

Robert, your character, Ben, is totemically masculine, and you, objectively, are a big, strong, handsome, masculine guy. Without qualifying those things.

Gant: I know what you're about to say. I worked really, really hard to effect that. I spent years and years crafting that facade. I have old audiotapes where I would do the nelliest voices. I was the kid in the neighborhood who would choreograph routines for all the other kids to songs like "Boogie Fever." I had a whole routine worked out for "Car Wash."

What set you in the other direction?

Gant: I used to always kiss hello or goodbye. I remember we were at our family's best friends' home, and I was about to kiss the father goodbye. I was in second or third grade. I went to kiss him, and he turned away. I said, "No, no, on the lips!" and insisted. So he did. And when we left my mother shamed me. I never felt like such a horrible human being. She said, "How could you do that? That was embarrassing!" And to this day I have such a hard time with it.

Do you ever feel like you're a prisoner of this armor-plated persona you've crafted, or have you integrated it into yourself?