Bryan Batt On Mad Men, Sal & The Tinseltown Closet

Bryan Batt, who plays Sal on Mad Men, tells The Huffington Post that so far, there is no plan to return his booted character to the show, despite his online popularity. He did have some words on Hollywood’s gay paradox:

“If you are openly gay, the masses can be asses and sometimes can’t get past the fact that that’s how someone lives their private life,” said Batt, who has been with his partner, Tom Cianfichi, for 21 years. “Some actors have to make a choice. If they have the opportunity to become these huge megastars, making millions and millions of dollars and have to live a lie, that’s a choice they have to make. Not that I would ever be a big star, but I just had to live my life the way I saw fit.”

As for whether there is a place in Mad Men‘s fictional universe for a semi-uncloseted Sal, Batt hasn’t entirely ruled it out:

“Every word, every line in that show means something—there’s no extraneous dialogue,” Batt said. “Don says to me when I’m fired, ‘You’ll be fine.’ So who knows what that means.”