J. August Richards On Concerns He'll Be Typecasted

Actor, J. August Richards, who you may know from NBC’s new show, Council of Dads, or ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. recently went public about his sexual orientation while speaking with his Council of Dads co-star Sarah Wayne Callies on Instagram Live on Monday, April 20.

In the NBC drama, Richards portrays Dr. Oliver Post, a happily married, gay Black man with a daughter. During his live chat, Richards said that he felt it was important to be honest with his castmates about his sexuality before taking on the role.

“If I think about why I even got involved in this industry, it was really to combat oppression,” he explained. “I knew how I was affected by the people of color I saw on television, or that I didn’t see on television, so this being a married, gay man, with a family … on television, I don’t take anything I do lightly, and you have an opportunity to put an image into millions of homes. I wanted that image to be honest and I wanted it to be correct.”

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He added: “Honestly, it required me to show up fully in a way that I don’t always when I’m working. I knew that I could not portray this gay man honestly without letting you all know that I am a gay man myself. I’ve never done that with the people that I’ve worked with.”

“That responsibility carried me to do that because I knew how important it is to other people out there like me, who would need to see that role model,” he concluded.

Richards later took to his Instagram to thank followers for their outpouring of support for his coming out. 

“Everyone said it would be but nothing could have prepared me,” he captioned a picture of himself wearing a rainbow shirt. “Yesterday was one of the best days of my life. “Thank you” feels like cheap words to describe the depths of the gratitude I feel for your support and the crushing avalanche of LOVE I felt aimed at me yesterday. Who knew that something I once thought of as terrifying had within it something so beautiful… For every comment, like, emoji, repost, phone call, text message, everything. I felt it ALL… Thank you!!!”

In an interview with Bevy Smith on SiriusXM, he also opened about the possibilty of being typecasted as a Black, gay actor.

“It’s a great question and obviously one that I’ve heavily considered and one that has kept me private for decades,” he said to Smith. 

“I had to update my software and what I mean by that is the industry that I started in is not the industry of today. A lot of the personal work i had to do to get to this point was shaking  the belief that I could not do what I believe is my purpose, which is storytelling and be openly gay.”

He continued, “Two things that I know for sure, number one, I trust God’s plan for my life so whatever is meant for me next, it’ll be right… number two, if I play gay roles for the rest of my life, I could still never give the same performance twice.”

Listen to the interview below.