Actor Peter Stickles is most likely familiar to gay filmgoers from his role as vaguely creepy stalker Caleb in John Cameron Mitchell's ode to sexual intimacy and dysfunction, Shortbus. The rather adorable and brooding young man was one of the few leads in the film to not have an explicit sex scene — something that disappointed many fans (we heard a lot about it, trust me) and lent an air of mystery to the young actor.

So when the horror vet had landed the lead role of Damian in the new here! TV gay vampire series The Lair, it wasn't a surprise. AfterElton.com recently talked with the actor, whose intensity and tendency to straddle genres of horror and gay film set him apart from the pack.

AfterElton.com: Hey, Peter. As you know, I'm a horror nut, so when I saw that you had the lead in this series, I said, "We have to talk to this guy!"

Peter Stickles: Yeah, I remember we met at the Hellbent screening at the Chelsea theater and I got your card and checked out CampBlood and thought it was the most awesome website I'd seen in a long time.

AE: Aw … thanks! So what is it like to be playing the villainous head of a gay vampire sex club?

PS: You don't know for how long I've wanted to be asked that question! [Laughs.] It was a blast. It was crazy because I was thrown into it. They offered me the part on a Friday and they wanted me up there on, like, Saturday, in L.A., for two weeks. So it was kind of this crazed, "Do you want it or not, we need to know right now!"

I sort of met everyone my very first day. I had a sex scene my very first day. I had hair and makeup and fangs and these things sort of thrown on me like at a day's notice. So when I think about what it was like, I think it was crazed and a lot of fun. And a lot of hard work.

AE: How so? What was the hardest part?

PS: From a production standpoint, we shot the whole first season in, I think, 11 days? So we'd shoot 15, 16 scenes a day, which is a lot. But I can't pretend it's not a thrill to play a bad guy, because when you play a bad guy you get to go to that weird place in your psyche where you can sort of be a monster, which is every little boy's dream.

AE: And you generally play good guys, from what I've seen.

PS: I do play good guys. I also did another film called 2 Minutes Later which is also premiering at NewFest, and I play the killer in that one too.

AE: Wasn't that the one being described as "an episode of Silk Stalkings directed by Robert Mapplethorpe"?

PS: It's actually really good. I gut a couple of people with a knife.

AE: You're in The Lair and were also in the gay vampire movie Dead Serious and played a gay stalker in Shortbus — are you gay yourself?

PS: I am.

AE: How's it been straddling gay film and horror, two genres that rarely intersect?

PS: Well, I'm a genuine fan of horror since I was little. I used to hide Fangorias under my bed like Playboys. I've always been drawn to them for whatever reason, so when I moved to New York to become an actor, that was a genre I really wanted to focus on.

But … when Shortbus came out, I'd always wanted to do a movie involving sexual situations and graphic sex and using sex as a language. I'd always wanted to do a sex movie, as well. Because it sort of stems from my — not horror, but from a "scary place." What sex can kind of be, especially when you're young.

As far as trying to straddle both worlds, I'm generally interested in both, and it hasn't been difficult, because I've been able to kind of merge the two. They seem to be blending into each other, in a way.

AE: I've interviewed a lot of gay horror filmmakers, and many say it's harder to come out as a horror fan than a gay person.

PS: I remember my father screaming at me when I was little, saying, "I don't want you wasting your money on that!" And then just a few years ago bringing a Fangoria to him because I was actually in it, saying, "Here, Dad, it was worth it!" Of course he didn't remember saying it to me.

AE: With Dante's Cove and now The Lair, there seems to be a response from gay viewers to erotic horror.

PS: The gay community really responds to this genre, you know — Supernatural, Buffy, vampires, sex. In a way, it's sort of like drag queens and a lot of gay clowns and fetishes, black parties and white parties, this dressing up and pretending you're someone else.

There's this fantasy world that people really respond to, and then add sex to it and naked men, and it can sort of become hilarious. The gay community has an amazing sense of humor, and they can find the humor in all kinds of things, especially when you're dressing up and pretending to be other people.

It would be one thing to kind of do a regular soap opera with chiseled hunks making out and having sex, which is great. But when you turn it and make them vampires and throw makeup on them and crazy outfits, of course the gay community will respond to that because it's hilarious and it's campy and it's fun.

AE: So the campiness of the show is self-aware?

PS: Oh, yeah. And again, it was hard to even take a second and breathe and talk about it because it was such a crazed production and we had to do it so quickly. We hardly had time to meet each other. I mean, I met Dylan Vox, who played Colin, you know, two minutes before our sex scene.

So there was always a bit of a wink-wink, nudge-nudge kind of thing, where we were like, "Can you believe we're saying these words and playing these scenes," and it's hilarious. And of course there was lunch where we would break and talk about things, but there was never a sort of huge amount of seriousness.

There was, of course, a great amount of seriousness in terms of work and production, but we all took a sort of tongue-in-cheek approach. How can't you, when you say "a soft-core gay vampire series"? Come on!

AE: It's funny that you have so much sex on The Lair because rather oddly, your scene in Shortbus isn't explicit.

PS: It was supposed to be. I signed up for it and I was hired for it. I mean, John wouldn't have hired me if I wasn't willing to do it. But on the shooting day where I had my graphic sex scene, John went aside with the producer and kind of came back and said, "You know, we're not going to shoot this explicitly," for whatever reason. But I think at that point in the film, near the end, if you saw me banging away at this guy it would have been very awkward, and it wasn't necessary. So that very day, you know, minutes before my close-up, he decided he wasn't going to shoot it graphic.

AE: Interesting. And yet on The Lair …

PS: I have a much more graphic scene in The Lair than I had in Shortbus. Although I don't think you really see anything of me. But I was naked. But we were all wearing a sock. Dylan and I, we had a sock on.

I gotta say, I really feel fearless in a way. When Shortbus was happening and a lot of my friends and people who are close to me — they didn't say it then, but I found out afterwards that they were very concerned that I was doing this role. They were concerned about my future, my career, what this would do, doing this weird movie. They sort of kept their mouth shut, but later on they let me have it and let me know how they felt.

And in a certain way I can understand that, because I was terrified. When I was in Shortbus, I was absolutely terrified. The very thought of it made me want to vomit, because it was so exciting. And I want to be scared in that way, where I can do it and say I did it, and then can move on and do anything.

AE: Do you have concerns about being typecast as an out gay actor?

PS: Of course I have — absolutely. The producers of The Lair took me aside and we had a meeting about whether or not I was going to be an "out" gay actor and whether they were going to be able to market me. But they wanted me to take it very seriously, because it's a very big decision and I had to stop and think about it.

Because even though it sucks, and it shouldn't matter, it does matter. So yeah, I had to really think about it — not so much in terms of being a horror movie actor, because if I could do horror movies for the rest of my life I'd die a happy man. But being pigeonholed as a gay film actor is kind of weird for me.

AE: What is it about vampires that people find sexy — and kind of gay?

PS: The whole flamboyance, and they're sort of androgynous, sort of like a drag queen in a way. Like when they're fully clothed, it's hard to tell if they're a man or a woman. I know when I was all dressed up as Damian, I felt like a drag queen with all the eyeliner and the hair. I mean, it's not like I was very masculine-looking, which I think can be sexy to both men and women. And you know, they want to suck on your neck, which is very sexual. They're writhing, sexual creatures.

AE: Do you have a favorite vampire movie?

PS: I love Near Dark and I like The Lost Boys.

AE: Kind of the alpha gay vampire movie, really.

PS: [Laughs.] True!

AE: What more can we expect from Damian as The Lair goes on?

PS: You can expect to see a little more of Colin, kind of my second in command. You can expect to see some mutiny. Did you get to the story with the painting?

AE: Yeah, that's in the second episode.

PS: You can expect to see more about that. There's some issues that happen with the painting, which is sort of the keystone of our existence, so I get concerned when things happen with that. And Colin tries to take over our family.

AE: It's like All About Eve with fangs.

PS: More like Showgirls!

AE: So who's hotter — the Dante's Cove cast or The Lair cast?

PS: Oh, The Lair! God, of course! My whole orgy room? The one where I orchestrate the orgies? Those are my boys. We have those Dante's Cove boys beat!

AE: Who would win a dance-off?

PS: Oh my God, we would destroy them! We got the moves.

AE: You live in New York full-time?

PS: Yep.

AE: Your admirers will want to know: Are you single?

PS: Oh yeah, always. I've never really dated anyone seriously. I've hung out with people for a couple weeks or so, but I've never had a boyfriend.

AE: Are you too busy?

PS: I don't know. It's just never really happened. I mean, I'm open to it, but it's just never happened.

AE: Well, I'm sure it'll happen.

PS: If so, cool, if not, that's fine.

AE: You've got a lot on your plate.

PS: Yeah. I'd rather work!

AE: And I have to ask: If you could become a vampire, would you?

PS: No. I wouldn't want to live forever. Are you kidding? Did you see Death Becomes Her, when they're falling apart and they have to, like, glue their faces together? Live forever? No way. I'm happy to go at any time.

AE: Well, we won't rush you!