Luke Macfarlane on why starring on military TV show led him to come out

When you know, you know: After working on a “very macho military show” Luke Macfarlane knew he wanted to come out publicly while working on Brothers & Sisters.

The Bros star discussed his decision to open up about his sexuality during the latest episode of Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast, Dinner’s on Me. In it, Ferguson, who is also openly gay and has been married to Justin Mikita since 2013, asked Macfarlane about his decision to publicly come out during his time on the series Brothers & Sisters.

“The show that brought me to Los Angeles was this, very macho military show [Over There], and I never really talked about it in any of the press I did for that show. I was kind of half in, half out on the set,” Macfarlane explained to Ferguson. “And I kinda was like, I don’t wanna ever do that again.”

Macfarlane played PV2 Frank “Dim” Dumphy in the 13-episode show, which was canceled after one season at FX in 2005. In 2006, he followed that up with his role as Scotty Wandell on Brothers & Sisters, which initially was just a recurring character in seasons 1 and 2. For the final three seasons of the ABC family drama, he was bumped up to the main cast.

As a guest star, he wasn’t expected to do interviews, but when the show made him a series regular, it hit Macfarlane that he was “gonna have to do press again” and that was his moment to finally come out.

“As a guest star, you don’t really have to do press. So I was like, Okay. I’m gonna come out. And it was very simple, and that was a long time ago now. It was eighteen years ago,” he said.

Reflecting on it all, Macfarlane added, “I’m always amazed that people give a damn because you’re really just doing things, or I at least believed this at the time, I really do think I was just trying to do it for my mental health because I had spent five months on a show where I hadn’t talked about it and felt afraid. And, I think that affects your work as an actor. I think it affects your personal relationships. So, yeah. It was a different time.”

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Elsewhere in the conversation, which was had over ramen at Kazan in Beverly Hills, Macfarlane and Ferguson discuss the former’s early desire to be a dad, his love for derelict homes and fixing broken things, and how that all ties into his new Hallmark+ home renovation series, Home Is Where the Heart Is.