'Vampire Academy' star says an 'influential casting director' once told a 'famous lesbian actress' she wasn't 'acting' by playing a lesbian

• "Vampire Academy" star J. August Richards reflected on playing a gay role after coming out in 2020.
• He told Insider that he wants to combat the idea that all gay characters are the same.
• He said a casting director told a lesbian actor she "was not acting" playing a lesbian character.

"Vampire Academy" star J. August Richards told Insider that he once witnessed a "very influential casting director" claim gay people are not acting when they play gay characters — and he wants to dispel that notion.

Richards publicly came out as gay in 2020 during an Instagram Live chat with his "Council of Dads" costar Sarah Wayne Cal lies.

While Richards was already out in his personal life, he said that he felt the need to be open about his sexuality with his castmates and the creators of "Council of Dads" before playing a gay dad on the show.

During an interview with Insider about his new show "Vampire Academy," which premieres on Peacock Thursday, Richards said that as an openly gay actor, he hopes to combat the idea that gay actors cannot bring diversity to their roles.

"I remember as a very young actor, I heard a very influential casting director say that a very famous lesbian actress was not acting because her character was a lesbian," Richards said. "So that's one of the things that I wanna combat with my career and with my platform."

Richards went on to point out that in "Vampire Academy" and his last two roles, "Council of Dads" and "Generation," he has played a gay dad with adopted children. However, none of the characters are the same.

"One is a vampire. One was sort of a stay-at-home Orange County dad. And the other one was a Southern ex-football player doctor," he said. "And so even with that, there is such variety. I think you can explore range and variety as an openly gay actor, so that's something that is important to me to talk about." 

In the new Peacock series, based on a book of the same name, Richards plays Victor Dashkov, an important royal vampire, and advisor to the Queen. Dashkov has two children, Mia (Mia Mckenna-Bruce) and Sonya Karo (Jonetta Kaiser).

The first four episodes of "Vampire Academy" are available now on Peacock.