Many things shaped my identity as a young boy: a strong selfworth (something that was instilled in all three Barrowman siblings by our parents), my immersion in theatre and music, and my DNA. I was born gay. It's not a choice I – or anyone else who is gay – made. If it were, why on earth would anyone choose to be part of a minority, part of a group that in so many cultures and countries, even in the twenty-first century, is regularly blasphemed, hounded and worse?

I'm lively when I perform and I always put everything into a show, but when I get home I love lying down in front of the TV and relaxing.

I think my biggest appeal for fans is probably the fact that I'm honest. I'm up front about who I am. I'm a little naughty. I have a naughty side and everybody knows that. But I know when to use that and when not to.

We get the scripts before the table read, but I don't look at them until we go into the table read. I don't want to know, when I'm playing a moment in the current episode, what's going to happen because it might change how I'm playing that.

I did archery when I was in high school. In our gym class we had two weeks of archery and I remember taking the bow and arrow and firing it up and across the street into a car parking lot.

What I can say that's different in American television… in Britain, they wouldn't cancel something after a couple of episodes. In the States they would. They would just decide it's not working, take it off and put something else in on the fall schedule.

I have a real passion for driving. Earlier on in my life I wanted to be a race car driver. But I don't pay an extortionate amount of money for cars. I'm pretty frugal.