Drop Dead Gorgeous

Image credit: Six Feet Under: Tracy Bennett

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Six Feet Under

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Do your kids ever visit you on the set of ''Six Feet,'' or is it just too scary for them?
They're 7 and 3 1/2, but they're jaded. It's, oh well, there's a dead body. Where's craft services?

Growing up in inner-city Chicago as the son of Puerto Rican immigrants, how difficult was it for you to break into acting?
When I was a kid, except for wanting to be a jockey in second grade, I didn't really have an idea about what I wanted to do. But the Whirlwind Performance Company would audition kids who didn't have access to the arts to find raw talent, and I got accepted. I can honestly say I had an epiphany at 13 years old, because I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. By the time I was 17, I was on a TV show, doing choreography and dancing, and I was in a theater company. Because I was so busy, I started doing really badly in school, though.

How did your parents feel about your career?
They couldn't really fathom the thought of it. They don't really know English, so they're very deeply rooted in the Puerto Rican culture, and we were poor, blue-collar. There were many heated fights with my father, trust me. I remember being 14, 15 years old and taking the el train to auditions alone and having these stage moms yelling at their kids, then looking at me like, ''Where the hell's your mother?'' Now it's great, because even though my parents are retired now, they were the coolest people in their workplaces after ''Six Feet'' went on the air. It's so funny, because all of my family members have become celebrities in their neighborhoods, while I live in total anonymity.

Surely you have some fans who've approached you?
Sometimes at the supermarket, people will come up to me really pissed, asking, ''Why aren't you a partner?'' One guy at the car wash last year scared the crap out of me because he was VERY serious about the show. But it's rewarding to me, because I feel like I must be doing my job for them to be so emotionally invested. I mean, Steven Spielberg has called Alan three times to tell him ''Six Feet'' is his favorite show. He's planning on coming down to the set.

As one of the few high profile Latin American TV actors, how do you feel about the way Latinos are portrayed?
What's great about Federico is that he's a real person, and his role has nothing to do with his ethnicity. I was watching this Latin-themed cola commercial the other day, and everyone in it was dancing and drinking and wearing these flowery shirts. Not to say there isn't some truth to that, but that's the only perception a lot of people will ever have of our culture. For years we've only seen thugs or drug dealers or people who talk like theees. I'd like to think Federico is part of a pioneering effort to move past that.