Ohio.com – By Janice Rhoshalle Littlejohn – Associated Press
Leslie Jordan portrays drag queen on CW’s soap `Hidden Palms’
Los Angeles – “If there is anything that kids could walk away with it is that people who use drugs and alcohol are masking something,” said Leslie Jordan, who plays flamboyant A.A. sponsor Jesse Jo on the CW’s teen soap Hidden Palms.
“With me, it was my homosexuality. It was just easier to be gay when I was high. So I stayed high for 33 years,” he explained in his Chattanooga drawl. “It was recreational, then it just evolved… I don’t know when it went from recreational to medicinal, but that’s the line you cross where I needed a drink to get to a party, to be funny, to be me.”
Jordan, 52, who won an Emmy last year for his recurring bit as Megan Mullaly’s pretentious rival on Will & Grace, has tapped into his tumultuous past for Hidden Palms, which airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. He plays the local drag queen and confidant to troubled high-schooler Johnny Miller (The OC’s Taylor Handley), who’s struggling to stay sober.