Portia De Rossi Worried About Lesbian Typecast

[Brian Damage]

Portia De Rossi almost turned down her latest role as a lesbian in Nip/Tuck because she doesn't want to become typecast as a homosexual. De Rossi only accepted the part as Joely Richardson's girlfriend on the program after her real-life lover Ellen DeGeneres persuaded her to play the "interesting" character.

She says, "My relationship with Ellen is so public, and I thought, 'Am I going to play a romantic lead again?' I had that one moment of, 'Does this mean I'll be typecast as a lesbian?' And Ellen turned to me and said, 'So what?' And I thought, 'Oh yeah, right, so what?' I was offered romantic lead roles, and I turned them down because the lesbian seemed more interesting to me."