"Did your people tell you 'Don't play a gay character, this is going to hurt you?'" asks Ellen.

"Yeah, I had no 'people,'" Phillippe deadpans back. "It was 1992; it was a pretty forward move for that show."

"It was huge," Ellen adds. "I'm telling you, if you had 'people,' they would have stopped you."

Starting out as a model, Phillippe says he did some commercials before he landed the role. Not realizing how groundbreaking it was at the time, Philippe talks about being moved by fan mail he received from gay teens and parents about the new visibility and encouragement his character offered to the show's viewers.

The following video clip is from NBC's Ellen DeGeneres Show, broadcast on March 27, 2008.