It should be no shock that the LGBTQ Center will be honoring Ross Mathews at their upcoming Black & White Ball. After all, Mathews earned a name for himself in late night television by doing nothing more than doing just that: being himself.
“Let’s get one thing out there: nothing I have ever done is a character,” Mathews said. “Everything I do is me and that’s it. I am unapologetically giddy, I am unapologetically excited to be here, and I am unapologetic.”
A self-described “practical risk-taker,” Mathews was not someone who walked into the annals of television becoming a manager before having to wash the floors: hailing from the small Washington town of Mount Vernon, he did the lowly work of an intern while hustling for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. It was his exuberant personality—for those who haven’t seen “Ross the Intern,” just check him out invading a Nascar training camp—that ended up being the conduit that gave Mathews the chance of a lifetime when Leno turned him into a correspondent.
“I love where I grew up but the most fabulous place we ever went to was called The Tavern. Or Walmart,” Mathews said. “But I wanted something more glamorous and beautiful—of course, the funny thing being that when you do move here, everything glamorous and beautiful is right next a tavern and Walmart.”
Packing his bags just after graduating high school, Mathews hustled down to SoCal to achieve what many on the outside want: the stars-and-lights of Hollywood. With those dreams in mind, Mathews admitted that watching television and living in rurality never provided him meaning for what it meant to be successful and mature.
“For me, Hollywood and pop culture was this Fantasyland that I couldn’t believe was actually tangible,” Mathews said, “and that is why I was so fascinated by it: I wanted to be them, I wanted to know them.”
LaLaLand was other-worldly for him initially but as his platform grew, so did his ambition and the aforementioned “unapologetic” approach to being himself. Mathews understands the power of image—the same ones he was inundated with as a child while staring at the tube, including one of his most influential icons, Rosie O’Donnell—and how a gay man owning himself on television could very well inspire and outright alter the minds of youths who may be second-guessing whether they should express themselves fully.
{loadposition latestlgbt}“I gotta lot of shit for that—for being me,” Mathews said. “And not just from the bullies who called me ‘fag’ or whatever—but from the gay community early on as well. They would tell me that I am ‘too loud’ and I am ‘setting the movement back.’ My thing is this: if some parents are sitting in Little Town Whatever and they see me and say, ‘I think that guy is funny, I think he is cool,’ well… They might just accept their kid a bit more.”
The honoring of Mathews comes as a double-winner: not only is the man young (and very humble about being honored for anything), but it also marks the reinvigoration of the LGBTQ Center’s gala that has been dark since 2008. The metaphor of owning one’s self becomes two-fold—and this isn’t to mention that should Mathews purchase another home, he admits it would be in Long Beach.
“There was a point I realized that you can either be yourself and take that risk or you can water it down,” Mathews said. “If I watered it down, I would have never been here.”
Tickets to the event are $125 each and are available now on The Center’s website, www.centerlb.org, or in person at the front desk of The Center at 2017 East 4th Street. The event will take place on March 15 at The Grand, located at 4101 E. Willow.
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