Originally Published: 2003-07-20

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Though Filippo's character is no longer on the show, his role on QAF has definitely garnered him a following, and sometimes from the most unlikely of places. Young girls have approached him and told him how much they and their mothers love the show and his character.
But the role that has resulted in a slew of devoted new fans and a ton of fan Web sites began in an unlikely way. Filippo wasn't particularly interested in doing the show at first and he refused to audition. But with time he decided that he was just the guy to play the new love interest who comes between Brian and Justin, QAF's answer to Luke and Laura.
"I was very confident that I was the guy for the role," Filippo says. "I knew I could do it."
And the legion of fickle and devoted QAF fans received him with open arms, as did the show's tight-knit cast and crew.
"All of those people are incredible people. That show is filled with people who are really trying to make something special," Filippo says.
So how did a straight Italian-Canadian son and only child tell his Calabrese mother that he was going to do some very erotic stuff on TV?
Filippo, the consummate actor, explains how it went through a dialogue in which he also takes the role of his mother, complete with a broken English accent.
"Ma, I'm doing a show. It's a gay show. I'm playing a gay guy."
"Oh, that's OK."
"And there's sex."
"What?!"
"I'm going to be kissing guys. I'm going to be doing that kind of stuff."
"Oh my God but why? Why you gonna do this?"
"Because it's a good show. Ma, it's going to shock people and people are going to notice when you shock them."
"OK. I think maybe that's nice."
"And by the way, Ma, I'm buying a house."
"Oh!!! That's OK!"
Indeed, QAF gave Filippo a certain amount of financial freedom to buy a Victorian home in downtown Toronto, something the actor hadn't expected to be able to do for decades.
"When you do this work you make the decision that you're probably going to spend a lot of your life not having the kind of stuff that accountants and doctors have," Filippo says. "I love it. I feel accomplished."

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