That time The Pitt daddy Shawn Hatosy kissed boys in the 2000 biopic of bisexual writer Brendan Behan

It’s official: Shawn Hatosy is the internet’s new favorite daddy.

The 50-year-old actor’s been a handsome presence on our screens since the ’90s, but in the past year or so he’s broken through to a new level of appreciation, thanks especially to his turn as The Pitt‘s effortlessly cool Dr. Jack Abbott, the attending physician for the night shift in the hospital’s emergency department.

How about we take this to the next level?

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Outside of that role, which won him an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, Hatosy can also currently be seen in CBS procedural Fire Country, horror sequel Ready Or Not: Here I Come, and all over our social media feeds.

(Hatosy, for his part, likes to stoke the thirst online—often using the language of the internet to do so—and for that we’re grateful.)

This week, audio erotica app Quinn essentially solidified Hatosy’s “daddy du jour” status by tapping him to narrate their new fine dining-themed drama Yes, Chef. Like most of Quinn’s output, it’s unabashedly steamy, and the immersive story let’s the listener imagine themselves as the person Hatosy’s character is getting hot & heavy with. Pretty brilliant, no?

The Pitt star is the latest in a long line of stars hired to narrate for the app who have a real “crossover appeal” for straight and queer listeners, from Andrew Scott to Taylor Zakhar Perez to Heated Rivalry breakouts Connor Storrie & Hudson Williams.

Which made us wonder: What are the origins of Hatosy’s connection to LGBTQ+ audiences—you know, aside from being an unproblematic hunk—and has he ever played queer?

Well, for one, he was in the groundbreaking 1997 comedy In & Out, about a beloved teacher (Kevin Kline) who gets inadvertently outed by a former student. In its climactic scene, most of the town comes to his defense by saying they’re gay, too, in a total “I am Spartacus” moment, and it all starts with Hatosy’s teen character Jack (who isn’t actually gay, but it’s still fun to see a young Hatosy yell, “Excuse me, I’m gay!”).

Hatosy also has a dark turn in the 2003 biopic Soldier’s Girl, the story of Calpernia Addams, the trans woman who served in the military and lost her boyfriend to homophobic violence in the era of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”

But for a more nuanced, fleshed out queer performance from the actor, look no further than the 2000 drama Borstal Boy, based on a memoir from bisexual Irish writer Brendan Behan.

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That time Shawn Hatosy went bi for biopic Borstal Boy

An acclaimed playwright, novelist, and poet, Brendan Behan was not publicly out during his lifetime, though after he passed in 1964 due to drinking-related health complications, his sexuality was discussed more openly by academics and his own family.

But there were always signs, particularly the intimate connection he shared with a fellow inmate at a reform institution, which he detailed in his 1958 autobiographical novel Borstal Boy—a “borstal” being a specific kind of youth detention center common in the U.K. in the early 1900s.

The film brings this story to the screen with Hatosy in his first lead role as Brendan Behan, who we first meet as a teen volunteering for a dangerous IRA (Irish Republican Army) mission during WWII which brings him to Liverpool with sticks of dynamite strapped to his thighs.

When he’s caught, he’s sent to a remote borstal in England, forced to live alongside juvenile Englishmen, who he had considered his enemy. (Notably, the warden is played by Michael York, who famously starred as the bisexual Brian in Bob Fosse’s Cabaret!) However, he gradually comes to discover his passion for the arts while doing time, and grows to begrudgingly respect his peers, especially his openly gay fellow inmate Charlie (Eastenders‘ Danny Dyer).

Of course, there’s a homoeroticism inherent to the all-male borstal, especially as the guys while away the hours with a contact-heavy sport like rugby, but Brendan and Charlie have a special bond, one that deepens as they stage a production of The Importance Of Being Earnest—by queer writer Oscar Wilde, mind you!

Within the play, one of them plays a man and the other a woman, so the pair shared a number of quick kisses on the cheek which elicit laughs from the audience. However, afterwards, they steal a moment alone, and Brendan tells Charlie it “felt alright” when he kissed him because he “was someone else.”

“You don’t have to pretend to be anyone,” Charlie assures him, “you can just be yourself.” And that’s when the two actually share a romantic kiss—only to get interrupted by the arrival of the other guys.

Without spoiling too much more, circumstances pull them apart, but by the end of Borstal Boy its clear that the experience has changed Brendan Behan for good, an artistic & sexual awakening that would go on to inform his celebrated writing for years to come.

And while we’ll admit the film can feel a little staid, especially by today’s standards, Hatosy does a solid job of anchoring the narrative with his authentic, sensitive performance, even if he does have to put on an Irish accent the entire time!

But, hey, if you—like the rest of the world—have found yourself crushing on the internet’s current reigning daddy, then why not revisit this largely forgotten queer film about a celebrated bisexual writer for a chance to see Shawn Hatosy kissing another guy?

Borstal Boy is currently streaming on Kanopy, and is available for digital rental or purchase via Amazon Prime Video,

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