Last week, Quinton “Ramage” Jackson gave an interview to the Los Angeles Times where he declared several things: one, that “acting is kind of gay” and two, that Vancouver “strikes me as a San Francisco-kind of place”. So some people were calling Rampage a homophobe, although I tend to think he’s probably one of those dudes immersed in a culture (wrestling or fighting, whatever) in which it’s probably pretty common to declare something is “gay” as a put-down. I’m not saying that’s right or that it’s not offensive. But do we want to call it homophobia when it’s just cultural ignorance? Eh. It could go either way.

Anyway, Rampage took to his blog (he has a blog?) to defend himself, and in Pajiba’s words, “Some people (read: a faux-outraged media) got upset that a UFC fighter made a dumb gay crack, which forced Rampage Jackson to defend himself in a blog post, where he actually did make some real homophobic remarks.” Oohh, I’m reading it now… guess who else Rampage makes fun of all the time? “Fat girls.” He’s hitting all of the sweet spots, isn’t he?

I am a black man from Memphis Tennessee who grew up in the south where I faced discrimination my whole life. I know very well how it feels for someone to judge you for something you have no control over so having gone through that I know how it feels. I took a vow that I didn’t even have to say that I would never discriminate against anybody for anything other that how they treat me or others around them. So not only DO I NOT HATE gay people, I actually accept them for who and what they are. They always seem happy and most of them I met are very kind and nice individuals. Yes, and like most straight guys I joke around with the whole gay thing and I see it as comedy, not saying that’s right or wrong but I don’t do it out of hate. I don’t hate fat girls but I make fun of them too.

When I did that interview I didn’t even know I was being interviewed. I was on the set of shooting the movie the A Team and my friend that worked on the set brought the interviewer to my trailer. As he did so, he made fun of me for a poster that was made of me promoting a UFC event at my homegirls bar in Vancouver. The poster was a picture of me with a rainbow flag on the poster somewhere. This girl has been a friend of mine for 7 years and never used me as a meal ticket and if I would die for one friend it was nothing for me to help a friend promote business. So I offered to help promote her bar not knowing that the poster would make its way back to the set and I would be made fun of for going to a gay bar. But I have to say that I visited her bar several times before this event. Not only did I enjoy myself but I was relieved that the guys at this bar did not hound me once. No one offered to buy me a drink. Not once did anybody try to take pictures with me with their arms all around me or do the what I call the ‘prom date picture’.. taking a picture while holding your lower back.. which is my pet peeve by the way.

Honestly I mean this in the best way, me being a sports figure I attract a lot of male attention wherever I go and MOST straight fans act GAYER than any guys that was at this gay bar that I visited my homegirl at. When I’m in the club guys always offer to buy me drinks, do the prom date picture, stare at me, try to get my attention, tries to dance with me.. even if I’m dancing with a hot chick already. Even though I love ALL MY FANS, this can be overwhelming sometimes, especially when I’m trying to unwind and have fun which in my line of work you don’t get much time to do.

This being said, when I did this interview the interviewer witnessed my friend giving me shit and calling me gay. I was so embarrassed and didn’t want my ego tainted because I’m a big tough fighter. So yes, I got quite defensive and I’m known to be the best shit talker in my business and a fighter in all aspects in life. So I made fun of him back, calling him gay. Only reason why I got a bad report from it was because this guy who was making fun of me and has been my friend on set for about four months (time spent working on the movie) and was gay for real and the reporter being the type of guy he is chose to make THAT his story not knowing that the guy and I were only shit talking like we did everyday. OR DID HE KNOW WE WERE SH-T TALKING OR NOT AND JUST WANTED A HOT SCOOP?

[Rampage’s blog post, courtesy of Movieline]

Well, that cleared things up, didn’t it? Oh, right, it really just made things worse. If I’m getting his version right, he had a poster for a gay bar up in his trailer, and when his friend called him out on it, Rampage said – in front of the LAT reporter – that he wasn’t gay, he just goes to this one particular gay bar because the gay dudes don’t get up on him and he likes that, because his straight fans are usually a lot gayer than the gays. Oh, and something about a taint.

Header: Rampage at The A-Team premiere on June 3, 2010. Credit: WENN.

The promotional tour for The A-Team is starting to gear up, so expect to see some interviews with Bradley Cooper, Liam Neeson, Jessica Biel and this new star, Ultimate Fighter-turned-actor Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, who took on the role of Baracus made famous by Mr. T. The Los Angeles Times has an interview with Mr. Rampage (I don’t know what to call him), and as it turns out, the guy thinks his new profession is a little bit… “gay”. His words. Mr. Rampage is on such a hardcore Gay Watch that he even declares that Vancouver is a “San Francisco kind of place”. He’s like two seconds away from declaring a whole country gay, I swear. Here are the homoerotic outtakes (full LAT piece here):

A movie crew member had wandered in on this final day of principal photography and — whether jokingly or not — called the muscle-bound movie star a homophobic epithet. Jackson had responded with barely contained fury. He threw the guy out, shouting him down with every conceivable gay slur. “You’re a punk!” Jackson finally bellowed.

He claimed the crew member’s intent had been to provoke a physical assault. “That … wanted me to punch him so he could sue me,” the professional body-slammer explained.

“Acting is kind of gay,” Jackson said. “It makes you soft. You got all these people combing your hair and putting a coat over your shoulders when you’re cold. I don’t want a coat over my shoulders! I’m a tough-ass [individual]! Vancouver [where A-Team was filmed] strikes me as a San Francisco-kind of place. And I don’t want [individuals] getting ideas about me. I feel in my heart I’m the toughest [individual] on the planet. And I don’t want nothing changing my train of thought. If you don’t believe that when we step inside the octagon, it shows.”

“I’ve had the chance to do other movie roles before but I took the fights instead,” he said. “I was supposed to do ‘Transporter 2,’ ‘Wolverine.’ But I couldn’t do it because UFC was in the way.”

That all changed, though, when Jackson caught wind that writer-director John Singleton (“Boyz N the Hood”) was moving an “A-Team” adaptation toward production. “It was the whole reason I wanted to act,” Jackson said. The two took a meeting about 2 1/2 years ago but the project stalled. Enter writer-director Joe Carnahan (“Narc,” “Smokin’ Aces”) with a revamped “A-Team” screenplay. And on the heels of casting call No. 2, the Ultimate Fighter bested a Who’s Who of pop cultural heavyweights — rappers Common and Ice Cube and celebrated street brawler Kimbo Slice among them — to nab the role. “I was destined to play this part!” Jackson exclaimed.

Back in his trailer, with his UFC future still in doubt, Jackson left little mystery about the downside of movie stardom. He blamed the film’s assistant directors for keeping him on-set needlessly and railed against what he calls moviemaking’s hierarchy system.

“Here, there’s a thing called ‘pecking order,’ ” Jackson said. “I’m not used to that. People can be really inconsiderate of people’s feelings. I wasted three weekends in a row waiting in my trailer when they didn’t use me at all. To be honest, my experience in this movie industry hasn’t always been good.”

“I always thought from the beginning, if this movie is going to work, it’s going to rise and fall on the person playing B.A.,” Bradley Cooper said in Vancouver. “Mr. T was so iconic and so much a part of ‘The A-Team’ TV show — so much of what I think of when I think of ‘The A-Team’ — that whoever plays that, if you get it right, 80% of the movie’s already a success.”

So how’d Jackson do?

“In my opinion, he’s the best B.A. there could be,” Cooper said. “It feels like a real coming out moment for Rampage.”

[From The Los Angeles Times]

You know what I thought when I saw they quoted Bradley Cooper? “Oohh, I bet Bradley and Rampage did not get along AT ALL.” If Mr. Rampage is prepared to declare a whole city is gay (“Vancouver… the gayest city in all of Gay Canada” is a tagline I keep hearing), what’s stopping him from saying that about Bradley Cooper, a man who beeps on many people’s gaydars? For that matter, what’s stopping Mr. Rampage from declaring that Liam Neeson is a “little fruity” or something like that?

Here’s the latest trailer from The A-Team, by the way. Patrick Wilson is in it! I didn’t know that. Totally gay.

Header: Mr. Rampage on December 8, 2007. Credit: WENN.