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Leslie Jordan
Veteran actor Leslie Jordan has tons of amazing stories, but few are as wild as the one he whipped out last night on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen. During the After Show, Jordan was asked about sharing a jail cell with Robert Downey Jr. in the late 1990s, and he proceeded to tell a rambling, bizarre story about their brief encounter. The Will & Grace star explained that Downey Jr.’s indiscretions actually got him sprung early, as the jail desperately needed a bed for the future Iron Man. And to think, he could’ve been placed in the “Homo Tank,” instead.
At the end of Tuesday night’s WWHL After Show, Jordan was asked about his run-in with Downey Jr. at the Los Angeles County Jail. “Please tell us the story about the night you and Robert Downey Jr. were stuck in the same jail cell together,” said Cohen, reading a fan question. “Well, I’ll give the truncated version,” said Jordan with a laugh. Clearly, “truncated” means something different for Leslie Jordan.
Jordan explained that in 1997, he was sentenced to 120 days in prison “for several indiscretions [he’d] really rather not describe right now.” The actor said that as a result, he hasn’t “had a drink since,” and his pledge of sobriety actually influenced his light sentence. “I could’ve gone for like a year for everything I did,” he said. “It was that serious.”
“I was told by my lawyer, ‘Ask for the Homo Tank the minute you get there. Because you won’t survive on the main line,'” continued Jordan. However, when the prison refused to put him in the “gay section,” he balked. “I said, ‘I’m the gayest man here! I fell out of the womb and landed in my mother’s high heels. Why can you not put me?'” he recalled. “They said, ‘It’s just kind of dangerous up there.'”
Eventually, Jordan was put in “an area called the Softie — the Softie Tank.” He expected to remain there for 120 days, but just 12 days into his sentence, the guards came to him with a message. “They said, ‘We’ve got good news: you’re out,'” he told Cohen. “‘But we don’t have a bed for Robert Downey Jr. He’s downstairs. You have to give him your bed.'”
Jordan admitted that he didn’t actually spend the night in jail with Downey Jr., as the fan question suggested. “We were in a little holding area. I didn’t really get to converse with him at all,” he said. Regardless, the two actors will always share something special: “152, Pod A, Cell 13, top bunk.” A lovely memory!
Watch Leslie Jordan recall his bonkers Robert Downey Jr. jail story in the clip above.
