Fans of Scandal know Guillermo Díaz as torture-addicted Gladiator Huck, who’s been known to lick his colleague-turned-enemy-turned-lover Quinn (Katie Lowes) and do unspeakable things to her in parking garages. Nearly 20 years ago, though, Díaz was an emerging actor who’d just starred opposite Parker Posey in Party Girl and was looking for a breakout gig. Enter Stonewall.

Díaz booked his first leading role as La Miranda, a larger-than-life drag queen (and I’m not just talking about her hair), in Nigel Finch’s fictionalized account of the days leading up to the birth of the modern LGBT rights movement on June 28, 1969.