While the broad cultural impact of the new gay teen comedy Love, Simon may take a while to come into focus, you need not look further than the film’s production itself to begin to see positive change.
Just last week, 23-year-old Joey Pollari, who plays Lyle in the film, got candid about his recent coming out experience, explaining that “[Love, Simon’s main character’s] experience was similar to mine.”
Related: Former Disney star and ‘Love, Simon’ actor comes out as gay
Then Nick Robison, who plays Simon, spoke to Ellen about how making the movie opened up a path for his brother to come out.
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Now we’re hearing about a third coming out associated with the film.
Keiynan Lonsdale plays school jock Abraham Greenfeld, a.k.a. Bram, and has revealed that he came out to the cast and crew of the film at the wrap party.
‘Timing is a very funny thing,” he said in a recent interview with HuffPost. “I never imagined, especially as I was going through my own issues, that I would get to play this character in a queer love story.”
He added that the overall experience “gave me a kick to reflect and think about how I wanted to deal with my internalized shame.”
He explained more to TeenVogue:
“I wasn’t out during filming. I’ve been out to my friends for a couple years, but I was still in the closet publicly.
Related: “Flash” star proudly comes out as bisexual
“So when I came to the set I was really nervous sharing that with anyone; I didn’t share it until the wrap day. And that was an issue for me.”
But the circumstances of working on the project did not escape him. “I’m on a LGBT film,” he remembers reasoning with himself. “There’s a gay director, everyone is so supportive. I couldn’t be in a better environment.”
After much internal debate, he reached a moment of clarity.
“Once I realized that not only was it possible, but it’s important, and this is better for my sanity, that’s when I was able to make that shift.”
After that it was only a matter of time until he was broadcasting his truth to the world:
Related: “Love, Simon” star Nick Robison’s brother came out while the film was in production:
Kangol
Huh? Queerty has run a number of articles on Keiynan Lonsdale (very happy he’s out–he’s talented and handsome) being publicly out already? You wrote about him coming out as proudly bisexual last May 2017. Then there were articles about him coming out on October 11 and 24, 2017. Did his entire cast really not know he was out? What am I missing?
Kangol
Or is it that the filming all occurred well before he came out and Queerty wrote about it last year? The timeline’s a little unclear because of the headline and all the prior articles on here, but I get it now.
alfred
Yes, he came out almost a year ago. But this is all promo for the new film….you cant move without seeing this guy’s face and his ‘story’. Its all rehashed info.
DCguy
The cast party would have happend when the movie wrapped, that could have been a year before the movie came out.
MacAdvisor
“This ‘Love, Simon’ star came out at the film’s wrap party”
Mr. Lonsdale was not a star of *Love, Simon.* He isn’t even a lead. A star is someone whose name appears above or before the title.
chris_clb614
No one appeared before or above the title in the opening credits of “Love, Simon”. And by your limited definition of star, both Jennifer Garner and Josh Duhamel aren’t stars either- you know, actors who’ve have been in TV and movies since the 1990’s.
projo
Why are so many male actors coming out as “bisexual” and not gay? EVERY single self-professed bisexual guy I ever met went on to spend the rest of his years strictly dating men. I used to listen to Dr. Drew’s radio show for years and he would say that while women can truly be bisexual b/c they are sexually fluid its very rare that a man can be. Guys are pretty much one or the other. I agree. Also, coming out as bisexual is usually just done as a more palatable way to say “I’m gay and like men” and kind of a cop out.
Kieran
I’m not buying that bisexuality is only found in women and not men. More women are likely to admit bisexuality than men, but that’s only because of the negative stereotypes attached to male homosexuality. Thankfully, that is changing…..slowly.
Donston
Orientation can be and often is more diverse than simply straight or gay. In fact, I’d argue that most people, including most men, have some degree of bisexuality or “fluidity” within their attractions, arousals, passions, sexual enjoyment and/or romantic instincts. It’s just that having substantial and sustained desire, passion and romantic feelings towards cis men and women is rare, especially for guys. There are usually a lot of contradictions or you lean pretty well towards a certain direction.
I will admit that people still have the tendency of hiding behind identity and lifestyle instead of being upfront about the dimensions of themselves. If we’re gonna embrace that the spectrum is very wide and can be very complex then it turns identity into something more about sociology and less about truly revealing yourself. Many guys in particular still seem embarrassed by, depressed by and frustrated by the world knowing that the entirety or majority of their desires, sexual satisfactions, romantic passions and romantic satisfactions are towards the same gender. So, many still do use experimenting, being “open-minded” or bisexuality to shield that they’re gay or “mostly gay”. There still hasn’t been a ton of progress when it comes to legit, bare openness. But at least less people are staying completely closeted and at least we’re having more discussions about the complexities of orientation.
mdac99
Well Dr. Drew should be the definitive answer on this conundrum.
whitakerk861
The Janet Jackson key earring didn’t work in the 80’s. No need to repeat it.
Kieran
This young man has the courage to come out and that’s all you have to say? Something snarky about his earring?
Armiya
@whitakerk861 that you’d remember and be a pri*k about it, speaks volumes. Someone must be balding…
skeldare
Love this guy