Chris Colfer: Gay ‘Glee’ romance was never groundbreaking
Glee star Chris Colfer has said he doesn’t consider his character’s romance to be “groundbreaking”.
The musical show ended in the US this week after six seasons, with Colfer’s character tying the knot with long-term love interest Blaine (Darren Criss) prior to the final episodes.
However, Colfer told Entertainment Weekly that although their relationship is often cited as an example of the show’s diversity, he doesn’t consider the pair’s relationship to be groundbreaking.
He said: “I feel like everyone has tried to get me to say that ‘Klaine’ or Kurt and Blaine is groundbreaking, but I’ve never thought of them as groundbreaking because there have been so many famous gay couples and famous gay weddings in the past and I feel like it would be very ignorant for me to say ‘Oh yes, they’re a groundbreaking couple’.
“What I think is groundbreaking has been the response to the couple.
“I remember when I first started being an actor and I first started Glee, I was told on many occasions ‘Well it’s too bad that you’re gay because you’ll never get the young female following’… and boy was that proved wrong!”
He added: “Personally, when I found out that I got cast as the gay character on Glee, I had thought my career was going to be over because at the time, it was such a taboo for an actor of any age to play a gay character, and now you look and there are multiple gay characters on every single show.
“Bringing the struggle of kids that were bullied – I was bullied terribly in high school. I never thought the world would form a campaign to stop it.
“I never thought that voice would ever be heard. I’m so lucky and proud that I got to be one of those for a while.”
