Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky confided in screen ‘mum’ John Travolta before dropping her iconic coming out video
Former Hairspray star Nikki Blonsky (Walter McBride/WireImage)
Nikki Blonsky has revealed she came out to John Travolta, who played her mother in Hairspray, before she released her coming out video.
The actress, best known for her breakthrough role as Tracy Turnblad in 2007’s Hairspray, came out as gay earlier this week in an incredible TikTok video – lip-syncing to “I’m Coming Out” by Diana Ross.
The actress wrote: “Hi, it’s Nikki Blonsky from the movie – I’m gay!”
Nikki Blonsky: LGBT+ community ‘welcomed me with open arms’.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Blonsky said of the moment: ” I’ve never been a person that likes to do anything really [quietly] so, I was like, if I’m going to come out, I’m going to say it, you know?”
She added: “The LGBT+ community has embraced me since the moment I got Hairspray. They welcomed me with open arms and I felt so a part of the community already. For me, it was a long time coming.”
Blonsky said she has had hundreds of warm responses, adding: “I was most nervous about my Hairspray family… I didn’t want them to think I was keeping something from them. I wasn’t ready at the time to put it all out there.”
Actress Nikki Blonsky (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images for 2019 Nantucket Film Festival )
She added: “Hearing from Adam [Shankman] and from Brittany [Snow] and people who I think so incredibly highly of, it means more than they will ever know.”
Hairspray star had a ‘lovely conversation’ with John Travolta before coming out.
Asked if she had been in touch with her screen mother John Travolta, who played Edna Turnblad in the film, she said: “I have. I did not want the person who played my mother to have to find out about this from anybody else.
“I felt the need to tell him myself so I texted him and we had a lovely conversation. I love him with all my heart. I couldn’t have been more honoured to have played his daughter. He is one of the finest human beings you’re ever going to meet.”
Blonsky also weighed in on body image issues in the gay community.
She said: “I’ve always said… Our bodies are going to change. We’re all going to get old. We’re going to be remembered for our hearts, the good we did in the world and the difference we made in people’s lives.
“For me, no matter what shape, size, sexuality, ethnicity, you deserve to be loved and respected as a human being. Plus-sized women, myself included, we deserve to be loved and if we want to do that in short shorts, we will be in short shorts.
“It’s all about every body living their truths and being authentically themselves. If you believe in love, you should believe in love for all people. Weight, for me, is something that I’ve obviously dealt with my entire life but it has never defined me.”
