Zachary Quinto felt like a hypocrite for staying in the closet for so long
Zachary Quinto
The Boys in the Band star Zachary Quinto has said he felt like a “hypocrite” remaining in the closet earlier in his career.
The actor came out as gay in 2011 in a post on his website, several years after he was first propelled to fame through his roles on fantasy series Heroes and the Star Trek reboot films.
In an interview with Variety, Quinto explained he had experienced “explicit stigma” around being out in Hollywood earlier in his career.
Zachary Quinto: ‘The hypocrisy was too much to bear for me.’
He said: “I did feel like me coming out would have potentially had an impact on my career and it wouldn’t have been a good one.”
Of his decision to come out, he elaborated: “That was at a time when a lot of young gay kids were killing themselves around the country because of bullying. There was a huge spate of teen suicides that were happening.
“I just felt like I had an obligation at this point. Having enjoyed a certain level of success, I felt like the hypocrisy was too much to bear for me to be enjoying this life that I had created for myself and not acknowledging my identity as a gay man.
“I felt like it was actively harming a group of young people who the choice to come out could benefit.”
Jim Parsons as Michael and Zachary Quinto as Harold in The Boys in the Band. (Scott Everett White/Netflix)
The Boys in the Band star is excited to ‘amplify’ queer stories around the world.
Quinto is decidedly more out-and-proud in his latest role in The Boys in the Band, an adaptation of a 1968 play about a group of gay friends in New York City.
Executive produced by Ryan Murphy, the film features the same all-gay cast that starred in the recent Broadway revival, including Quinto, The Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons, Teen Wolf‘s Charlie Carver, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Robin de Jesús and Michael Benjamin Washington.
Quino said: “I was thinking about this the other day — how excited I am to be able to share this story and our version of this story with such a wider audience.
“I’ve encountered so many people since we did the play, either virtually or in person, who would say, ‘I’m so disappointed I wasn’t able to make it to New York’ or ‘I couldn’t see it on Broadway.’
“That we get to take this story and amplify it around the world now is really exciting.”
