Zachary Quinto Says There’s Still Tremendous Fear Around Gay Men In Hollywood

Zachary Quinto says  “There’s still a tremendous amount of fear around particularly openly gay men in our industry,” in a new interview in The Independent. 

He goes on to say, “There is this long-held and stubborn belief that to identify as an openly gay man on some level means you’re inherently less masculine, inherently less believable as a straight character. There are still actors who believe their careers are better served by not acknowledging their authentic selves. That’s their prerogative, but I think we’re part of a movement that is unstoppable.”

The Star Trek star is currently playing legendary gay icon Gore Vidal in the play Best of Enemies at the Noël Coward Theatre on Broadway.

Quinto came out back in 2011, following the suicide of gay teenager Jamey Rodemeyer, he framed the decision as a moral and political one, writing on his blog that “living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it” was “simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead”. A little over a decade later, some things have changed, Quinto suggests; there has been an “incredible explosion of visibility” for LGBT+ representation in media, “particularly in the trans community.”

Heroes was Quinto’s mainstream breakthrough. While the series never really recovered from the turbulence of the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike during its second season, it was, for a while, must-watch entertainment. It was also prescient: within a few years of its premiere, superhero fiction had metastasised into a full-blown global obsession. “Heroes was the last of a generation of huge American network shows that had an international impact,” Quinto muses. “Now we’re so used to streaming shows… I think Heroes was the last of its kind in some ways.”

The immediate success of Heroes likely played a role in securing Quinto his first film role, taking over the mantle of Leonard Nimoy’s Spock in the 2009 Star Trek reboot. Between Spock and Sylar, Quinto has proved himself expert at inhabiting a certain type of man: intelligent, emotionally closed off, with a ruthless, robotic air. “There’s obviously something about me that lends itself to that kind of a role,” he says. “I think I have an ability sometimes to hold my experience in a way that’s internal. And I don’t necessarily always feel the need to give things away.”

Read the full story here.