Joshua Rush, the 16-year-old actor who
plays teen Cyrus Goodman on Disney Channel's Andi Mack, talks
about playing Disney's first openly gay character.
Cyrus came out gay to his friends in
the show's second season premiere, which aired in October.
Andi Mack follows the lives of
13-year-old title character Andi (played by Peyton Elizabeth), her
family and her two best friends: Cyrus Goodman and Buffy Driscoll
(Sofia Wylie).
“I feel the pressure, and I also
don't,” Rush
told PEOPLE Now. “I think the most important thing for me when
I got this part was to do it right.”
“I knew that I wanted to do it
justice, because I knew that people were gonna end up seeing this and
being like, 'Wow that's me. I identify with that [and] I can be who
I am now.' But I also wanted to make sure that it's not
all-encompassing. Like that's not all of Cyrus' personality,” he
added.
(Related: One
Million Moms says Disney Channel's gay storyline robs tweens of their
innocence.)