In an interview with LGBT glossy OUT,
actor Clark Moore discussed coming out.
Moore plays out and proud Ethan in the
film Love, Simon. The movie from out director Greg Berlanti
follows 17-year-old Simon (played by Nick Robinson) as he begins a
correspondence with another closeted teen.
Moore called Ethan a “fun kid” and
“arguably the smartest person in the room at any time.”
“But as a result of fully expressing
himself, he gets picked on a lot. So I think Simon is partially
afraid to come out because he sees these interactions Ethan is going
through,” Moore said.
When asked about his own coming out,
Moore said that he came out to supportive parents in junior high.
“I had a blessed high school
experience,” Moore
said. “I came out in junior high and was surrounded by friends
who loved me and my parents were very supportive and always made it
clear that they loved me first and foremost.”
“It’s still arguably one of the
hardest things that we, as gay people or LGBT people who are
marginalized or otherized, have to do in our entire lives. There’s
no way to explain that sheer terror that you’re filled with when
you’re in the closet. Then you come out and everyone’s looking at
you like you’ve changed. Even if they’re looking at you in a
supportive way, they’re still seeing you wholly and fully for the
first time. You have to make yourself really vulnerable to do it and
people that don’t go through that just don’t understand,” he
added.
Love, Simon is in theaters now.