Actor Joey Pollari says in a new
interview that being openly gay hasn't affected his career.
Pollari plays Lyle 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.
Speaking to UK glossy Attitude,
Pollari, who has previously said that he came out to his family and
friends five years ago at the age of 18, said that he's not worried
about being open about his sexuality in Hollywood.
“No, I’m not too worried about it,”
Pollari said. “I don’t feel that it’s affected me. You know,
maybe talk to me in five or ten years and I’ll have a different
answer, but no. I think the problems are there, but I think a lot of
the quote unquote ‘problems’ I’ve run into have been more
self-imposed. Even let’s say hypothetically the industry does make
it harder [for me], some of that for me – and I can only speak from
my own personal experience – is self-imposed. I know a lot of
people who’ve made incredible, incredible careers being out and
playing all kinds of sexualities. The problem is there, I don’t
want to be misunderstood – there’s definitely people being out
and not being hired because of that. And we all have to face that
struggle. But I think we’re seeing more and more now, especially in
this era of making our own content, authenticity and individuality
are becoming a commodity more and more. We’re really celebrating
people who are brave enough to come out and have the careers they
desire. I don’t mean to underplay the difficulty that remains
there, but in my own personal experience some of that difficulty has
been self-imposed.”
“What do you mean by self-imposed?”
he was asked.
“That I’m a gay man and I can’t
play straight roles. That’s the biggest one. I just don’t think
it’s true whatsoever. It’s ridiculous that we think sexuality is
the defining thing that we cannot break out of. You know, when I
played a rapist I did not need to have that experience to have that
understanding! It’s an old idea and a pervasive one in our culture
that our sexuality is rigid or that because I’m gay I don’t know
what it’s like to be straight or vice versa. I mean, lots of
straight actors have played gay roles brilliantly, there’s no
argument about that. And it goes both ways. The acting thing, I go
through it not with one part of me but with all parts of me: the gay
guy from Minnesota; the parents that I have; the things I saw and
experienced; it’s too wide a range to say ‘oh you’re gay, you
can’t play a straight role,'” he
explained.