In a recent interview, out actor Jeremy
Pope discussed losing a role because of his sexuality.
Pope, 30, earned a Golden Globe
nomination for his performance in The Inspection. The movie is
based on writer and director Elegance Bratton's real-life experiences
facing homophobia at home and in the Marines.
Pope is also known for playing a gay
screenwriter in Netflix's Hollywood.
Speaking with Variety ahead of
Tuesday's Golden Globe ceremony, Pope said that he was three days
from beginning shooting on a major movie when the director let him go
because he's gay.
“The short version is: I’d been
given an opportunity to lead a studio film. And even though I didn’t
love the script, it meant something,” he said. “But it was one of
those things that would get me in the conversations, get me in front
of directors and people at studios. As people know, that is currency
and helps where the comma on your check goes and the opportunities
you’re given.”
“But I got into an interesting
conversation with the director where he basically said I didn’t
have the ability to connect with a female character because I was
gay,” Pope continued. “In the moment, I was negotiating how to
defend myself. But at the end of the day, that spoke so much more to
where he was at and his journey in life versus who I am or what I
know I bring to a project.”
“So I had to say ‘eff that energy’
because it’s going to take too much from me. And literally in that
same breath of knowing that don’t serve me is when the phone rang
and it was ‘A24 wants to have this conversation about The
Inspection,'” he
said.
Pope plays bisexual American artist
Jean-Michel Basquiat in the upcoming film The Collaboration.