Zachary Quinto; Another Celebrity Comes Out As Gay!!
Zachary Quinto Comes Out As Gay In New York Magazine, Talks 'Margin Call,' 'Angels In America'
Zachary Quinto, inheritor of the iconic Mr. Spock role in JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" reboot and the star of the upcoming film "Margin Call," reveals that he is gay in a new profile in New York Magazine. The star, 34, credits his role in the Broadway play "Angels In America," in which he plays a gay man who leaves his AIDS-afflicted boyfriend, for helping to put him further in touch with the hopes felt and struggles faced by both gay and straight Americans, and discusses his political outlook for the rights movement.
Living in New York during the play's run, Quinto says the experience was both challenging and rewarding, and gave him a fresh perspective on the work that needs to be done in the fight for equality. On one hand, New York State legalized gay marriage; on the other, a gay teen committed suicide earlier this year because of unending bullying.
"As a gay man I look at that and say there’s a hopelessness that surrounds it," he says, "but as a human being I look at it and say ‘Why? Where’s this disparity coming from, and why can’t we as a culture and society dig deeper to examine that?’ We’re terrified of facing ourselves.”
Quinto has long been an advocate for gay rights -- he performed in a 2009 staging of "The Laramie Project: 10 Years Later" and appeared at a banquet for the cause that same weekend, and put out an "It Gets Better" video the next year. That often fed into speculation over his sexuality, as did the fact that he's played a number of gay roles, and is doing so again in his latest television show, "American Horror Story."
In an interview with the New York Times last year, he said he preferred discussion about his advocacy over personal matters.
“The fact that these things are such hot-button issues right now, socially and politically, I would much rather talk about that than talk about who I sleep with,” Quinto said. “I would love to be a voice in this maelstrom of chaos and obsessive celebrity infatuation that says, ‘Let’s talk about something that matters.’”
As Spock, he had a blossoming romance with Zoë Saldana's Uhra; he just appeared this fall as the ex-boyfriend of Anna Faris in "What's Your Number? "
For more, see below under cut or click here...
UPDATE:
Quinto posted a new blog on his website Sunday morning (see below or click here) to discuss why he decided to come out as a gay man.
"When I found out that Jamey Rodemeyer killed himself -- I felt deeply troubled," Quinto writes. "But when I found out that Jamey Rodemeyer had made an 'It Gets Better' video only months before taking his own life -- I felt indescribable despair."
Quinto, who also made an "It Gets Better" video (see below), says Rodemeyer's death made him decide to speak up in public.
"In light of Jamey's death -- it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it -- is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality. Our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay lesbian bisexual and transgendered citizen of this country."
He continues, "I believe in the power of intention to change the landscape of our society -- and it is my intention to live an authentic life of compassion and integrity and action."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/16/zachary-quinto-comes-out-gay_n_1013815.html
What’s Up, Spock?
He might be a famous Vulcan, but Zachary Quinto has no problem being fully human.
By Benjamin Wallace
Published Oct 16, 2011
Last year, when Zachary Quinto was starring in the Signature Theatre’s restaging of Angels in America, he would find himself at Cafe Mogador, near the place where he was staying in the East Village, imagining what it must have been like when, say, fifteen of the 40 people in the place were skeletal and dying. “Doing that play made me realize how lucky I was to be born when I was born and to not have to witness the decimation of an entire generation of amazingly talented and otherwise vital men.” He’s saying this on an Indian-summer morning at a café on West 12th Street, just a few blocks from another of that play’s touchstones, the now-shuttered St. Vincent’s Hospital-a place where many of those men died. Quinto, who had arrived in ambi-seasonal Silver Lake camouflage-brown wool cap, patterned T-shirt, dark jeans, New Balance trainers, ball-chain necklace, facial scruff, and aviator sunglasses-is in a reflective mood.
Physically, the actor is most recognizable for his boldface em-dash eyebrows, which have been supporting actors in the two roles for which he is best known, his soul-searching, high-fidelity rendition of Spock in J. J. Abrams’s high-velocity rendition of Star Trek and his breakout role as psychopathic killer Sylar in Heroes. In the past two years, Quinto, 34, has been demonstrating his breadth in a series of less Comic-Con-friendly roles. There was his acclaimed stint in Angels as conflicted but self-involved Louis Ironson, who abandons his AIDS-stricken boyfriend, Prior Walter. His role as intimacy-impaired vegan boyfriend to Anna Faris’s unlucky-in-love singleton in What’s Your Number? was less wrenching to watch.
Quinto seems to see himself in transition. He asks if he can record our conversation, for, he explains, “archival purposes … I just find that there’s something about looking back on interviews, whether for purposes of remembering what I said about something or if it’s for posterity when I’m 75 … I find that communication as an actor and person is an important part of who I am … and I’m really drawn into the psychology of those dynamics.”
For one thing, he’s willing to unambiguously talk about his sexual orientation. His eight-month role in Angels was both “the most challenging thing I’ve ever done as an actor and the most rewarding” he says. Having to inhabit that terrible lost world, if only in his mind, took a toll. “And at the same time, as a gay man, it made me feel like there’s still so much work to be done, and there’s still so many things that need to be looked at and addressed.”
Quinto has played a series of gay roles, including on Tori Spelling’s TV show So NoTORIous, and on the new FX series American Horror Story, where he plays the kinky dead owner of the haunted house, and has been outspoken about gay-rights issues. Last year, the Times, in profiling him for Angels, noted that “the blogosphere is rife with speculation about his sexuality” but that “he prefers not to feed the rumor mill with either substantiation or dismissal.” That has changed. A little while later in our conversation, speaking of the cultural bipolarity that can see gay marriage legalized in New York in the same year that yet another gay teenager, Jamey Rodemeyer, was bullied and killed himself, Quinto says, “And again, as a gay man I look at that and say there’s a hopelessness that surrounds it, but as a human being I look at it and say ‘Why? Where’s this disparity coming from, and why can’t we as a culture and society dig deeper to examine that?’ We’re terrified of facing ourselves.”
Quinto, who lives in L.A., came to town to promote his film Margin Call, a financial-crisis thriller in which he co-stars alongside Kevin Spacey, Stanley Tucci, and Jeremy Irons and the first feature for his production company, Before the Door Pictures, formed with two school friends from Carnegie Mellon University. With hundreds of protesters camped out in Zuccotti Park under the banner Occupy Wall Street, “the timing couldn’t be more impeccable for us to try to create a dialogue, which is exactly why we made the movie in the first place,” he says between bites of an omelette.
As a producer of Margin Call, which wrapped just two days before Angels began rehearsals, Quinto had a hand in everything from casting to raising the $3 million needed to make the independent film. “But my assertion has always been that if you’re going to make a movie about the financial crisis, you should do it in a fiscally responsible way, so I’m glad our budget was low.” For the seventeen-day shoot last June, the cast and crew took over the entire 42nd floor of One Penn Plaza, near Madison Square Garden, which had recently been vacated by a trading firm. To get ready for his role as Peter, a laconically intense young risk analyst who is the first to spot the rot that could bring down the massively overleveraged Wall Street bank where he works, Quinto spent time with analysts at Citibank, observing their work but also spending time with them outside the office. “It allowed me to see the humanity of their job, the ways in which their jobs affect all aspects of their lives. It was a valuable insight to me to see how rigorous that life can be, but also how alienating and lonely.”
While here for the premiere, he’s hoping to go visit the Wall Street protesters (his Margin co-star Penn Badgley has been photographed there). “As a left-leaning Democrat, I feel a sense of resonance with their position,” he says. “But as a citizen of this country, I feel deeply unsettled that people are rising up in movements against each other. It feels like we’re missing the mark … The bottom line is we’re all fucked, and we’re all in this together.” And in fact, though a screening of the movie in Zuccotti Park might seem like a no-brainer, one of the film’s achievements is its avoidance of facile moralizing. “I don’t know that it would satisfy the people down there,” Quinto says. “The point of this movie is not to judge or to vilify or to place blame on any one company or individual. It’s really to examine the emotional impact that the decisions these people had to make along the way had on them.”
http://nymag.com/movies/features/zachary-quinto-2011-10/
From Zac Quinto's blog...
10.16.11. nyc...
By zachary quinto on October 16, 2011 8:26 AM
when i found out that jamey rodemeyer killed himself - i felt deeply troubled. but when i found out that jamey rodemeyer had made an it gets better video only months before taking his own life - i felt indescribable despair. i also made an it gets better video last year - in the wake of the senseless and tragic gay teen suicides that were sweeping the nation at the time. but in light of jamey's death - it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it - is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality. our society needs to recognize the unstoppable momentum toward unequivocal civil equality for every gay lesbian bisexual and transgendered citizen of this country. gay kids need to stop killing themselves because they are made to feel worthless by cruel and relentless bullying. parents need to teach their children principles of respect and acceptance. we are witnessing an enormous shift of collective consciousness throughout the world. we are at the precipice of great transformation within our culture and government. i believe in the power of intention to change the landscape of our society - and it is my intention to live an authentic life of compassion and integrity and action. jamey rodemeyer's life changed mine. and while his death only makes me wish that i had done this sooner - i am eternally grateful to him for being the catalyst for change within me. now i can only hope to serve as the same catalyst for even one other person in this world. that - i believe - is all that we can ask of ourselves and of each other.
zq.
http://www.zacharyquinto.com/news/2011/10/post.html
Thank you Zachary! Thank you so much! With you and Sean Maher coming out ( see my post here), we have two more steps on the path for the equality of all GLTB people.
Namasté