Gay Actor Jonathan Groff Praised for Straight Role on Netflix's 'Mdhunter'

Contents:

• THIS MDHUNTER STAR SAYS THERE'S ONE MAJOR PERK TO PLAYG A STRAIGHT MAN AS A GAY ACTOR
• GAY ACTOR JONATHAN GROFF PRAISED FOR STRAIGHT ROLE ON NETFLIX'S MDHUNTER
• FROM THE ARCHIVWHAT’S THE GAYT NOT-GAY FILM YOUR PARENTS RENTED YOU FROM BLOCKBTER?YOU NEED HELP: GRAD SCHOOL KILLED YOUR SEX LIFENATALIE MORAL ON PLAYG A REVOLUTNARY BISEXUAL BARTENR ON “ABBY’S” AND SHARG THE STAGE WH SQUIRRELSLATT COMMENTS
• THIS MDHUNTER STAR SAYS THERE'S ONE MAJOR PERK TO PLAYG A STRAIGHT MAN AS A GAY ACTOR
• GAY ACTOR JONATHAN GROFF PRAISED FOR STRAIGHT ROLE ON NETFLIX'S MDHUNTER
• FROM THE ARCHIVWHAT’S THE GAYT NOT-GAY FILM YOUR PARENTS RENTED YOU FROM BLOCKBTER?YOU NEED HELP: GRAD SCHOOL KILLED YOUR SEX LIFENATALIE MORAL ON PLAYG A REVOLUTNARY BISEXUAL BARTENR ON “ABBY’S” AND SHARG THE STAGE WH SQUIRRELSLATT COMMENTS

THIS MDHUNTER STAR SAYS THERE'S ONE MAJOR PERK TO PLAYG A STRAIGHT MAN AS A GAY ACTOR

About a seri of murrs of young men mted by Dean Corll and assisted by Henley (who was some sort of homosexual thrall to Corll), Wendy tak pretty quickly to the Holn Ford school of improvisatn. But later, when the team is battg psychologil explanatns back and forth, some of the agents characterize homosexualy as a viance, and Wendy has to ph back on assumptns that were jt begng to bee outdated. Set 1979, the send season of Mdhunter  at a cur perd the long timele toward gay civil rights.

The Amerin Psychiatric Associatn had, until as recently as 1974, nsired homosexualy a mental disorr, and that would only be reflected the Associatn's Diagnostic and Statistil Manual of Mental Disorrs (DSM) a 1979 republishg. Watchg Wendy ph back agast Gregg, Tench, Ford, and their outdated opns on homosexualy, while matag her lm, clil meanor is yet another remr that Anna Torv is one of this show's great secret weapons. Bee he's openly gay, Groff nfsed to Out that he was worried about beg typest.

"Lookg was a huge al my evolutn as a person and as an actor bee ’s one thg to e out of the closet publicly, but ’s another thg to be so gay on TV, " he said. "I watched the Tab Hunter documentary on Netflix, about the 1950s actor who was gay and closeted and set up on dat wh Natalie Wood.

GAY ACTOR JONATHAN GROFF PRAISED FOR STRAIGHT ROLE ON NETFLIX'S MDHUNTER

Groff talked wh TV Insir and explaed why he was drawn to this darker world, whether he thks much about beg a gay man playg a straight character, and how he and his fellow actors kept thgs light on the very dark and ser set. It never even occurred to me, bee even on Lookg [the HBO gay-centric seri which Groff starred om 2014-16] we had straight guys playg gay guys, and gay guys playg straight guys.

I was havg sex onscreen wh people who were straight real life or gay real life, was so many different thgs and no one ever talked about the straight guys playg gay. Jonathan Groff is provg dienc will embrace openly gay actors playg sexually active heterosexual characters wh his much-praised role on Netflix's starrg as a gay man seekg romantic and reer fulfillment on HBO's acclaimed but short-lived Lookg, Groff is now gettg some of the bt reviews of his reer wh Mdhunter.

“It’s about murr and ’s gay, what do you MEAN you don’t watch Mdhunter? For some reason I had assumed I wouldn’t get to The Gay Stuff™ until Season Two, but here we were. She do s gay, at least.

FROM THE ARCHIVWHAT’S THE GAYT NOT-GAY FILM YOUR PARENTS RENTED YOU FROM BLOCKBTER?YOU NEED HELP: GRAD SCHOOL KILLED YOUR SEX LIFENATALIE MORAL ON PLAYG A REVOLUTNARY BISEXUAL BARTENR ON “ABBY’S” AND SHARG THE STAGE WH SQUIRRELSLATT COMMENTS

Kay mak her feel out of ntrol, like she’s on a big gay roller aster, and on one hand she lik but the most sred part of her always has one eye lookg for an ex. They had Wendy g her homosexualy (feels weird g that word now but would have been what they ed back then) to bond wh a subject, only to later let the men she worked wh assume they ma up. They never ed homophobia agast her, not really.

THIS MDHUNTER STAR SAYS THERE'S ONE MAJOR PERK TO PLAYG A STRAIGHT MAN AS A GAY ACTOR

Alongsi the upward trajectory of his reer, the Mdhunter star also ma headl after he me out as gay.

“When I did Lookg, I was playg a gay character on a set wh a lot of gay people. For stance, she did not actually make an official move to Quanti, she is a psychiatric nurse practner (not a psychologist), and she is not gay (she is married to a man, wh children, as reported by Pacific Standard). And now I'm gay, but I don't have that ep, like, drag sire anymore.

GAY ACTOR JONATHAN GROFF PRAISED FOR STRAIGHT ROLE ON NETFLIX'S MDHUNTER

He also starred the Broadway mil "Sprg Awakeng, " on the Fox TV seri "Glee" and the HBO seri "Lookg" about a group of gay iends. Like, Broadway seems to me like would be one of the most safe plac all of entertament to e out bee, I mean, like, historilly, there have been so many gay men, you know, on stage and behd the scen So did - were you not ready?

GROFF: Yeah, 's sort of - 's the plited - 's like this sort of y and yang a posive and negative about growg up for me was that I had this weird shame about beg gay that I mt have learned om my muny and om my parents and om my fay. So - but then jt, like, a uple of years ago or so, you were starrg the HBO seri "Lookg, " which is about a group of gay iends.

FROM THE ARCHIVWHAT’S THE GAYT NOT-GAY FILM YOUR PARENTS RENTED YOU FROM BLOCKBTER?YOU NEED HELP: GRAD SCHOOL KILLED YOUR SEX LIFENATALIE MORAL ON PLAYG A REVOLUTNARY BISEXUAL BARTENR ON “ABBY’S” AND SHARG THE STAGE WH SQUIRRELSLATT COMMENTS

So 's - mt have been so tertg for you to, after g out and, you know, wag a b to do , to be such a kd of totally gay (lghter).... I thought - and I did - you know, when the project ially me across my sk - or my laptop, I gus I should say - I don't have a sk - but, yeah, I thought, you know, 's one thg to e out as gay as an actor. It's one thg to e out as an actor, and then 's another thg to, you know, have anal sex on screen and talk about gay issu and all of - you know, be so gay on TV.

Will this really, you know, put a big G-A-Y stamped across the top of my forehead that I n only play gay rol for the rt of my life? That any kd of weird secury I had about playg gay on HBO, I jt kd of shelved and thought, you know what? And ultimately, what end up happeng for me - and 's one of my favore thgs I've worked on, the most personal thg I've worked on, one of the thgs I'm most proud of my life, was this also was so - was such - changed my life bee I got to live the world of gay inty and talkg about gay inty.

And kids my high school are out of the closet, which is unfathomable to so for me, gettg the opportuny to spend those three years exprsg myself as a gay man and kd of jt, like, livg that world and talkg about gay issu was tly life-alterg for me and ma me so much more fortable my own sk a way that I didn't anticipate when I said y to the Well, why don't we hear a scene om "Lookg"? "GROFF: I have to say, too, like, one of the thgs I loved about that - that's such a great scene to pick as a soundbe bee perfectly enpsulat the show bee 's tellg the story of a world which gay marriage is now legal. And 's also askg the qutns of, now that gay marriage is legal - 's the sort of low-key polil moments of "Lookg" where, do we have bachelor parti?