Love, Victor review: A Hulu seri burned by whe gayns - Polygon

Contents:

• IS GEE SEAR GAY? WHO IS HE DATG?
• IS MICHAEL CIMO GAY? WHO IS HE DATG?
• ‘LOVE, VICTOR’ STAR SAYS GAY ROLE SPARKED HOMOPHOBIA OM HIS FAY, ATH THREATS
• HULU’S LOVE, VICTOR IS UGHT UP THE MYTHOLOGY OF WHE GAYNS
• LOVE, VICTOR PROV YOU DON'T NEED TO BE GAY TO PLAY GAY CHARACTERS
• 'LOVE, VICTOR': HULU'S GAY TEEN ROM- WAS DUMPED BY DISNEY+: WHY THAT SENDS THE WRONG MSAGE
• LOVE, VICTOR REP: THE PERFECT LEVEL OF GAY
• CAN ‘LOVE VICTOR’ FY THE STEREOTYP ABOUT GROWG UP GAY?
• ‘LOVE VICTOR’ STAR MICHAEL CIMO ON ANTI-GAY MENTS: ‘I DIDN'T EXPECT OM MY OWN FAY MEMBERS’
• GAY GAY
• WHY ‘LOVE, VICTOR’ STAR MICHAEL CIMO TOOK A GAY ROLE AGAST INDTRY ADVICE
• LOVE, VICTOR STAR MICHAEL CIMO SAYS HE'S RECEIVED ATH THREATS FOR PLAYG A GAY LEAD

IS GEE SEAR GAY? WHO IS HE DATG?

Gee Sear wonrfully says the role of Benji Campbell, Victor’s openly gay classmate and csh. Wh Gee portrayg a gay character such an outstandg way, fans wonr if the actor shar the same sexual inty real life.

Acrdg to The Guardian, Gee Sear is not gay. There have also been numero speculatns about Gee beg gay, pecially after his on-screen chemistry wh Michael Cimo, who plays Victor. Gee is also nsc of the issue surroundg straight actors beg st gay rol.

Read More: Is Michael Cimo Gay?

IS MICHAEL CIMO GAY? WHO IS HE DATG?

He beme one wh the character and played his part so perfectly that fans soon started wonrg if Michael is gay real life. Michael Cimo do not intify as a gay person. However, Michael has repeatedly mentned how exced he was to portray a gay person the show and how much work he put to thentite his performance.

In an terview wh People, Michael revealed that his gay played a signifint role gettg him ready for the show.

That was a really big drivg force for me, as well as I have a lot of iends that are gay. On the flip si, Michael found himself an ongog bate that argued whether the portrayal of gay characters should be rtricted to real-life gay actors.

‘LOVE, VICTOR’ STAR SAYS GAY ROLE SPARKED HOMOPHOBIA OM HIS FAY, ATH THREATS

Michael even mentned that numero people advised him agast playg a gay character for his first major role.

Michael wanted to eradite the stereotype and stigma agast gay rol and th took up the challenge to portray Victor.

Michael Cimo, the straight star of Hulu’s gay-themed g-of-age seri “Love, Victor, ” says he has been attacked by some the LGBTQ muny and even some of his own fay members.

HULU’S LOVE, VICTOR IS UGHT UP THE MYTHOLOGY OF WHE GAYNS

In a new terview wh Attu, Cimo — who plays the tular Victor — says: “I got some homophobic ments — I kd of expected that to happen. ”He add, “Some of them reached out, sayg, ‘You ed to be so ol; now you’re so gay. “It’s weird … [the Latx muny] is liberal when to thgs about Latos, but when to gay rights, ’s like, eh, qutn mark, ” Cimo said the terview.

LOVE, VICTOR PROV YOU DON'T NEED TO BE GAY TO PLAY GAY CHARACTERS

”In the Attu terview, Cimo said, “There’s nothg wrong wh beg gay. ’”Cimo has said multiple terviews that he has been warned agast takg gay rol for fear of typestg.

Meanwhile, the young actor has also faced fierce blowback for takg a role that an out gay actor might have played. “But there are some straight actors who play gay characters, who are all about supportg LGBT rights while they’re promotg their project, but once they’re done, a year later, ’s kd of fotten. ”Straight actors playg gay rol has been the subject of bate for some time, often hgg on Hollywood’s history of forcg gay actors to the closet real life and offerg only limed chanc to explore the humany of gay characters on-screen.

'LOVE, VICTOR': HULU'S GAY TEEN ROM- WAS DUMPED BY DISNEY+: WHY THAT SENDS THE WRONG MSAGE

Grant, who received an Osr nomatn for playg a gay character “Can You Ever Five Me?, ” said: “I’ve always had that ncern... The transgenr movement and the #MeToo movement means, how n you jtify heterosexual actors playg gay characters?

Criss, who has famoly played queer characters cludg Andrew Cunanan “The Assassatn of Gianni Versace: Amerin Crime Story” and Hedwig “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” onstage, said he wouldn’t take gay rol anymore, bee “I want to make sure I won’t be another straight boy takg a gay man’s role. One major issue I have wh “Love, Victor, ” and many other shows reprentg members the LGBTQ+ muny, is that Cimo himself is not gay, yet reprents a gay character.

LOVE, VICTOR REP: THE PERFECT LEVEL OF GAY

Acrdg to an terview wh People magaze, Cimo nsulted not only a gay relative but iends the LGBTQ+ muny to effectively perform the role, but this is only a ncsn of such an oversight. Specifilly, Victor's journey to disver his sexualy sets Love, Victor apart om Love, Simon a big the first few mut of Love, Simon, viewers learned the ma character, Simon, is gay, when the narratn allus to a csh he has on a garner.

CAN ‘LOVE VICTOR’ FY THE STEREOTYP ABOUT GROWG UP GAY?

Victor's story, however, begs when he's a sophomore, and unlike Simon, he don't yet know what is sexualy is. Unlike Simon, whose journey the movie was centered on his g-out, Victor's Season 1 story was about a cliffhanger of a Season 1 fale — Victor's parents tellg him they're separatg and him tellg them he's gay return — fans are hopeful this is jt the start of Victor's story, and that a Season 2 will follow up wh his next, Victor Season 1 is streamg now on Hulu. Victor is gog through a siar crisis of personal and sexual inty: Though movg to a new town suggts he will be ee to explore his attractn to men, the sual homophobia he experienc at school, at home wh his fay reelg om the move, and by his awkward only iend Felix (Anthony Turpel); the nontatns wh the popular bully on the basketball team Andrew (Mason Goodg), and the social prsure (mixed wh ternalized homophobia) to date a popular girl, Mia (Rachel Naomi Hilson), all make his g of queerns slightly msier than many on screen reprentatns.

But over the season, Victor and Simon velop a rrponnce over Instagram DM, turng the character om the first movie to a gay mentor for the trated, sred, and nfed Victor. Curly, by dog so, Love, Victor plit s own tentns regardg reprentatn, creatg and ntributg to a mythology of whe gayns.

‘LOVE VICTOR’ STAR MICHAEL CIMO ON ANTI-GAY MENTS: ‘I DIDN'T EXPECT OM MY OWN FAY MEMBERS’

The Homo Sapiens Agenda, ma: to simply state that was the first g out movie, or the first gay teen movie, or the first gay movie whout a tragic endg would be an erasure of the queer media that me before, like The Edge of Seventeen, But I’m a Cheerlear, and The Wise Kids.

It was the first major, stud-released gay teen movie, and one that was, for all s mers, subject to thoughtful and valid cricism regardg the sulary of s queer perspectiv: s wealthy, whe, mascule prentg lead (played by a straight actor) whose primary goal was to assure the (possibly straight) dience that he was jt like them. Ls “homo sapiens agenda”, and more “homonormative agenda”.

As he dol out advice on gettg ed to high school a new place, negotiatg nservative parents, and figurg out feelgs for a guy at school (Benji, also whe), Simon be one of the primary reference pots for Victor’s ia of gayns. Such a bar begs to alce to a potentially poisono polil project of homonormativy, an ial of queerns that still subscrib to systems and stutns that privilege whe, cisgenr, middle class, heterosexual prentg queer people at the expense of queer and trans people who are not afford the same liberti due to stutnal and systemic jtic (ed by scholar Lisa Duggan).

GAY GAY

Whe gays, whatever their ocsnal efulns, have long been cled to throw others unr the b. It may be a lot of untentnal baggage to slg around Love, Simon or Love, Victor, but given the plex history of creatn, distributn, and accs of the stori, ’s a necsary asterisk on the praise they receive (the film was ld for s portrayal of a gay youth) and cricisms they garner. But the voic rema subsumed to one person after the episo ends; Simon reverts back to a gay sage, and the acknowledgment of what his diverse roommat had to offer is fotten.

WHY ‘LOVE, VICTOR’ STAR MICHAEL CIMO TOOK A GAY ROLE AGAST INDTRY ADVICE

How easy is for whe gay people to fet the ntributn of other queers of lor. Love, Simon featur another character, ever so briefly, one whose prentatn of queerns was explicly dichotomized between Simon’s gayns.

Ethan (Clark Moore), an open, gay, Black femme character whose self-assurance and lived- performance pensated for their mimal screentime. Simon is sure, the film, to separate himself om Ethan and the kd of gay that danc to Whney Hoton, but — cue sentimental mic — the end, he learns om Ethan.

Simon adms himself that his and Victor’s experienc are almost fundamentally different, a tac self-awarens on the show’s part as far as the lim of whe gayns beg “one size fs all.

LOVE, VICTOR STAR MICHAEL CIMO SAYS HE'S RECEIVED ATH THREATS FOR PLAYG A GAY LEAD

” And while there’s sure to be difference of experience wh the other characters of lor (who I thk would be quicker to adm their own fallibily), image the sense of terry they uld have, a psychologil pth afford to them ls equently than their whe gay unterparts. If there were a queer of lor leadg Victor to a gay promised land, as were, at least there’d be an unrstandg that queerns exists beyond what’s whe ont of .