Actor Andrew Rannels, who came upon all our radar when he starred on Broadway in The Book of Mormon and played gay on two episodes of the hit HBO series Girls has officially come out of the closet.
While interviewing for Vulture, the actor talked candidly about his sexuality when discussing his role as Elijah, the gay college ex-boyfriend of Hannah on Girls and his role as Justin Bartha's partner on The New Normal:
I am gay in real life, so I definitely get it. But it’s not my story — I wasn’t closeted for any amount of time. I never had a girlfriend who I had that experience with. It’s less that Elijah knew he was gay and continued to date Hannah anyway and more that he wasn’t ready to admit to himself that he was gay. I think that’s probably the more common thing, particularly with young homosexuals. Coming out can be super super complicated, especially when it comes to families and friends —and if you already have a girlfriend, what does that mean for her? I hope that changes over time, but coming is very personal and everybody obviously has to do it in their own time. So, no, I don’t think he did anything bad.
Vulture follows up the convo by asking Rannells if he feels a special investment in gay characters he plays?
Well, there’s a part of me that would say I treat every character in the same way — to be as honest as possible with every role. But then, as a gay man, I think there’s a responsibility to show a fully realized person, so even though Elijah might not be the the best person in the world, I want to make him as fully fleshed out and human as possible. Because chances are he’s gonna represent somebody who’s a real person. With The New Normal, I feel even a larger responsibility because it’s sort of a new idea for a lot of viewers and Americans, to see Justin Bartha and I play this very much in love couple who just wants to have a baby. We’re telling that story for the first time, in a way, for a lot of people, so I think there’s a lot of responsibility there.
Like Zachary Quinto, Jim Parsons, Matt Bomer, Sean Hayes, Kevin Spacey, Jodie Foster, and Queen Latifah to name a few, you'd have to be pretty slow to not see that Andrew is gay. This may come across as bizarre to some and a little hard to explain, but it's not always in the mannerisms that you can tell. Sometimes people have what I like to call gay face. Gay face is a particular look to you where you look gay. I believe this is the first time I've heard Andrew talk about his sexuality, and there seems to be a trend in actors casually coming out in interviews or on their blogs without calling People for a magazine cover.
I just read Entertainment Weekly when they were interviewing the actors in (upcoming stripper film) Magic Mike and Matt Bomer casually mentioned his partner Simon when the reporter asked them how their significant others felt about them exposing their bits in the movie. I actually like thie new way of coming out, because at the end of the day living your truth should not be a big deal.
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