Zachary Quinto Comes Out; Must See Margin Call

My hero:

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.

Apparently the statement above comes on the heels of this in New York Magazine:

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.

Jamey Rodemeyer a 14-year old from Buffalo, NY, died by suicide in September.

“I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens,” he wrote on Sept. 9, a week before taking his life. “What do I have to do so people will listen to me?”

Quinto, who lives in L.A., is in New York doing publicity for the new movie, Margin Call, which recounts 24 hours in the life of an unnamed firm facing a Lehman-like crisis. From David Edelstein’s review:

No matter what you think of the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters – and I’m not here as a political pundit so I can’t talk to them directly – I hope you’ll agree they deserve some R&R, maybe even “movie night.”

Have I got the movie: J.C. Chandor’s terrific Wall Street nail-biter, “Margin Call”…[Kevin] Spacey gives a major performance, and Quinto, Tucci, Simon Baker, and even Demi Moore are amazingly convincing. And seeing the world for a couple of hours through the eyes of Wall Street’s minions will give those protesters a better idea of just how scary – and how human – what they’re up against really is.

Margin Call opens Friday. The trailer: