Straight Actor Darren Criss Says He’s ‘Culturally Queer’

Need to we toss a bash? Ought to we invite Natasha Lyonne? Glee alum Darren Criss, who sang like rent was thanks as gay character Blaine Anderson, identifies as a straight, cisgender male. But he still wishes us to know that he’s linked to queer society. “I have been so culturally queer my whole lifestyle,” he said at a current panel at the Chicago Comedian & Entertainment Expo. “I was gonna say not since I’m striving to be amazing, but I’m gonna erase that, due to the fact I am making an attempt to be great. 90 per cent of the factors in my daily life that I have tried to emulate, learn from, and be impressed by [are] 100 p.c queer as fuck.” Ok, so this is essentially his way of praising the queer group. Criss went on to share that he grew up in San Francisco in the ‘90s and “watched adult males die,” seemingly referencing the AIDS epidemic. “There was an recognition of the gay practical experience that was not a foreign concept to me,” he mentioned. “So it was a narrative that I cared deeply about.”

Criss spoke at size about how it was a “privilege” to participate in Blaine and portray his partnership with Kurt. He has played other homosexual characters, which include Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Tale and Hedwig in the Broadway musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. However, in 2018, he recommended to Bustle that he may well be done taking queer elements. He discussed at the time, “I want to make absolutely sure I won’t be an additional straight boy taking a homosexual man’s role.”