Zachary Quinto On ‘I Am Michael’: ‘It’s The Story Of Someone Who Realized That Maybe He Wasn’t Gay’

Zachary Quinto may be one of the most prominent out gay actors in Hollywood, but he hasn’t played gay for most of his major roles — save the first season of American Horror Story. Instead, Zachary has interpreted Spock in Star Trek, or Bloodyface in the second season of AHS — heterosexual roles that have put him right behind Neil Patrick Harris as the most recognizable gay actor in Hollywood.

Quinto now takes the screen for his most outspokenly gay role yet in his newest venture, I Am Michael, a project where he plays the romantic lead opposite James Franco. Romantic might be stretching the relationship between the two a little, as the film recounts the story of gay rights activist Michael Glatke’s renouncing of his previous work and becoming a vehemently anti-LGBT pastor, previously reported Inquisitr.

In the above interview with Slate, Zachary discusses what attracted him to the project in the first place, and what it was like to “finally tell a gay story.”

“I’ve never been a part of telling s tory that’s set in a gay world or around these characters, and I think it’s not really about an ex-gay actually. It’s complicated for me… the movie is not about sexuality or sexual orientation as much as the quest for self. To ask who we are collectively and individually.”

Furthermore, Zachary Quinto cautioned against many early expectations that the film is a hit piece on Glatke. Zachary instead says that the movie is sympathetic to his struggle, even if it does illustrate the damage he may have caused to people around him.

“People are going to want to go the movie to vilify him, and it won’t let you as audience member. It doesn’t really tell you how to feel about it… It tells you a story. It’s not about conversion therapy. It’s not about someone who didn’t want to be gay, but about someone who realized that maybe he wasn’t.”

You can catch Zachary Quinto in I Am Michael on the festival route or in theaters later this year. Not everyone, however, was loving its premiere at Sundance a few days ago. Both the Guardian and the Hollywood Reporter gave I Am Michael negative reviews, with the latter saying that Zachary’s “much buzzed-about threesome” with James Franco “ends in a rather anticlimactic tangle of manly legs.”

[Image via I Am Michael]