Fantastic Beasts star Ezra Miller ‘never considered hiding sexuality’
By Will Stroude
Ezra Miller became the first openly queer man to front a superhero film when he took on The Flash in Suicide Squad earlier this year – and in a new interview with the Metro, the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them star admits he never considered hiding his sexuality to aid his burgeoning Hollywood career.
Asked if he had ever hidden his sexuality to “get ahead”, Miller, who identifies as queer, replied: “I never thought about hiding anything about myself.”
The 24-year-old went on: “When I was around 14, I was obsessed with Hunter S. Thompson. I must’ve seen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas 500 times.
“Hunter created this public persona called Raoul Duke who was very different from himself and it tortured him… So I never wanted to set up a public persona who was different from who I was.
“Maybe it sounds cheesy, but I just wanted to realise my true self.”
Miller, who plays troubled and mysterious character Credence in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter spin-off – released today in the UK – also shared his fears about Trump’s election victory, and where he believes progress still needs to be made for LGBT+ representation in films.
“There’s still a lot of homophobia and what we’re really confronting now is transphobia,” he said. “Donald Trump was just elected. We are not out of the woods in terms of bigotry and hate.”
He added: “We’re not seeing a lot of queer or trans people of colour in films – everything is still incredibly whitewashed”.
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