Zachary Quinto: 'I get more work since coming out the closet'

Zachary Quinto says that far from limiting his career options, he actually gets more work since coming out publicly.

The 38-year-old – who first publicly acknowledged he was gay back in 2011 – says that being open about his sexuality hasn’t hindered his acting career or the roles he gets cast in.

“I work more now than I ever did when I was in the closet,” he told The Telegraph, “and I’m doing a wider range and variety of roles than I ever did before I came out.”

He added: “I feel like that’s what I need to keep demanding of myself and what I need to keep demanding of the industry.”

The former Heroes star – who recently addressed his controversial remarks about the use of PrEP in the gay community – also spoke about his own lack of gay role models in Hollywood, and that despite the slowly growing number of openly gay A-listers, he still feels like he’s occupying a “unique” space in the industry.

“For me, personally, it’s interesting, because I looked around when I got Star Trek, and I said to myself, ‘Who could I look to for guidance for how to navigate this path that I’m on?’ And there wasn’t anybody,” he explained.

“I look around and say ‘OK, yes, there’s a lot of gay actors that are open, many more now than there were 10 years ago,’ but I still feel like I’m occupying kind of a unique space.”

After remaining quiet about his sexuality throughout his early career despite long-supporting various LGBT organisations, Quinto decided to come out publicly in October 2011, saying 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.”

Zachary Quinto: ‘I get more work since coming out the closet’

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