Jason Russell, the activist who
directed KONY 2012, was asked by Oprah Winfrey whether he's
gay.
According to its creators, the ambition
behind KONY 2012 was to make Uganda warlord Joseph Kony famous
“to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for
international justice.”
The film's monumental success raised
questions over its creators' motivations.
Ten days after the film's release in
March, Russell was detained by San Diego police officers after he was
found in various states of undress and screaming incoherently in
public.
Russell told Oprah that the extreme
media pressure had “broken” him.
Oprah asked about gay rumors.
“That you were running in the streets
nude because you were gay?” Oprah asked.
“Well in the video, I'm snapping my
finger up and down. … And I grew up in theater. My parents started
a large children's theater organization. So, I am, you know,
animated. I am ...”
“Theatrical,” Oprah suggested.
“Theatrical. And that's me by
nature. So when you take me, times it by ten … I don't know what
was in my head, but it was controlling my body. And making my body
do really strange things,” he said without actually denying the
rumors. (The video is embedded on this page. Visit
our video library for more videos.)