Noah Galvin, who plays 16-year-old
Kenny O'Neal on the upcoming ABC sitcom The Real O'Neals, says
his coming out was very different from that of his character.
The show revolves around a
picture-perfect family that is turned upside down when Kenny comes
out gay.
At the show's Television Critics
Association (TCA) panel on Saturday, Galvin was asked what he thinks
the response will be to a gay teen coming out on prime time network
television.
“There is a very clear distinction
between how young people view the show as opposed to older people,
who [may] have gone through this,” he answered.
“I'm gay myself and I haven't gone
through a lot of the things that Kenny goes through in the series,”
Galvin,
21, added.
In an interview with The New York
Times, Todd Holland, an executive producer on the series, said
that he wanted a gay actor to play the role of Kenny.
“As a gay man, this is a landmark
role on network television,” he
said. “It should not be played by a straight man pretending to
be gay.”
The Real O'Neals is loosely
based on the life of gay activist and author Dan Savage, whose
participation in the project led conservative groups to launch an
unsuccessful campaign to convince ABC to drop the show.
(Related: Conservatives
ask ABC, Disney to kill Dan Savage-inspired sitcom.)
The Real O'Neals premieres
Wednesday, March 2.