Nick Robinson, the star of Love,
Simon, says his brother came out gay while he was shooting the
film.
In the film, the 22-year-old Robinson
plays 17-year-old Simon, who begins corresponding with another
closeted high school student. Love, Simon from out director
Greg Berlanti opens Friday, March 16.
During an appearance on Ellen
DeGeneres' daytime talk show to promote the movie, Robinson revealed
that his brother came out “around the same time we started
filming.”
When DeGeneres asked whether his
brother was inspired to come out by the film, Robinson answered that
he was uncertain.
“I’m not sure,” Robinson
said. “I think that he had been dealing with this for a long
time and this was – I think the timing was sort of coincidental.
But one of the best things that came out of this movies is just being
able to talk to him. I think that’s the strength of a film like
this is that it starts conversations, and I hope that it can do that
for more people.”
DeGeneres also asked whether Robinson
hesitated at playing a gay character.
“It was a conversation with Greg
[Berlanti], our director,” he answered. “We went back and forth.
We talked about it. With a project like this, and especially today,
there’s been so much progress in the last 20 years, a lot of which
is thanks to you and what you’ve done. If you hadn’t come out
when you did we might not be having this movie now.”
(Related: Keiynan
Lonsdale says he decided to come out while filming Love, Simon.)