Zachary Quinto To Play Gay Icon Gore Vidal In 'Best Of Enemies'

Out actor Zachary Quinto will play author Gore Vidal in the West End production of Best of Enemies.

The play, which opens November 14 at the Noel Coward Theatre in London, was inspired by ten debates between conservative author and columnist William F. Buckley and Vidal during the 1968 Republican and Democratic Party conventions.

Buckley was the founder of the National Review and the host of Firing Line for 33 years.

Speaking with UK glossy Attitude, Quinto (Star Trek, American Horror Story) talked about his admiration for Vidal and the state of LGBTQ rights in the United States.

“The character of Gore Vidal is really exciting,” Quinto said. “He was not only an intellectual titan, but he was also a gay icon in the sense of how open he was about his authentic self and how unapologetic he was about his gay identity. I find his position on sexuality, in general, to be incredibly fascinating, so he as a character was really appealing to me. Then what the play represents in terms of how resonant it is to our political landscape today means there’s something incredibly vital about it.”

Vidal was “absolutely ahead of his time,” Quinto said. “He never backed down from acknowledging and accepting his identity as a gay man.”

“[He] famously said 'It’s as natural to be homosexual as it is to be heterosexual.' I find that belief really empowering. I think he did believe in a spectrum of sexuality but I wonder how much of that was actually a reflection of the social time he lived in. His beliefs contracted and expanded and changed over time, as all our beliefs do over the course of our lives, but he had this fundamental acceptance of who he was. He knew very clearly what his place was in the world and it was pretty amazing in 1968 to have somebody so uncompromising. He said ‘I don’t care if America is ready, I’m ready.'” Quinto said.

On LGBTQ rights, Quinto said that he was most concerned about transgender rights.

“We have to be incredibly vigilant and the anti-trans movement, especially when it has to do with young people in schools, is something that I’m hyper-aware of and interested in fighting against,” he said. “We have to make sure we protect those young kids. That’s always the thing I have my mind on the most because I think the most vulnerable group in our community is the one that needs the most attention and the most advocacy. I’m always interested in keeping an eye on those battles. I think everywhere we turn right now we have to be on guard, pushing and fighting for advancement and integration as much as we possibly can.”