Hollywood broadens horizons with gay ‘Love, Simon’ flick
I was talking to a friend of mine as I was trying to decide, ‘Do I do this? Is this movie going to work?. Jennifer Garner, actress
LOS ANGELES: At first it looks little different from any other teen drama, but Fox’s Love, Simon is as significant a milestone for LGBT inclusion as Black Panther was for racial diversity.
While the DVD aisles of superstores the world over groan under the weight of stories of callow first love, never before has a mainstream studio romantic comedy been told from the perspective of a gay teenager.
“Everyone, myself included, can relate to Simon and his journey, and trying to find yourself and come to terms with yourself in a way that feels comfortable,” the film’s 22-yearold star Nick Robinson said at a recent preview screening in Los Angeles.
Directed by Greg Berlanti ( The Flash, Supergirl) while he was on break from his various TV jobs last January, Love, Simon is based on Becky Albertalli’s young adult novel “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda”.
Robinson ( Jurassic World, Everything, Everything) plays Simon Spier, a high school senior in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, who hasn’t told his family or friends he’s gay.
Compounding his problems, Simon has fallen for “Blue”, a fellow closeted classmate he chats with online, although he has no idea of his paramour’s true identity.
Love, Simon figures among a number of coming- of- age gay movies released in recent months, including the Oscarwinning Call Me By Your Name and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, which scooped top prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
What makes it unique is that it is a wide-release, mainstream rom- com aimed as much at the Saturday afternoon shopping mall market as the indie- centric festival crowd or motion picture academy.
Josh Duhamel and Jennifer Garner play Simon’s loving parents, while his group of friends includes Katherine Langford, the star of buzzy Netflix drama 13 Reasons Why.
“I was talking to a friend of mine as I was trying to decide, ‘Do I do this? Is this movie going to work?’” Garner ( Dallas Buyers Club, Daredevil), 45, said at the screening.
“And he said, ‘You know, this movie would have been really helpful for me when I was growing up. This would have been a big deal for me.’”
Duhamel, who stars in the Transformers franchise and was in Berlanti’s last movie Life as We Know It ( 2010), has a fouryearold son with his ex-wife, the pop singer Fergie.
He said Love, Simon had made him think about how he would react if his boy came out as gay when he was older.
“I truly just want my kid to be happy and passionate about whatever it is he loves. And if he came out as gay, so be it.” — AFP