Is greg berlanti gay
“When I was in college, I was a theater major, and I wasn’t out” recalls Greg Berlanti about his own passage to self-acceptance. “I was surrounded by kids who were out and brave and courageous and I remember thinking, I wish I had their courage. But I was on my journey with it and I think that everyone has to show up out about their sexual identity on their own path.”
As we celebrate Parade month this June, it is crucial to take a closer look at those prominent people in the business industry who took creative risks to champion the more often than not misrepresented LGBTQ+ group. For the past 25 years, Berlanti has been at the forefront of ensuring inclusivity in the movies and television shows he creates; from that infamous Dawson’s Creek same-sex kiss to the heartbreak of friendship in The Broken Hearts Club, to a teenage gay romantic comedy in Love, Simon to gay superheroes in Doom Patrol and Batwoman.
“What I am the proudest of,” he told the HFPA back in 2018, “is telling stories of the human condition. It tends to be optimistic and warm, whether the person is in tights or a cape or a teenager in high school.” Recalling his own impressionable ch
There’s a good reason why Greg Berlanti hasn’t directed a film since the gay romantic comedy The Broken Hearts Club 10 years ago. He’s been engaged. Really busy.
The openly male lover television show creator, producer and writer has been overseeing a lot of projects for the small screen—Brothers & Sisters; Eli Stone; Dirty, Sexy Money; the revived Dawson’s Creek; and the brand-new No Ordinary Family. But Berlanti, who graduated from Northwestern, had always wanted to receive back to movies and in the next few years predict to see his name on several of them. In addition to directing the romantic comedy Life As We Know It, with Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel opening this weekend, Berlanti has written the forthcoming comic book blockbuster Green Lantern starring Ryan Reynolds and is now working on another one—an adaptation of The Flash. Relaxed and looking at least 10 years younger than his real age of 38, Berlanti recently sat down with Windy City Times for a lively chat.
Windy City Times: What made you say “yes” to coming advocate to directing with Life As We Know It?
Greg Berlanti: It felt like I was doing the same thing running on TV—whether it
Greg Berlanti, Husband Robbie Rogers Moved to Tears During L.A. LGBT Center Vanguard Awards
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A several years back, Robbie Rogers reached out to Greg Berlanti with an invite.
Their status at the time was firmly planted in the friend zone, and the activity — donating old clothes to the L.A. LGBT Center — was really more of a selfless chore and a pretty common one for casual buddies and the love, though it would, according to Berlanti, play a “small but pivotal role” in their affair . “He showed up with a little bag of clothes and proceeded to empty half of my closet,” Berlanti recalled from the Beverly Hilton’s International Ballroom stage Saturday night during the Center’s annual Vanguard Awards. “Not even my Justice League underwear made the cut.”
To be just, Rogers quipped, Berlanti had too many “oversized baggies and plaid shirts.” Despite their diverse fashion choices then and now — Rogers showed up to the event in a pale cerulean Prada suit with a geometric reproduce button-down while Berlanti joked he was wearing “TJ Maxx” — the two grew close, eventually became a couple, ha
Greg Berlanti recalls his moment at Northwestern with the fondest of memories: He enjoyed his independence, met some of his lifelong friends and simply loved school. There was just one aspect of his daily life that terrified him — he was gay.
More than 20 years later, Berlanti (Communication ’94) directed “Love, Simon,” the first movie from a major Hollywood studio to center on a homosexual high school romance. The film — based on young adult novel “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda” — features a teenage boy named Simon who, like Berlanti, is scared to say he is gay. Simon later falls in love with one of his classmates online and is forced to deal with a blackmailer who threatens to reveal his secret to the rest of the school.
Berlanti said his hold experiences at NU directly impacted the film. Although he described himself as a “happy kid” in college, being closeted at NU was a “scary time.” So, Berlanti said he tapped into that mixture of emotions and memories when working with the film’s writers.
“I would give (the writers) some small details from my life that they spun into gold with the dialogue an