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The night he attended the Tony Awards as a nominee, Jonathan Groff had secret boyfriend in attendance
Jonathan Groff may be one of the more famous openly gay actors around today but he was not always so open about his sexuality.
The star of HBO’s Looking recalled this week how he made his boyfriend sit in the back of Radio City Music Hall the year Groff attended The Tony Awards as a nominee for Spring Awakening.
‘I didn’t bring him as my date,’ Groff said while accepting an award from the Point Foundation Monday night.
Groff, now 30, had made a name for himself on Spring Awakening but was not ready to share with the world that he was gay at the age of 21.
‘Even though I was performing eight times a week in a show about the importance of self-expression and the danger of sexual repression, I kept my relationship with my “roommate” a secret,’ he told the crowd at at the New York Public Library.
‘I was still very scared and insecure about being gay. I did the stupidest things. And I went to great lengths to keep my cast and crew from asking me about my “roommate.” For example, I never had him come to the theater, and I never invited him out after the show.
‘Opening night was tricky because he was there, but I worked it out, so all the pictures that night were group shots, and I’m not even standing next to him.’
Groff came out publicly when he was 23 during the National Equality March in Washington.
H/T: Gold Derby
Comments
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Tim says:
No one would have cared at the Tony Awards.
K. Martinez says:
@Tim – It doesn’t matter if no one would’ve cared at the Tony Awards. Groff said he was scared and insecure about being gay. One has to feel comfortable within one’s own skin before they can come out as gay in a positive manner whether it’s in a supportive environment or not. I think he’s done pretty good with himself as an out and open man.
Cool Curt says:
I just find Jonathan to be such a cool guy and it’s pretty funny that his character on the soon to be defunct ‘LOOKING’ (which I’m praying doesn’t happen) is pretty like that, low-key with his sexuality and identity. I have to state that I think it’s AWESOME for him to even admit such a thing because most of us (at least I do) have our own out-but-not-out stories that are very similar.
It’s not uncommon to realize that most LGTBI people wasn’t always mature and would have the opportunity to actual grow into their true, authentic selves until later on in life.
At least that is the story I’m sticking too, even though there are people that I grew up with that could swear that I was the 1st gay person they every knew, even when I was out to anyone, including myself.
Most of my years, I would have swore I was hiding it well and it wasn’t a matter of being ashamed or embarrassed by being gay but I heard so many stories of other LGTBI people being thrown around and I wasn’t ready to handle all the opposition just yet.
I wasn’t really worried about anyone else but telling my MOM (Queen Bee) that I was GAY because I didn’t want her to find out 2nd hand or by someone who was trying to spread gossip.
I was hanging out at gay-friendly places and I really thought she knew, since I was the KING/QUEEN of all things gay. Before I even came out, Queen Bee and I were the first in line to buy Madonna’s ‘Sex Book’. I was doing her hair on a regular and I never talked about girls ever but I had a few male friends that I would randomly bring up and still she had no clue. Lets just say, ‘pictures tell a 1,000 different stories’ because I showed her one picture of one of my boyfriends and him and I were all snuggled up in a picture and that was all she wrote. Acceptance level about my sexuality then was about a 6 and now as a grown man and the fact that I have been single for some time it’s about 8 but LOVE for her gay son is about 1,000,000,000.