Glee actor Chris Colfer is baring all about what his love life looked like during the peak of his stardom in the late aughts and early 2010s.
The now 34-year-old first rose to fame when he was barely 19, playing one of the very few gay characters in a major role in television at the time. His portrayal of Kurt Hummel was life-changing for many as Glee developed into a global phenomenon and effectively changed the conversation around queer representation on screen. By 2011, Colfer had won a Golden Globe and been outed by a magazine before he had had a chance to really get to known himself.
“I wanted to be on a boat before I called myself a sailor,” the quick-witted star told The Queer Stuff Pod‘s Max Emerson in a recent episode. He wound up coming out on an episode of Chelsea Handler’s talk show, Chelsea Lately, but said that the magazine just assuming was “unfair,” adding, “I had no shame about [my sexual orientation], but I was young and still figuring things out.” He hadn’t even told his parents when he confessed it to Handler.
Though Colfer, who has since become a prolific author of children’s fiction, wasn’t allowed the privilege of coming out at his own pace, he says many of his dates at the time were deep in the closet. “This was back when like people tell you ‘Do not come out, it’s going to ruin your career’,” he explained, saying dating as a young famous gay person was “impossible.”
“Everyone was closeted for their careers,” he continued, quipping, “There wasn’t a very big pool to dip my toe in.” Colfer said he had “no choice” but to date people who were closeted, and some of them still are to this day.
“I’m still friends with them, but I do think it’s sad that they have fake relationships for their career,” he commented, stating, “To me, no career is worth that.” The actor-turned-novelist said he would “rather be the unicorn in the room than the elephant.”
However, Glee fans were very aware of the existence of these kinds of fake relationships and the prevalence of closeted people in show business. As a result, they projected those notions onto Colfer’s co-star Darren Criss, who played his on-screen boyfriend, but had a girlfriend in real life. Safe to say that all the conspiracy theories made dating in Hollywood even harder.
“They would see me in a picture with another gay person or suspect that I was dating somebody, and they would try to ruin their life,” Colfer explained, recalling a time when the family of his boyfriend of 12 years, artist Will Sherrod, received a box of hair in the mail. It came with “notes that’d say, ‘We know the truth. Stop lying. Let these two men be together.’ It was nuts.”
The speculation has obviously calmed down with time, as both Colfer and Criss’ stars dimmed just slightly (probably for the best). Now, the younger actor feels comfortable enough with the ordeal to attend his co-star’s Broadway musical and share the news with a selfie and a cheeky caption on socials. “Saw my ex in his new show,” he joked.
Though the photo still provoked a mild earthquake among the dwindling Glee fan base, it’s nothing compared to the tsunami it would have unleashed in the past. On the podcast episode, Colfer also reflected on how far things have come for gay actors in Hollywood: “We have A-list movie stars that are out of the closet, which is wonderful.” Well, Chris, a lot of that is thanks to you.
Published: Feb 26, 2025 01:53 pm