Dustin Lance Black blames Hollywood agents, managers for stopping gay actors from coming out
By Ryan Love
Oscar winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black has blamed Hollywood agents and managers for encouraging young actors not to come out as gay.
The Milk screenwriter, who is in a relationship with British diver Tom Daley, was speaking at National Student Pride in London yesterday (February 28).
“The truth is there are tons of lesbian and gay actors in Hollywood. But for so many years now at agent level and management level there has been a lot of closeting going on,” he said.
“The studios are on our side, the producers are on our side but we hit the wall with agents and managers. They think somehow it is going to hurt their bottom line.”
Lance Black continued: “It is outdated thinking. Young actors are coming out now, there is no going back into the closet. So managers and agents will have to grow up and get a spine.”
Addressing the crowd, he was also critical of the lack of diversity, noting that Hollywood tends to focus on the stories of white gay men, instead of accurately reflecting the LGBT community.
“We write what we know. The issue right now in Hollywood is it is not representational. It is going to take diversity initiatives,” he said.
“It is going to take studios with balls to hire diverse writers so they can start writing what they know and we get more diverse stories.”
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