‘Breaking Bad’ and ‘The Bridge’ star comes out as gay
By Josh Haggis
Breaking Bad
actress Emily Rios has come out as gay.
Rios, 25, played the role of recovering addict Andrea on the critically-acclaimed drugs drama that came to an end last year. She now stars as gay character Adriana Mendez on another US drama series, The Bridge.
“I’m gay, personally, so being Mexican and a lesbian – this is why I love the character because I deal with the same type of things with my own family,” Rios said in an interview with AfterEllen.com.
Discussing how her family reacted when she told them she was gay, the actress said: “It just took a year for ‘Hey it’s not a phase, this is really happening’. And then they get comfortable with it. So it was a little bit more extreme, but the Mexicans are very family-oriented. It’s all about the love so they’re very supportive.”
The actress also revealed that she regularly liaises with The Bridge‘s executive producer, Elwood Reid, to make sure the depiction of her character’s sexuality on the show is accurate.
“I try to tell [the writers], ‘Listen, this is not how it happens. We are not this way’,” she explained. “They have an idea, or they want to have an idea of what really happens behind the scenes. And I’m like ‘No!’ So he loved that. Elwood, I came out to him and I was like, ‘Look, feel free if you have any questions, I don’t ever want it to be this’ and he’s like ‘Neither do I! It doesn’t matter.’ ‘OK great!’ It worked out wonderful.”
The Bridge, an adaptation of the Danish-Swedish series of the same name, follows two police detectives – one Mexican, one American – on their joint effort to investigate a serial killer with victims along the Texas–Chihuahua border.
Season two of The Bridge is currently airing on cable network FX in the US. There is no word of a UK air date yet.
Related stories:
> Watch son tell mum he’s gay in Italy’s first coming out advert
> Watch married dad’s touching coming out video