Actor Chris Pine: ‘I thought it was rad’ that Zachary Quinto came out as gay
Actor Chris Pine, who plays Jim Kirk in the new Star Trek film franchise, has spoken out to commend his co-star Zachary Quinto for coming out as and when he did, saying he had nothing but respect for him.
In an interview with Out Magazine, Chris Pine commended his, Star Trek: Into Darkness, co-star Zachary Quinto for coming out as gay in 2011, and said that he knew Quinto was gay when they first started working together.
He said that he only had respect for Quinto for coming out. He said: “I thought it was rad. It was really, really cool. He did it on his own time, on his own schedule.”
“It was just who Zach was and that’s that. I’m sensitive, and I don’t ever want to make anyone feel uncomfortable. Knowing that, for Zach, it was more about a career thing and that he was not comfortable at the time coming out – it was fine.”
Pine did go on to say that he and his colleagues on the cast of Star Trek were relieved when Quinto came out, as none of them had wanted to inadvertently out him before he was ready. He said: “It was something that we kind of tiptoed around.”
Before making his decision to come out, Quinto had been actively working with the Trevor Project, the It Gets Better initiative, and other pro-equality charities, but he said he felt that coming out had enhanced his work with these groups.
After coming out he wrote on his blog that the suicide of gay 14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer had spurred him to be open, and on coming out, he said: “I had been thinking about it all the time for a while, just sort of peripherally.”
