Teen Wolf star Charlie Carver: I’d quit acting if I couldn’t come out as gay
Desperate Housewives and Teen Wolf star Charlie Carver has said that he would have quit acting if he wasn’t able to publicly come out as gay.
Carver, who played Porter Scavo in Desperate Housewives and Ethan in Teen Wolf, came out as gay in a series of posts on Instagram in January 2016.
“I didn’t really give a f**k at that point because, for me, not that I was living under duress, but I’d said to myself if I can’t do this when I’m young, I’m not sure I wanna stay in this business,” Carver told the June issue of Attitude about his decision to come out publicly.
“I think the world is changing, representation is changing, and I wanted to be a part of that and I wouldn’t wanna be in this business if I couldn’t be a part of that.”
In the interview, Carver also opened up about the impact of learning at the age of 12 that his father Robert Mortensen was gay.
“In the way that sons and fathers can have beef regardless of [sexual] orientation, it was just something where I wanted to be able to define myself, set my own rules,” he said.
“I felt like I had all of a sudden someone who I was gonna be forced to become, and I didn’t wanna be like him.”
He added: “I think he taught me, in the way that he lived his life, that your sexuality doesn’t define you. It’s an important part of who you are, but he had such a rich life.
“I think because I was frustrated by what I would call some of his own internalised shame, that it almost became this challenge to really get to the bottom of that quickly, for me.”
Carver continued: “It kind of propelled me into being louder and brasher and more experimental. And I think that hurt his feelings sometimes, but I think he was also grateful.”
A year after he came out, Carver spoke about his decision in an extensive interview with Entertainment Tonight.
He explained that he had come out to his family at the age of 17 and added that he “wanted to feel I was in a place where I could work comfortably and where I felt like I had something to say”.
Carver continued: “Part of my decision to come out was because I was ready to take on that conversation in a more public forum.”
In 2015, Carver starred opposite James Franco in biopic I Am Michael, which told the story of gay activist Michael Glatze who renounced homosexuality and becomes a Christian pastor.
Carver played Tyler, a man who became romantically involved with Glatze.
(Images exclusively for Attitude by Leigh Kiely)
