Kenny Ortega talks Ryan Evans
The director of the High School Musical franchise Kenny Ortega has revealed the character Ryan Evans is gay.
He made the revelation during a chat with Variety this week.
The openly gay director admitted there's a queer aesthetic that runs through all his movies.
He explained, 'I put a lot of who I am into my work.'
'I mean, really all the way back from the earliest work that I’ve done, even as a choreographer in film and television.'
'And I think, yeah, that it’s just there, and whether it’s screaming at you, or whether it’s just sort of quietly there, it’s there.'
High School Musical
Kenny used Lucas Grabeel's High School Musical character Ryan Evans as an example of this.
He said, 'We decided he's probably going to come out in college.'
'It was less about coming out and just more about letting his true colours come forward.'
Kenny was asked if he thinks it would have been possible to make High School Musical with Ryan as an openly gay character.
The director admitted, 'I have to be honest with you. I didn’t think at the time.'
'And Disney is the most progressive group of people I’ve ever worked with,' he added.
'I was concerned because it was family and kids, that Disney might not be ready to cross that line and move into that territory yet.'
'So, I just took it upon myself to make choices that I felt that those who were watching would grab.'
'They would see it, they would feel it, they would know it and they would identify with it. And that is what happened,' he concluded.
Meanwhile, High School Musical lead actor Zac Efron has a new Netflix series out later this month.
Read more here.
