Straight Actor Darren Criss Says He’s ‘Culturally Queer’

Should we throw a party? Should we invite Natasha Lyonne? Glee alum Darren Criss, who sang like rent was due as gay character Blaine Anderson, identifies as a straight, cisgender man. But he still wants us to know that he’s connected to queer culture. “I have been so culturally queer my whole life,” he said at a recent panel at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. “I was gonna say not because I’m trying to be cool, but I’m gonna erase that, because I am trying to be cool. 90 percent of the things in my life that I have tried to emulate, learn from, and be inspired by [are] 100 percent queer as fuck.” Okay, so this is basically his way of praising the queer community. Criss went on to share that he grew up in San Francisco in the ‘90s and “watched men die,” seemingly referencing the AIDS epidemic. “There was an awareness of the gay experience that was not a foreign concept to me,” he said. “So it was a narrative that I cared deeply about.”

Criss spoke at length about how it was a “privilege” to play Blaine and portray his relationship with Kurt. He has played other gay characters, including Andrew Cunanan in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story and Hedwig in the Broadway musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. However, in 2018, he suggested to Bustle that he might be done taking queer parts. He explained at the time, “I want to make sure I won’t be another straight boy taking a gay man’s role.”

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