Michael Johnston was playing gay characters on screen before he’d fully come out, and the “Obsession” star says those roles changed how he saw himself.
The 30-year-old actor appeared on the cover of Attitude’s new issue in early October. In that interview he looked back at playing Corey Bryant on MTV’s “Teen Wolf” and the lead in the indie film “Slash,” Just Jared reported Oct. 7.
“And of course, of course, I’m playing these gay roles… and I wasn’t really out yet,” he said.
“But playing those roles early on definitely helped me to accept and to change my view on my sexuality. I used to think it was a weakness, and now I think it’s a strength because it’s just made me more empathetic,” Johnston said.
Michael Johnston’s Southern Baptist Childhood in North Carolina
Johnston grew up in a Southern Baptist family in North Carolina. He said he knew he was attracted to men by about age 11 or 12.
“It was the worst possible thing that could ever happen to me because all I had learned in church was that being gay was the worst thing that you could be, that you’d go straight to hell,” he said.
He’s talked about the timing before. In an August video interview with Cosmopolitan, he said “Teen Wolf” landed right as he was coming out to himself and then to the people close to him, TheWrap reported. Back home, he told his family the gay storyline was “not real.”
“And then I had that crazy aunt who’s like, ‘It’s gonna poison you.’ And now she’s like, ‘Aha! See!’ I’m just like, oh my god,” he told Cosmopolitan.
Corey Bryant on ‘Teen Wolf’ and Neil in ‘Slash’
Johnston joined “Teen Wolf” in 2015. Corey, a gay student who could turn invisible, dated Mason Hewitt, played by Khylin Rhambo, over the show’s last two seasons.
The next year he starred in Clay Liford’s “Slash” as Neil, a 15-year-old who writes male-on-male fan fiction and is still working out his sexuality, NPR’s review noted.
He said he wasn’t comfortable with his sexuality during “Teen Wolf.” Fans wrote to him anyway. “I got thousands of messages from people thanking me and telling me how they feel better about themselves. They were able to come out to their parents,” he recalled, Deadline reported in July.
Michael Johnston’s Next Queer Role and ‘The Mummy’
In Curry Barker’s horror hit “Obsession,” Johnston plays Bear, a straight guy whose wish for his crush to love him goes very wrong. The film had passed $400 million worldwide by July 6, TheWrap reported. Asked by Cosmopolitan what Bear taught him, Johnston said, “Just that I’m glad I’m not heterosexual.” Gayety covered Johnston and co-star Inde Navarrette when the film opened in May.
His next goal is a queer lead. “There will be a really incredible queer story in my future, and I’m so excited to play it and to have my steamy moment,” he said in the October cover interview, Deadline reported.
He hasn’t named the project, a director or a release date.
On Tommy DiDario’s “I’ve Never Said This Before” podcast in July, he said “growing up in the Bible Belt can be problematic for a gay boy.” He added that he’s “looking forward to playing a really intentional queer role, story that’s really meaningful.”
He might not wait for someone else to write it. “I don’t know, maybe I’ll write it myself,” Johnston said.
Johnston is also part of the cast of the next “Mummy” film alongside Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, Variety reported Oct. 16. It is scheduled for release Oct. 15, 2027. He told Attitude that he plays a new character, rather than Rick and Evie’s son.
