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Two months after publicly announcing his sexual orientation, Garrett Clayton is opening up about how being gay has impacted his acting career.

The Disney star, 27, recalled to Gay Times magazine about a time when he felt the industry pressured him to stay closeted.

“One of the first things somebody who was instrumental in starting my career did, they sat me down and they said, ‘Are you gay?’ And I could feel the pressure of the question, so I was like, ‘Yeah, I’m gay, or bi, or whatever,’ because suddenly I could feel that there was something wrong with that in this person’s eyes,” Clayton said.

They looked at me and said, ‘No one wants to f— the gay guy, they want to go shopping with him, so we’re going to have to figure this out.’ It turned into this situation where I’d get calls and they’d say, ‘You still need to butch it up’. I literally had to change everything about myself at that point, otherwise I was never gonna make it.

That was so conflicting because here’s somebody offering you your dream, but they’re telling you that you’re not good enough the way you are. You’re talented, but who you are isn’t good enough,” the actor recalled. “So they had me changing the way I walked, the way I spoke, the way I dressed, the way I answered questions. It got as petty as them saying, ‘People need to see that you’re into sports because they’ll think that’s more masculine, so why don’t you go buy a sports hat, take some pictures in it, and make sure people see you in it.’

https://people.com/tv/garrett-clayton-hollywood-pressured-him-to-stay-closeted/

Disney Star Garrett Clayton Says Hollywood Pressured Him to Stay Closeted: ‘You Need to Butch It Up’