Queer Actor Justice Smith Celebrates His Authenticity with 'Genera+ion'

When Justice Smith posted an Instagram of himself and his then-boyfriend actor Nicholas L. Ashe, many in the media reported it as the 25-year old actor's coming out.

He was quick to correct them on Twitter: "yo tf i didn't come out, y'all came in"

Many just assumed that the rising star (seen in "Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom," "Detective Pikachu," and Bazz Luhrmann's Netflix series "The Get Down") was straight, but he also realized that with both posts he could be jeopardizing his career. "There was this very small voice in the back of my head that was like, 'Oh, maybe this will affect your career, and what will people think?' " he recalls to the New York Times in a Sunday profile.

Then he stopped worrying. "If this affects my career, then I don't want my career," he says "I don't want to do something where I have to lie about who I am." This is maybe in part what he meant when he had said earlier that Chester had taught him about "the ways I need to live in my truth."

Authenticity is central to Smith's ethos, both in his personal life and career. When he was cast in "The Get Down," he lived alone in an apartment in Brooklyn's Crown Heights to fully immerse himself in the life of his character, Ezekiel Figueroa, the teen poet at the center of this hip-hop music drama set in New York City in the 1970s. "To play Zeke, Justice says he was interested in method acting, and would stay in character so much so that at times he was scared he was losing himself," wrote Vulture in a profile of the actor.

He brought the same rigor when cast by Daniel Barnz, the co-creator (with his daughter Zelda) and showrunner for "Genera+ion," the new HBOMax series in which he plays Chester, the alpha of the Gay-Straight Alliance pack. The New York Times describes the show this way: "A particular mix of gross-out comedy and heartbreak, 'Genera+ion' (the '+' is a reference to the abbreviation L.G.B.T.Q.+) shadows a cohort of Southern California adolescents as they experiment with sexuality, identity and giving birth in a mall bathroom. ('Euphoria' lite? Sure.)"

Initially Smith auditioned for another role, but it didn't work out. When it was suggested he go for Chester, Barnz had some reservations, not just about whether Smith could do it, but if any actor could be capable of Chester's complexity – the audacity, the emotional lability, the chic of his teen creation. Nor was the actor thrilled to audition for another teenage part, but he did, and made a considerable impression. "When Smith read the lines, Daniel Barnz wept," The New York Times writes.

His attention to character detail has led him to seeking out what he thinks would be the underwear they would wear. For Chester it was Yellow briefs, turquoise waistband. He worked with the show's writers and designers in making Chester his own, changing his astrological sign and working with the costume designer in capturing a style far flashier than his own. "We're showing someone who lives loudly and unapologetically," Smith tells the Times. "There is a price sometimes to living that authentically."

He also feels being up front about his sexuality is no longer the career risk it once was. "Besides, he believed – in an intuitive, almost supernatural way – that the roles would still come, he said, in part because of what he sees as a paradigm shift, a centering of queer stories, an emphasis on queer characters as played by queer actors," writes the Times.

He isn't entirely against straight actors playing queer roles – a growing issue in Hollywood – "though he does find it strange how often straight actors are applauded for it. 'You touched lips with another person, how is that brave?' "