Out 'Elite' Star Omar Ayuso on the 'Moral Responsibility' of Representation

Openly gay actor Omar Ayuso was part of the steamy Spanish teen drama "Elite" from the start. His character, also named Omar, departed after Season 5, but he's now back for Season 7. Ayuso shared his thoughts in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter on being, and playing, gay – and the "moral responsibility" that comes with representation.

Asked about portraying a gay Muslim living in Spain, Ayuso told THR, "There's a moral responsibility. You have to be honest; you have to start from an honest point, especially if you're talking about a minority that has been marginalized over time. Everything you do has to help them eventually get to a better place."

"I would say in my day-to-day life, being a gay man in Spain, it's also a responsibility I feel in how I behave myself," Ayuso continued, before going on to say: "Being an openly gay actor that is free in real life and in fiction is something that we need so much while growing up and also in our lives as adults. It's role models that I didn't have as much when I grew up, that my mother didn't have at all. So being able to be that role model and to play that role model is something that is really special."

The fact that he shares a name with his character turns out to have an emotionally complex resonance for the 25-year-old actor, who revealed he has more in common with his character. "I'm gay, I come from a small town, I have an Arab background, my father is from Morocco – he's not Palestinian, but he is from Morocco – and even though my family isn't as conservative as his [the "Elite" character's] family and I didn't have such a hard time coming out, I can relate to many things from that character."

"It's funny how a name can have an effect on you," Ayuso added. "I've done theatre plays where I played my character and I was able to disconnect and with another one I played in a film, but there's more magic than you may think in sharing the name with your character."

Omar's story in Season 7 involves him returning to the school with unresolved feelings around the death of his best friend.

"The point that he's at this season, dealing with the illness of depression, the healing process of depression, it's a process that I lived a while ago," Ayuso disclosed. "So, the emotional and psychological language is something I understand, and I can convey in a very consistent and honest way because I've been there."

Omar's return to the world of the fictional "Elite" high school – a hotspot of hookups, intrigue, and murder, where the haves and the have-nots mingle to explosive effect and characters of diverse orientations share screen time – came about due to a chance meeting on a train between the actor and series co-creator Carlos Montero.

"We started joking and we had this conversation about what it would be like and suddenly he was like, 'I mean it. If you want to come back, you can come back,' and then I asked him if I could have some time to think about it," Ayuso recounted. "He gave me two weeks and I came back to him with a yes," the actor added.

Montero told THR that the show's producers "felt in debt to Omar because he always pulled out all the stops with our show. We love his character very much and we wanted to give him the importance we think he deserved."

"Elite" Season 7 is streaming now on Netflix. Watch the season trailer below, and check out some of the steamy snaps Ayuso shares on Instagram.