‘I was the first of my generation to come out as gay’, says Hugo Bonemer

“I’m playing a cannibal character, and I talk about veganism. I even joke that they hired me by mistake. But okay… I’ve played so many straight characters.” So says actor Hugo Bonemer, 34, star of the fictional podcast “Batman Awakening” (Spotify). Actor, voice actor and presenter, he voices the Grim Reaper, a serial killer who eats human flesh and terrorizes Gotham City.

In a way, it even seems ironic that an actor who defines himself as a “vegetable influencer” to his 420,000 Instagram followers is cast in a role like this.

Vegan (“I was a person indifferent to animals, I thought they were for eating. I’ve been going through a process of sensitization”) and openly gay, Bonemer considers that the challenges in his career did not come by chance.

“It makes perfect sense that I’m in this place. It’s as if everything I’ve done in life has brought me here”, he says. For him, one point, in particular, made a difference in the direction of his life and work: the decision to talk about his sexual orientation openly.​

“I was the first actor of my generation to do this willingly, and it’s a great pride that I carry”, he points out. “Until then, people who had come out of the closet, either not willingly, or were artists who were already established and with a well-built career,” he says.

The actor cites Marco Nanini and Ellen DeGeneres as sources of courage for his decision. “There was this ‘suspicion’ thing about whether I was heterosexual or homosexual. The fact that I spoke publicly took this rope that people had around my neck.”

As much as it is still necessary to talk about relevant issues such as prejudice and public policies for the LGBTQIA+ group, there are still issues to be addressed on these matters. “I want the problem of the LGBT person to be late to pick up their child from school, to heal from an illness or to face a scorpion sting”, completes the actor.