LOS ANGELES— OUT magazine released its annual “Love Issue” today, and for the first time the issue features dual covers. Two couples, Olympic free-skier and medalist Gus Kenworthy and actor Matt Wilkas as well as actress Samira Wiley and writer-producer Lauren Morelli, strike intimate poses on this year’s sensual covers. OUT sat down with the couples, who opened about the first time they met, past relationships and the sacrifices they’ve made for one another.
Select excerpts from the Kenworthy/Wilkas cover story include:
Kenworthy on how he first asked Wilkas out:
“I’d written him a message on Instagram while [his first boyfriend] Robin and I were on a break – I’d seen Matt in the movie Gayby, and he’d popped up on my Instagram with these videos he makes, and I watched a few of them – he used to do these ones with a silly chick who wiggles when the sun hits her, and I thought they were really funny. I followed him, he followed me back, and I wrote him this really long message on Instagram. I said, “Hey, I think you’re really funny, and you seem really sweet, and I’ve been enjoying following you on Instagram, and actually I’m in the closet right now, and I’m coming to New York in a couple of week if you want to get a coffee or something.”
Wilkas’s reaction to being asked out on Instagram:
“Gus reached out to me on Instagram, and he was very sweet. I think he said he really liked my sense of humor and thought I was funny, and I thought, Who is this guy? I didn’t know what free-skiing was. I’d just come out of a relationship and was going to therapy and wasn’t really in the right place, so when he asked me out, essentially on a date, via Instagram, I couldn’t do it.”
Kenworthy on saying “I love you” for the first time:
“… I could feel his heart beating and sensed his energy, and he turned to me and said, ‘I want to tell you something, but I’m scared,’ and I just totally hijacked it and said, ‘I love you.’ And then he said it back, and he was crying, and I was crying. It was really sweet.”
Wilkas on their long-distance relationship:
“For me, being apart a lot of the time is a good thing, but I don’t think Gus feels that way. He doesn’t really want a long-distance relationship. I don’t either but think time apart is valuable and can work.”
Kenworthy on their future:
“All relationships take work, and we’ve definitely begun to realize that…I was in a relationship from 18-23, and I still haven’t really experienced that much sexually. I wouldn’t want to ever sacrifice my relationship with Matt just to go out and get that out of my system, but we’ve also talked about that and he doesn’t want to deprive me of experiencing anything while I’m still young. I don’t necessarily know what that means. But we’re not in an open relationship and we’re not breaking up. But we’re also not getting married.’”
Select excerpts from the Wiley/Morelli cover story include:
Wiley on the first time they met:
“… Lauren wrote episode six of the first season [of Orange Is the New Black], one of the first scripts really featuring my character, Poussey. We spent four days in row working together. Honestly, I thought she was gay the first time I met her.”
Morelli on the first time they met:
“… I was on set, sitting in front of the monitors, and she and Lea DeLaria, who plays Big Boo, walked up to me. Our set is like a lesbian utopia, and I remember thinking, They’re flirting with me.”
Morelli on her sexuality:
“I started questioning my sexuality as a result of being in the writers’ room and talking about all the themes on the show. I was still very confused, but I knew the attraction between us felt magnetic.”
Wiley on saying “I love you”:
“I was so scared to be the first to say “I love you,” so I did a little pussy version. I said, “I heart you,” which actually ended up in one of Lauren’s Orange scripts. I believe Alex says it to Piper. It felt safer than using the L word. It’s hard to step out on that limb. I thought I’d just be one of those people totally in love with her friend.”
Morelli on mixing business and pleasure:
“Being able to write words for someone as talented as she is, watch her perform what I write, and then go to bed with her is the best thing. Last year, police brutality against black people in our country was something we were talking about a lot. It felt really important for the show to address it. Also, we hadn’t had this heartbreak tragedy yet, and when Jenji [Kohan, Orange creator] came into the fourth season, that was her mandate. I was obviously honored to write the episode in which Poussey is killed. When I sat down to write the scene and typed the part when she dies, I just started sobbing. I called Samira sobbing so hard that I couldn’t get the word out. I’d never had the experience of not only killing a character, but killing a character played by my girlfriend.”
Read the full interviews at: http://www.out.com/love-issue/2016/12/29/february-cover-couples-introduce-love-portfolio-2017
