Taylor Kitsch on HBO's NORMAL HEART: 'You Can't Play Gay'

In a new interview in today's Variety, Taylor Kitsch talks about his role in HBO's THE NORMAL HEART, premiering this Sunday, May 25th.

The actor reveals that he did a great deal of research before filming began on the project. " I looked at these guys that were leading double lives." he said. "It was a lot of balancing and figuring that out and reading letters and documentaries, sitting down with Larry Kramer and getting some really cool notes."

Asked what he has learned from the experience, Kitsch offers, "You can't play gay if that makes sense. It just is. Sexuality isn't who he is. He's a man that doesn't have the identity that he knows is within him, and he can't be himself. It's those kinds of things you focus on: the loss of love, the loss of his partner, the unknown of what this disease and virus is."

Read the story in full here.

The HBO original film, The Normal Heart, premieres Sunday, May 25th at 9PM/8C, only on HBO. Directed by Ryan Murphy and written by Larry Kramer, adapting his groundbreaking Tony Award-winning play of the same name, THE NORMAL HEART, tells the story of the onset of the HIV-AIDS Crisis in New York City in the early 1980s, taking an unflinching look at the nation's sexual politics as gay activists and their allies in the medical community fight to expose the truth about the burgeoning epidemic to a city and nation in denial.

The film stars Academy Award nominee Mark Ruffalo ("The Kids Are All Right"), Matt Bomer ("White Collar"), Taylor Kitsch ("Lone Survivor"), Emmy(R) winner Jim Parsons ("The Big Bang Theory") and Academy Award winner Julia Roberts as well as Alfred Molina ("An Education"), Tony Award winner Joe Mantello ("Law & Order"), Jonathan Groff(HBO's "Looking"), Denis O'Hare (HBO's "True Blood"), Stephen Spinella ("Milk"), Corey Stoll ("House of Cards"),Finn Wittrock ("Unbroken"), and BD Wong (HBO's "Oz").

An HBO Films presentation of a Plan B and Blumhouse production in association with Ryan Murphy Productions, The Normal Heart is executive produced by Ryan Murphy, Dante Di Loreto ("Glee"), Jason Blum (the "Paranormal Activity" series), Brad Pitt ("Moneyball"), Dede Gardner ("12 Years a Slave"). Mark Ruffalo co-executive produces; Scott Ferguson (HBO's "Temple Grandin") produces.

Photo courtesy of HBO