“Love, Simon” is the rare major studio movie revolving around a gay teenager, and hopes are high that it will pass the box office test.
In the new teenage romantic comedy “Love, Simon,” the title character, played by Nick Robinson, proclaims, “I’m done living in a world where I don’t get to be who I am. I deserve a great love story.”
That he gets one could almost be considered revolutionary: With “Love, Simon,” 20th Century Fox becomes the first major studio in recent memory to take a chance on a movie anchored by a gay character. The result is a $17 million film that feels timely but also raises the question, Why did it take so long?
Typically the gay character in a studio-backed teenage romance is the supportive best friend spouting quips and offering sage relationship or fashion advice. That is, unless he’s walking a darker path. An IMDB list of the best gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender teen a ge movies, for example, begins with “My Own Private Idaho” (1991), about two hustlers. Films closer to the tone of “Love, Simon,” like “Edge of Seventeen” (1998) or “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (2012), were released by boutique studios. Likewise, specialty divisions of major studios produced “ Brokeback Mountain ” and “ Call Me by Your Name.” But the 17-year-old Simon Spier is reminiscent of the characters played by Molly Ringwald in the 1980s heyday of teenage romances like “Sixteen Candles,” “The Breakfast Club” and “Pretty in Pink.”
“Love, Simon” is a romantic comedy and a coming-of-age story and also a mystery as Simon tries to discover the identity of the online pen pal he has grown to love. The film, opening March 16, is based on Becky Albertalli ’s 2015 young adult novel, “ Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda .”
Ms. Albertalli, who is also a clinical psychologist, said she based Simon on herself and her high school experiences. Her work with gay and lesbian children also gave her, she said, “a general sense of some of the issues that some kids in the community were grappling with.” But her true inspiration for the novel was the birth of her first son in 2012. “At the very least, whoever he turns out to be, if he needs this message from his mom, this book will be here,” she said.
L. G. B. T. Q. audiences want to see characters who reflect their lives and experiences. (Forgive the personal aside, but this is the type of movie I’ve been looking for since I was growing up — my first encounter was a small, tragic gay character in “Pump Up the Volume,” from 1990 — and I’m sure I’m not alone.) Ms. Albertalli made note of the website LGBTQ Reads, curated by the author Dahlia Adler, which suggests books for all ages. “It’s really exciting seeing the conversations in YA that are happening around representation.”
For gay readers, one line in Ms. Albertalli’s novel is especially resonant. Simon thinks, “In reality, I’m not the leading guy. Maybe I’m the best friend,” and Ms. Albertalli said, “It was almost as if all these creative people read that line and they were like, ‘O. K., Simon, let me prove you wrong.’”
One of those creative types is Greg Berlanti, the director of “Love, Simon.” An executive producer of television shows starring DC Comics heroes,, Mr. Berlanti remembered telling studio executives in his initial meetings with 20th Century Fox, “I think it’s so cool that you guys are committing to making a movie like this.” He also said, “I’m sort of surprised that one doesn’t already exist.”
Working on the film was an emotional experience for him. “It was filling a void I didn’t even know that I needed filled,” Mr. Berlanti said. “It was making me feel something that I couldn’t quite identify.”
With most romantic films, he explained, “you’re not always experiencing it totally viscerally because you’re having to imagine ‘if this character were gay.’” That extra effort isn’t needed for “Love, Simon.” Mr. Berlanti added: “You get so used to just existing with things the way that they are, you don’t even realize the math you’re doing when you’re watching everybody else get represented in love stories or whatever in a mainstream film.”
Like Mr. Berlanti, Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and chief executive of Glaad, was also surprised that 20th Century Fox was producing a wide-release coming-out story. “This is like the ‘Sixteen Candles’ of this generation,” she said.
“Twenty percent of millennials identify as L. G. B. T. Q.,” Ms. Ellis said. “Having a film available to them is a breakthrough.”
This was especially important, she noted, after her group’s annual acceptance poll showed a decline. The online survey of 2,160 adults by the Harris Poll found more people reporting discomfort if they learned that family members, their doctors or their children’s teachers were gay, lesbian or transgender. “To be able to have this movie come out — for those that don’t identify as the norm — is really, really powerful and will do a whole lot of good,” Ms. Ellis said.
Like the Bechdel test, which examines how often female characters talk with each other about anything other than a man, Glaad has the Vito Russo test for portrayals of gay characters. For a film to pass, it must have a lead L. G. B. T. Q. character who is not solely defined by sexual orientation or gender identity and whose removal from the film would have a significant effect. “Love, Simon” would definitely pass.
Studios seemingly learn a lesson annually. This year, “Black Panther” proved that a film rooted in black culture could do well overseas. In 2017, “Wonder Woman,” “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” and “Beauty and the Beast” showed that female main characters could top the box office.
Will “Love, Simon” make a similar case for movies about gay characters? “The interest in this film is incredibly high,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior box office analyst at comScore. He noted that it was being heavily discussed on social media and that its trailer had more than 19.7 million views on YouTube. “You don’t get 19 million views on something nobody cares about,” he said.
Mr. Berlanti is keenly aware that the most important test facing “Love, Simon” is at the box office. “I’ve had a lot of people tell me this is the movie they wish they had when they were kids,” Mr. Berlanti said.
