Chapter Text
- Lance Álvarez
Although he's been well-known in Hollywood for a while, Álvarez recently came out as bisexual during interviews promoting his new movie, Starlit, which is a coming-of-age story that also involves coming out. Álvarez plays the protagonist, Marco Ramirez, who is also bisexual.
“I just think that it's important to own who you are,” he said in wake of the announcement. “When I got cast and I met our director and her wife, I realized I wasn't scared of [coming out] anymore. So, here I am. That's me.”
Excerpt from “15 Openly LGBT+ Entertainers You Should Know” by The Huffington Post
The 20XX Oscars: 35 Contenders For The Next Academy Awards - EntertainmentWeekly
Breakout Star Lance Álvarez Gives a Face To The New Era of Film - USAToday
Why The Cast of Starlit Is Valid - The Niche
lance alvarez
lance alvarez starlit
lance alvarez oscars
lance alvarez coming out
lance alvarez twitter
gaypotatochip:
I just saw Starlit and its so so good???? I’m so happy they actually cast LGBT+ people in the roles it's amazing that we have a movie that already has Oscar buzz nd all the actors are actually gay!!
#Tbh half of the reason I saw it was because Lance Álvarez is in it #Lol #So happy they actually cast a bisexual actor as Marco though #Starlit
25 notes
✦
Lance comes to terms with his sexuality in college, testing out the words quietly in the mirror, making eye contact with his reflection and gripping the sides of the sink in the communal bathroom. His hair wet, towel tied around his waist, and alone in the barley cleaned room.
“I’m bisexual,” He whispers, and his heart pounds in his chest. Then, feeling braver, bolder, he raises his voice to a normal speaking tone.
“I’m bisexual,” He repeats, then again and again until he’s nearly yelling it. He laughs and laughs and laughs because it’s so freeing to finally admit it out loud. It’s a few days later that he tells his family on a Skype call, nervous and maybe about to throw up, but instead of rejection, he gets nothing but love from them, and he cries.
Admitting it to the entire world, however, is a different story.
Lance isn’t too well known in Hollywood─just a few minor roles in a few major movies, maybe a line or five, but that’s the extent of his acting career. He has Twitter followers in the hundred thousands (nearing one million, however), half of whom are fans, half of whom probably follow him for his amusing tweets.
(There’s one draft of a tweet, one with the words he had admitted to himself in college, and at night when he can’t sleep, he opens Twitter and stares at it, wondering what would happen if he sent the tweet out into the world, let everyone know exactly who he is, but in the end, he closes the app and tries to sleep.)
One day, a woman approaches him with an offer. They talk about if over the phone, letting Lance pace around his room.
“I’ve seen your acting. I believe you have great potential, and I’d like you to be the lead character in this movie.” She says.
“What’s it about?” Lance asks.
“It’s a coming of age movie. The main character, who you would play, is coming to terms with his bisexuality.”
Lance’s heart thuds against his ribcage, almost painfully. With a wide smile and tears in his eyes, he accepts.
After meeting the director (Allura Altea, a literal goddess that Lance stared at in awe for five minutes), her wife (Nyma Altea, who owns Flight Records and is equally stunning), and the rest of the cast, they all start to share details about themselves, start to get closer and closer together. He learns that they’re all LGBT+, they all started out as minor actors, and that they’re probably going to cry when this movie comes out.
It’s only a few weeks into filming that Lance finally tells them about his own bisexuality (Allura included), and he says that maybe, maybe, he’ll open up to the rest of the world too. His castmates and his director share a group hug, laughing and maybe crying a little, and promising to be there by his side when he does decide to come out.
It’s months later when Lance, surrounded by his castmates and promoting Starlit, finally comes out. His heart is pounding, his throat feels tight, and he can see the surprise from crew that’s filming them, but he feels a clap on his shoulder and a squeeze on his hand and knows he’ll be okay.
When the interview drops, Lance retweets the link, then shuts his phone off for the rest of the day. He stays on Skype with Hunk, who doesn’t mention his coming out, but rather, spends a few hours talking about a new recipe, how much he misses his best friend, and his girlfriend, Romelle. Lance lets him talk, and when Pidge inevitably joins the call with a small “congrats,” then launching into a rant about something Matt had done earlier that day, Lance knows he’ll be okay.
Lance can’t sleep, so he turns his phone on and sees that he’s trending, and he goes through every single one of the supportive tweets, tears in his eyes and a few falling onto his phone. He likes as many tweets as he can before finally writing out his own tweet, one that thanks all the supportive fans, and the love from his friends, family, and cast.
It’s just before he puts his phone down that he sees his follower count has climbed well past a million.
✦
Keith Shirogane’s Sophomore Album Lives Up To The Hype - Vice
From Home Editing To Recording Studios: A Look At The Breakout Artists of 20XX - SeatGeek
Keith Shirogane Brings About a New Era of Music - USAToday
senior year
ALBUM BY KEITH SHIROGANE
july EXPLICIT
knife trick EXPLICIT
unsweetened
gauze
kisser
when you run EXPLICIT
parental advisory (explicit content)
neon
color you
whatever EXPLICIT
001
graduation EXPLICIT
lofilockdown:
ive been listening to knife trick by keith shirogane on repeat for two hours someone stop me
28 notes
plant emoji @luneytoonz current mood: keith shirogane titling a song “parental advisory (explicit content)” and the lyrics being totally clean
ks stan @mixnmax gay culture is listening to keith shirogane’s album and crying even tho its three in the morning and you have shit to do
pidgey Today at 7:03 PM
yo have you guys listened to senior year yet
ik its popular and ur all hipsters but it feels gay so
hunky Today at 7:04 PM
feels gay?
pidgey Today at 7:04 PM
yeah i have gaydar but for songs
hunky Today at 7:10 PM
valid
lancey Today at 7:30 PM
PIDGE
HOW DARE YOU TAINT OUR SACRED GROUP CHAT BY BRINGING HIM UP
hunky Today at 7:31 PM
im p sure u tainted it first by sending us a dick pic but go off i guess
lancey Today at 7:32 PM
that was an accident and u know it??? we promised to never speak of it again
but this is keith. keith .
he has a mullet! who tf has a mullet!!
pidgey Today at 7:32 PM
its not really a mullet its just messy
isn't that his whole schtick
lancey Today at 7:33 PM
no his thing is curling that mess before a concert and pretending it’s all flowy and magical anime girl hair but its probably greasy and gross
like his personality
hunky Today at 7:33 PM
interesting that you know the specifics of his Thing™
pidgey Today at 7:34 PM
oooooohhh lance has a cruuuuush
lancey Today at 7:35
I DO NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON HIM!!!! HE’S GROSS!!!!!!
pidgey Today at 7:35
ok so ur like stalking him obsessively
semantics
lancey Today at 7:35 PM
IM NOT OBSESSED WITH HIM OK!!!!
lancey Today at 10:01 PM
his fuckig ep is called UNTITLED
how pretentious can u get???
oh im keith and im too cool for album titles
pidgey Today at 10:01 PM
that’s a pretty old ep, lance
lancey Today at 10: 02 PM
sshHHHHUT UP
did he srsly title his album “senior year” what in the goddamn
pidgey Today at 10:03 PM
for christs sake stop stalking keith and go tf to BED
lancey Today at 10:03 PM
ur not my mom stop nagging me!!
wait now she’s texting me
DID YOU TEXT MY MOTHER AND TELL HER THAT IM AWAKE
PIDGE
KATIE
KATHERINE ANNE HOLT
pidgey Today at 10:05 PM
GO TO BED
UNTITLED
EP BY KEITH SHIROGANE
cherry EXPLICIT
smokin’ EXPLICIT
gym shoes
fluorescent
✦
Keith’s first introduction to music is a small, staticy boombox his dad gets him for his birthday.
He might’ve been somewhere around four at the time, grabbing at the buttons and dials with small fingers as his dad showed him how to put CDs into the tray, laughing at the surprise on his son’s face when notes began to filter out of the speakers.
He was brought up on classics─Fleetwood Mac, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Fleet Foxes. He plays and replays the same four CDs until he can hear the lyrics looping in his head, until he hears the bass and drums pounding in his skull, fading into a distant headache when bad news slams into him and the social service workers don’t let him keep his boombox.
The other houses aren’t as good. He gets shipped off to Texas first, stuck with a family he remembers as distant twangs of banjo through crackling radio, his foster father singing something off-tune about girls and beer and blue jeans. After a month or so, their daughter comes back from the military and they send Keith off to somewhere in Nevada. The memory sounds like pumping synth and the whine of autotune. He gets bounced around a few more times, each house a soundbite of discordant notes and grating vocals.
After Shiro adopts him officially, he’s a little confused when he’s handed a phone with earbuds wrapped around it. Shiro can probably see the confusion in his eyes when Keith looks up at him, because he smiles and leans over, tapping the screen so it lights up.
“I know you already have one,” he explains, swiping over to iTunes and opening it. “But I remembered you telling me about the music your dad played for you, and I thought you might like something familiar.”
It’s not surprising that Shiro is also the one who encourages him when he finds out about Keith’s singing─he lights up when Keith shows him his book of lyrics (which almost makes up for the way he makes fun of the sappy song about a guy Keith used to like), and helps him edit the songs when Keith works up the courage to actually put together an album.
When he releases UNTITLED, he has about seven people following his music─understandable, given that he’s practically silent aside from sporadic updates to his Bandcamp and YouTube. He sort of tries to pretend it never happened, for a few days. Heads out into the desert and pretends he can’t see Shiro’s calls, stains his hands with red dust because if he never checks, he won’t ever know if his album was a success─but he won’t ever know if it was a failure, either.
Eventually, he has to come back to the apartment. Shiro practically holds him down in front of the laptop until he acquiesces and opens the metaphorical Schrödinger’s box.
It’s…a lot better than he thought it would be.
✦
We Have Lance Álvarez Play With Puppies While Answering Questions - Buzzfeed
ÁLVAREZ: Hi, I'm Lance Álvarez and-- [a puppy runs past him] oh my god!
ÁLVAREZ: Can they pick the questions? Like, what if I just… [he holds a puppy’s paws and puppets it to pick a piece of paper] Yeah, there we go. [to puppy] Thank you so much!
Q: How close was Marco’s experience in Starlit to your coming out experience?
ÁLVAREZ: Well, my family was really great about it. I didn't get a dramatic romance, unfortunately. It was more like-- [puppy barks] oh my god, I love you--it was more like, I just told people and it was cool. No boyfriend, sorry. Lucky Marco.
ÁLVAREZ: [holding a puppy, looking at it very seriously] I would die for you.
hunky Today at 4:34 PM
LANCE!!! the puppy interview was so cute!!!
lancey Today at 4:34 PM
i KNOW!!! I WAS DYING THE WHOLE TIME!!!
pidgey Today at 4:37 PM
like 90% of it was you playing with puppies and 10% was actually answering questions
ill admit, it was enough to temporarily thaw the frozen wasteland that is my heart
hunky Today at 4:37 PM
you were crying over a piece of tech just yesterday
pidgey Today at 4:37 PM
IT WAS A FASCINATING PIECE OF TECHNOLOGY THAT WE CAN BARELY COMPREHEND OKAY!!!
LEAVE ME ALONE IT WAS BEAUTIFUL
lancey Today at 4:38 PM
gay culture is apparently crying over puppies and technology
hunky Today at 4:38 PM
nah thats just pidge culture
lancey Today at 4:38 PM
hunk culture is being super smart in the streets and a master chef in the sheets
hunky Today at 4:38 PM
bro <3
lancey Today at 4:38 PM
bro <3<3
pidgey Today at 4:40 PM
lance culture is pretending to hate someone even tho you have almost two hundred pictures of them in your phone
hunky Today at 4:40 PM
bro are u serious
lancey Today at 4:40 PM
LISTEN I HATE HIM!!! I HATE HIM AND HIS GREASY MULLET!!!
pidgey Today at 4:42 PM
tell that to your album of keith pics
i know you have one bitch
lancey Today at 4:42 PM
I DON T
hunky Today at 4:46 PM
(lance voice) i hate keith and his shiny hair and beautiful eyes and sexy voice and-
lancey Today at 4:46 PM
HUNK
I TRUSTED U
ET TU BRUTE?????
✦
15 Reasons Why Keith Shirogane Has Stolen Our Hearts - Buzzfeed
Why You Should Care About Keith Shirogane - PopBuzz
Following: 3
Followers: 9.8k
Posts: 47
KEITH SHIROGANE
senior year streaming on spotify
HOST: As you know, the media follows celebrities pretty closely…
SHIROGANE: I’ve noticed.
HOST: [laughs] Of course. But you've stayed such a mysterious guy!
SHIROGANE: Well, I have a talent.
HOST: [laughs] However, I'm sure people wonder about your personal life.
SHIROGANE: I don't see much of a point in talking about [my personal life].
HOST: You don't think that drives away fans?
SHIROGANE: [shrugging] I didn't really get into this for fame . I care about making music, and if people like it, that's great, if they don't, whatever.
HOST: You got popular pretty quickly after you released your EP, though. Did you expect that kind of attention going in?
SHIROGANE: Honestly, I didn't think I’d get much attention, ever. Y’know, gay kid from the middle of nowhere making some shitty lo-fi music--
HOST: [interrupting] Sorry--did you say you're gay?
SHIROGANE: Uh--yeah. I am. I'm gay.
Transcript from an interview with Keith Shirogane, January 7th, 20XX
✦
When interview Keith outs himself in drops, the internet just about explodes.
He starts trending pretty quickly on Twitter, but he ignores his notifications (three missed calls from Shiro, two from Pidge, and several texts from the both of them) in favor of taking out his stress on a punching bag.
He wrapped his hands too quickly and his knuckles are paying for it─he feels the force of each punch shake down to his wrists each time he makes contact with the bag, the rhythmic thump thump like bass flowing through speakers turned to eleven. Spinal Tap.
Keith ignores the ache and keeps going until his biceps feel numb and his shoulders can't take the wind-up anymore. He collapses next to his duffel bag, gently unwrapping his hands and wincing at the purpled tinge of his knuckles that he knows is only going to get more vivid. He stuffs the wrappings into his bag, exchanging them for his phone, and lets out a resigned sigh at the flood of notifications on his lock screen. He figures he can only avoid this for so long─it's probably better to reply to his friends now rather than wallow and let it drag itself out.
katieee Today at 1:10 PM
congrats on coming out!!
keeeith Today at 4:32 PM
thanks, i guess.
it was only a matter of time, to be honest. i can only sing songs using “you” instead of “he” for so long
katieee Today at 4:34 PM
fair
but still, it’s a big moment
i understand if you need some time away from social media
keeeith Today at 4:35 PM
ok
thanks, pidge
katieee Today at 4:36 PM
no problem
if you need someone to talk to i have a friend who came out when he was promoting his movie
he’d be more than willing to give you advice
or just. be there i guess
keeeith Today at 4:38 PM
who?
katieee Today at 4:38 PM
lance álvarez
keeeith Today at 4:39 PM
???
katieee Today at 4:40 PM
oh my god
lance álvarez?? star of the gayest movie ever aka starlit?? came out as bi while promoting said movie???
keeeith Today at 4:41 PM
oh
i haven’t seen it yet
katieee Today at 4:42 PM
smh KEITH
ehhh whatever ill force you to watch it this weekend
anyways, you wanna talk to him?
keeeith Today at 4:43 PM
if you think it’ll help
i guess i can
katieee Today at 4:44 PM
sweet! i’ve been meaning to introduce the two of you anyways
here’s his number
XXX-XXX-XXXX
keeeith Today at 4:45
thanks pidge
for everything
katieee Today at 4:46
anything for my best friend
<3
keeeith Today at 4:47
<3
Keith worries his bottom lip between his teeth─a habit he had tried to break since coming into the spotlight─and lets his thumb hover over the new number that stands out to him. He stops chewing his lip, instead exiting out of his messaging app and opening Google. He types “lance alvarez” into the search bar, and is rewarded with thousands of articles on the man. He taps on the Wikipedia link, and skims through it first.
Leandro Álvarez-McClain (born July 28th, 20XX), known professionally as Lance Álvarez, is an American actor. He was raised in Varadero , Cuba until he was 15 years old, then moved to the United States , where he began his career. He drew public attention after starring in the film Starlit . He is openly bisexual.
The quote included from his interview is enough to get Keith to exit out of Google and open up his messenger app, tapping on the number Pidge sent him.
keith Today at 4:55 PM
lance álvarez?
XXX-XXX-XXXX Today at 4:57 PM
yes? who is this
keith Today at 4:57 PM
keith shirogane
pidge gave me your number
lance Today at 4:58 PM
how tf do you know pidge??
keith Today at 4:59 PM
my older brother knows her older brother, so kind of a childhood friends thing i guess
lance Today at 5:00 PM
mhm
i see
will you excuse me for a moment?
keith Today at 5:01 PM
uh. sure?
lance Today at 5:01
ty
lancey Today at 5:02 PM
PIDGE
ARE U FUCKIN KIDDING ME
pidgey Today at 5:03 PM
i assume he texted you?
lancey Today at 5:04 PM
FNJDKSBGFJKSGF
YES HE TEXTED ME
AND I HAVE SEVERAL QUESTIONS
NUMBER ONE: HOW DARE YOU
pidgey Today at 5:05 PM
as much as i enjoy watching you freak out
the reason why keith texted you is kinda important
have you been on twitter at all today
lancey Today at 5:06 PM
no actually
i was deep cleaning my apartment
why?
pidgey Today at 5:07 PM
keith came out as gay during an interview
lancey Today at 5:07 PM
oh
brb then
pidgey Today at 5:08 PM
thanks
lance Today at 5:08 PM
ok im back
anyways
was there something you needed?
keith Today at 5:10 PM
i came out during an interview
and pidge said you did the same thing when you were promoting your movie
and she recommended talking to you about it
lance Today at 5:12 PM
do you regret coming out?
keith Today at 5:13 PM
no
im just
on edge? i guess?
lance Today at 5:14
that’s totally understandable
the most i did the day my interview dropped was talk to my best friend and pidge
i honestly shut my phone off after retweeting the link and ignored social media
so if you want to stay away from it for a while, no one will blame you
but a quick check on twitter says you’ve been trending for a while
keith Today at 5:16 PM
kinda got that bit
judging by my notifications, and everything
lance Today at 5:17 PM
yeah, theyre gonna blow up for a bit
its all up to you what you want to do
you can either go onto twitter and give a little statement, or you can stay off for however long you want
people are going to support you no matter what
keith Today at 5:18 PM
okay
thanks, lance
lance Today at 5:19 PM
no problem mullet
keith Today at 5:20 PM
what??
did you just call me mullet?
lance Today at 5:21 PM
dont see anyone else in this chat so
yes, i called u mullet
keith Today at 5:22 PM
why???
lance Today at 5:22 PM
cuz u have a mullet, mullet
keith Today at 5:23 PM
its not a mullet??
its just long
lance Today at 5:24 PM
mhm suuure
keith Today at 5:25 PM
………
shiro Today at 1:15 PM
The more you ignore my calls, the more I feel like a mom.
How are you feeling?
keith Today at 5:26 PM
i need you to be honest with me
shiro Today at 5:27 PM
I’m always honest with you.
What’s wrong?
keith Today at 5:28 PM
do i have a mullet?
shiro Today at 5:29 PM
Okay, hold on.
You come out to the entire world in an interview, and instead of focusing on that, you’re worried about your hair?
keith Today at 5:30 PM
i know where my priorities lie, takashi
now answer the damn question
shiro Today at 5:31 PM
No, you do not have a mullet.
What brought this on?
keith Today at 5:31 PM
lance álvarez said that i have a mullet
shiro Today at 5:32 PM
When did you start talking to Lance Álvarez?
keith Today at 5:33 PM
like twenty mins ago
apparently pidge knows him
shiro Today at 5:34 PM
Ah.
And how do you feel about coming out?
keith Today at 5:35 PM
good
really good