Noah Galvin plays the center of The Real O’Neals as Kenny, a young man from a religious family who decides to come out of the closet right as everything is going to — well, h-e-doble-hockey sticks.
Galvin spoke about the series at the recent ABC portion of the Television Critics Association Press Tour, addressing a question on how the people in his life react to him playing such a role.
“I have found that there is a very clear distinction between how young people view the show as opposed to older people who have gone through this,” Galvin said. “Even I, acting in it ‑‑ I’m gay myself, and I haven’t gone through a lot of the things that Kenny goes through in the series. I felt a little disconnected from it because I was, you know, experiencing these things again, but I was, like, is this ‑‑ is this, you know, crazy new and groundbreaking? And I would show it to a person who might have been older or who was alive for a different, you know ‑‑ a different view on this whole situation, and they are astounded by it,” he explained.
Executive Producer David Windsor added that we all sometimes forget that outside of Los Angeles and New York, a lot of the country is still going through significant social changes right now, and the Church is a big part of that. “It’s all going in a very positive direction, and we are glad that we are able to be a part of that,” he said.
“It’s important to us. If there’s anyone that’s in Arkansas that watches this show, a kid who maybe isn’t out to his family and he can watch this show with his parents and they can laugh about it and share some experience and it can help him come out, that’s definitely one of the major reasons that Casey and I did this, because we feel like that’s a responsibility that we have, and we are glad to be able to do that. I mean, things are changing. Gay marriage is now legal in this entire country. It’s changing around the world. And, you know, one day it won’t be part of the conversation at all, which will be fantastic.”
The Real O’Neals premieres March 2 on ABC.
