‘HSM’ Star Larry Saperstein on Living His Bisexual Truth

Seriously, what better time to come out than Pride Month? Larry Saperstein, best known for playing Big Red on Disney+’s hit series High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, opened up about his sexuality via TikTok and revealed that he is bisexual.

Set to “International Super Spy” from The Backyardigans, the video featured Saperstein laying on a bed looking into the camera with the words, “Plays a character with a girlfriend on TV” appearing on the screen. As the song progressed, the text then reads, “is bi irl.”

Shortly afterwards, Saperstein took to Twitter to reveal that he is working on a drag look in honor of Pride Month, which he recently revealed in a new tap dance-centered video.

In an exclusive interview with OFM, Saperstein talked about why he decided to come out, how he hopes his sexuality will help his acting career, and how High School Musical is proof that Disney is getting better with LGBTQ representation.

You came out publicly about your bisexuality on TikTok at the beginning of the month. How has the response been, and what made you decide this was the time to do it?
I think there is a big difference between posting about something online and knowing about something in your everyday life. This is something that most of the people in my life have known about for many years—six-plus years, I would say. I think I am just now coming to terms with, not just my sexuality, because I accepted that a long time ago, but I am coming to terms with the platform that I have and how important it is that I use it to help and show others who is out there and who their role models can be. Especially because I have such a young audience watching, I think it is up to me, and all of us on my show, to help shape the next generation.

With it being Pride Month and the show airing right now, all eyes are on us. So, I felt like it was a good moment to share this. Especially after the year that was 2020, I feel like I used to be a little quieter. Now, there really is no benefit in being quiet. You need to speak your truth and speak your mind and hope that the world understands. I have seen a lot of people saying, it is so wonderful to have a bisexual person in the cast, especially a bisexual male. It is a thing that is maybe not talked about as often, and I think it goes to show that we are a cast full of diverse people with different backgrounds.

What does Pride mean to you?
I think that it means different things to everybody. For a long time, it meant feeling comfortable with myself and working towards feeling comfortable with myself. Now that I am there, and now that I feel comfortable with who I am, I think it has to go beyond that. I have to go beyond being comfortable with myself and need to encourage others to be who they are and accept themselves. Really use my platform to do that.

Everybody is on this journey of wanting to feel comfortable in their own skin and be who they are, so the more I can help others get to that point, I am doing my job. I am embodying what Pride is and can be.

After posting your TikTok video, you took to Twitter saying you were working on a drag look, which you recently revealed. Do you have any major drag influences?
I am a huge fan of drag, and I think it is so cool that it is being recognized now on a global level as a true art form. I always tend to gravitate towards queens that are comedians because of my acting and comedy roots. Queens like Trixie Mattel, Katya, Bob the Drag Queen; those big names are people who I very much admire. This is a career that has so many different talents. You are not just a comedian or public figure. You also have to sew, know how to do your makeup. Because I am a person that has a lot of different interests, I like that drag is a job that allows artists to do so many things at once.

Any thoughts on a drag name?
Oh, gosh. I have been trying to think about that for so long, and I truly do not know. It’s either going to be something that has the word ginger in it, or Amber as the first name because I have red hair. If I did have a drag persona, I feel like she would also have to have red hair, because that is just who I am. This has been in my head for a very long time, and I have not unlocked that yet. I don’t know why.

You have been involved with several acting and theatre projects, but you are now best known for your role as Big Red in High School Musical: The Musical: The Series on Disney+. What have you enjoyed the most about being on that show?
High School Musical: The Musical: The Series is a dream job. At the end of the day, it is every single thing that I have ever wanted to do as an actor. I get to do a show about theatre. I always wanted to be in a docu-style comedy. I grew up watching shows like The Office and Parks and Recreation, and I absolutely love stuff like that. So, when I found out that this is like a docu-style show about High School Musical that was going to be for Disney, but it’s also about theatre kids and we also get to sing and dance, and my character is someone who is just learning about theatre, so I get to start that journey with him from the beginning—it has all of the things that make it something I would be very excited to do.

Now that we are two years into it, it is kind of the gift that keeps on giving. We keep getting to explore different things, and we keep getting to do different musical numbers. It is great.

How did you discover your passion for acting?
I grew up in a musical family. My mom is a music teacher, and my dad used to do a lot of community theatre. I was with them all the time at community theatre rehearsals, seeing the shows, and sitting at the back of the house. I did my very first show, I was on stage for the very first time when I was like three years old, and all I had to do was run on stage into my dad’s arms. Then I played Winthrop in a production of The Music Man when I was around 9, and then the rest is history. I was always on stage from then on.

Are you at all concerned about your sexuality possibly hurting your career in any way?
I don’t think so. There is always a concern, and this is a hard business, but I think we are living in a time where you have to be completely 100 percent authentic to who you are, and that is what people are looking for. That is what people want to show on screen and that is when people are looking to hire. I am hoping that being completely myself is only going to help, and some director or producer somewhere will say, ‘Hey, this is another perspective that we can put into our work and show on screen.’ I hope that will help.

It is great to see that there is LGBTQ inclusion in High School Musical, and several of your castmates even personally identify as members of the community. Disney is known for its rocky past with queer representation. Overall, do you think Disney is getting better with this?
I think this show is proof. We have every, single thing you could imagine in our show. Beautiful, amazing, talented, strong, Black women. Olivia Rodrigo, who is an Asian-American woman, is a strong, talented leader. We have a gay couple; we have lesbian mothers; we have bisexual people, queer people, and I think that is really a testament to our amazing show producer and executive creator, Tim Federle.

His writers’ room is mostly women of color, and there really is diversity everywhere. Not just in the cast. It is also in the crew and the team that creates the show, which I think is a wonderful environment. I think our show is helping to do some of that work, and we can show everybody that this is the direction that the industry should go. I think that is also being well received.

Now that you are out, do you think Big Red will receive any kind of queer storyline or moment?
[Laughs] Ultimately, we don’t even know if we are getting a third season yet. So, we are still waiting to know if there will be more Big Red, period. However, I think there is room for that if that is somewhere the writers want to go. What’s great about that is, he can still stay in his wonderful relationship with Ashlyn. No matter what Big Red’s identity is, Ashlyn is a central part to him. I do not think that would change, but I do think there is some room for some kind of exploration. If it does not happen in Season Three, it could happen in Season Four. There’s no rush.

What are you going to do with your platform to ensure that bisexuality is represented and not forgotten in the conversation?
I think this is with everybody now with social media and having platforms on the internet. It is just about speaking up and noticing where things are maybe not totally equal. I do think that bisexuality is often sort of like a forgotten identity in the LGBTQ community, which is funny because it is one of the letters; it’s right there, but I do think it is often forgotten and overlooked.

So, I am hoping that by being somebody who is in somewhat of a position right now to speak about it, it will get noticed more and less overlooked. I hope that in the future of my career, beyond High School Musical, I can still sort of plant that flag and create things that are helpful to the queer community and people who identify as bisexual.

What are some future goals you would like to achieve as an actor?
I really want to be on Broadway, ultimately. That has been my dream since I was young, and I think that will happen one day. Broadway is not coming back until the fall, but I hope that in the winter or next spring, I will maybe be looking to do a Broadway show. I would also love to do more film and TV work beyond High School Musical. After that, I want to direct and write my own work and help bring more queer voices to the forefront.

Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you would like to mention or plug?
I am working on some tap dance videos, so those will be all over my social media soon!

Stay connected with Saperstein by following him on Instagram, TikTok, or visit his official website.

Photos Courtesy of Emily Assiran