'9-1-1: Lone Star' Actor Ronen Rubinstein Comes Out as Bisexual. Girlfriend Says, Don't Leave Me for Harry Styles
After a sexy scene with actor Rafael L. Silva, "9-1-1: Lone Star" actor Ronen Rubenstein came out as bisexual.
After actors Ronen Rubinstein and Rafael L. Silva had a steamy sex scene on the second episode of Fox's "9-1-1: Lone Star," they were monikered "Tarlos" and a meme was born.
"Carlos and I have a huge make-out scene where we, like, burst through the door, and we're ripping our clothes off," Rubinstein told Variety this week. "It's super hot, and it just goes on. It just doesn't stop. We're, like, crashing against the walls, and then we end up on the couch."
He even thought the scene so graphic that he warned his parents living in Staten Island that perhaps they should look away.
"I warned my parents and my friends for months. I said, 'Listen, I understand if you guys don't want to watch it, I understand you probably might say some really ignorant, close-minded stuff, or you just might not want to watch it and I get that too.'"
But for Rubenstein, the scene brought on a personal crisis. "The 27-year-old actor found himself coming to terms with and accepting feelings that he had suppressed for as long as he can remember," Variety reports.
"I fully identify as bisexual," Rubinstein told Variety in an exclusive interview over Zoom from his Los Angeles home. "I literally just got goosebumps saying that. It feels so good to talk about it...feels so good to finally be comfortable with it."
It was a difficult journey for the actor, in part due to growing up in the conservative New York City borough. "The biggest thing for me is where I come from, it's like people like me and people who have identified as bisexual or gay or as any part of the community, you're just not welcomed. It's as brutally honest as that," he says.
He feared both verbal and physical abuse. "So there was definitely a fear of sort of embracing how I felt. I was definitely more aware of it in high school. I was aware of my feelings and how I started looking at men...but I couldn't talk to anybody about it."
He chose to come forward at this moment as a way of speaking to those living through a similar crisis about their sexuality in a less-than-nurturing environment.
""I want people to know that this is a hopeful and a happy story," he says. "I want people to know that they're not alone, and it's definitely okay. Trust me, I know that it is not easy. My path has not been easy at all, but it's just one more thing that I can share with people to help them and let them know that I'm here for them."
For support, Rubenstein turned to a likely LGBTQ ally, "911: Lone Star" producer Ryan Murphy, and one unlikely one, his girlfriend Jessica Parker Kennedy, who actually called him out on the subject of his sexuality.
"She's like, 'Is there something we need to talk about?' I said, 'Maybe.' I didn't know how that conversation would go. And it went probably as good as it can go. She definitely encouraged me to be vocal about it, just to live my truth. She's like, 'I love you for who you are, your full self, and people will love you for who you are.'"
But, she added: "'Just don't leave me for Harry Styles.'"