Samira
Wiley & Lauren Morelli and Gus Kenworthy & Matt Wilkas
Cover OUT’s Annual “Love Issue”
“I wouldn’t want to ever sacrifice my relationship with Matt
just to go out and get that out of my system, but we’ve also
talked about that and he doesn’t want to deprive me of experiencing
anything while I’m still young. I don’t necessarily know what
that means. But we’re not in an open relationship and we’re
not breaking up. But we’re also not getting married.” – Gus
Kenworthy
Photography
by Roger Erickson
Cover Story:
http://www.out.com/love-issue/2016/12/29/february-cover-couples-introduce-love-portfolio-2017
LOS
ANGELES
OUT magazine released its annual “Love Issue” today,
and for the first time the issue features dual covers. Two couples,
Olympic free-skier and medalist Gus Kenworthy and actor Matt
Wilkas as well as actress Samira Wiley and writer-producer Lauren
Morelli, strike intimate poses on this year’s sensual covers.
OUT sat down with the couples, who opened about
the first time they met, past relationships and the sacrifices
they’ve made for one another.
Photography
by Roger Erickson
Select
excerpts from the Kenworthy/Wilkas cover story include:
Kenworthy on how he first asked Wilkas out: “I’d
written him a message on Instagram while [his first boyfriend]
Robin and I were on a break – I’d seen Matt in the movie Gayby,
and he’d popped up on my Instagram with these videos he makes,
and I watched a few of them – he used to do these ones with
a silly chick who wiggles when the sun hits her, and I thought
they were really funny. I followed him, he followed me back,
and I wrote him this really long message on Instagram. I said,
“Hey, I think you’re really funny, and you seem really sweet,
and I’ve been enjoying following you on Instagram, and actually
I’m in the closet right now, and I’m coming to New York in a
couple of week if you want to get a coffee or something.”
Wilkas’s reaction to being asked out on Instagram: “Gus
reached out to me on Instagram, and he was very sweet. I think
he said he really liked my sense of humor and thought I was
funny, and I thought, Who is this guy? I didn’t know what free-skiing
was. I’d just come out of a relationship and was going to therapy
and wasn’t really in the right place, so when he asked me out,
essentially on a date, via Instagram, I couldn’t do it.”
Kenworthy on saying “I love you” for the first time:
“… I could feel his heart beating and sensed his energy, and
he turned to me and said, ‘I want to tell you something, but
I’m scared,’ and I just totally hijacked it and said, ‘I love
you.’ And then he said it back, and he was crying, and I was
crying. It was really sweet.”
Wilkas on their long-distance relationship: “For
me, being apart a lot of the time is a good thing, but I don’t
think Gus feels that way. He doesn’t really want a long-distance
relationship. I don’t either but think time apart is valuable
and can work.”
Kenworthy on their future: “All relationships
take work, and we’ve definitely begun to realize that…I was
in a relationship from 18-23, and I still haven’t really experienced
that much sexually. I wouldn’t want to ever sacrifice my relationship
with Matt just to go out and get that out of my system, but
we’ve also talked about that and he doesn’t want to deprive
me of experiencing anything while I’m still young. I don’t necessarily
know what that means. But we’re not in an open relationship
and we’re not breaking up. But we’re also not getting married.’”
Photography
by Roger Erickson
Select
excerpts from the Wiley/Morelli cover story include:
Wiley on the first time they met: “… Lauren wrote episode
six of the first season [of Orange Is the New Black],
one of the first scripts really featuring my character, Poussey.
We spent four days in row working together. Honestly, I thought
she was gay the first time I met her.”
Morelli on the first time they met: “… I was on
set, sitting in front of the monitors, and she and Lea DeLaria,
who plays Big Boo, walked up to me. Our set is like a lesbian
utopia, and I remember thinking, They’re flirting with me.”
Morelli on her sexuality: “I started questioning
my sexuality as a result of being in the writers’ room and talking
about all the themes on the show. I was still very confused,
but I knew the attraction between us felt magnetic.”
Wiley on saying “I love you”: “I was so scared
to be the first to say “I love you,” so I did a little pussy
version. I said, “I heart you,” which actually ended up in one
of Lauren’s Orange scripts. I believe Alex says it to
Piper. It felt safer than using the L word. It’s hard to step
out on that limb. I thought I’d just be one of those people
totally in love with her friend.”
Morelli on mixing business and pleasure: “Being
able to write words for someone as talented as she is, watch
her perform what I write, and then go to bed with her is the
best thing. Last year, police brutality against black people
in our country was something we were talking about a lot. It
felt really important for the show to address it. Also, we hadn’t
had this heartbreak tragedy yet, and when Jenji [Kohan, Orange
creator] came into the fourth season, that was her mandate.
I was obviously honored to write the episode in which Poussey
is killed. When I sat down to write the scene and typed the
part when she dies, I just started sobbing. I called Samira
sobbing so hard that I couldn’t get the word out. I’d never
had the experience of not only killing a character, but killing
a character played by my girlfriend.”
ON SALE NOW
Read the full interviews now at: http://www.out.com/love-issue/2016/12/29/february-cover-couples-introduce-love-portfolio-2017
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