The queer rom-com renaissance is here — and lucky for us, Keiynan Lonsdale is going to keep being part of it.
The Love, Simon star will headline the forthcoming LGBTQ+ romantic comedy My Fake Boyfriend alongside Dylan Sprouse (After We Collided) and Sarah Hyland (Modern Family), Deadline reported Thursday. The film will be Lionsgate and BuzzFeed’s second joint production following the announcement of their July 2020 partnership to make “high-concept” movies.
After films like 2020’s Happiest Season — and with exciting rom-com projects from Billy Eichner, Bowen Yang, and Joel Kim Booster on the horizon — it’s refreshing that Hollywood is going to continue exploring the specific messiness that often permeates the world of queer dating.
According to the movie’s official synopsis (per Deadline), the openly queer Lonsdale will play “a young man in a tricky situation, who follows the advice of his unconventional best friend (Sprouse) and uses social media to create a fake boyfriend to keep his awful ex-lover out of his life.”
Sounds like a simple, foolproof plan, right? Wrong! As the synopsis notes, “everything backfires when he meets the real love of his life, and breaking up with his fake boyfriend proves hard to do.”
My Fake Boyfriend is being helmed by longtime TV director Rose Troche, who previously worked on shows like The L Word and Shameless. Filming is set to begin this month in Canada, and if all goes according to plan, expect the film to hit theaters just in time for Pride Month 2022.
“There is no better person to tell this queer love story than Rose Troche,” BuzzFeed’s head of studio Richard Alan Reid said in a statement, while Lionsgate vp of co-productions and acquisitions Lauren Bixby added, “My Fake Boyfriend has the heart, laughs, and talent behind the scenes and in front of the camera that make this film a genuine win.”
Lonsdale is no stranger to gay rom-coms given his portrayal of the eponymous Simon’s dreamy love interest Bram in the 2018 coming-of-age film Love, Simon, which was heralded as the first gay teen romance ever released by a major Hollywood studio.
The actor and “Rainbow Boy” musician came out as queer in a 2017 Instagram post, writing, “I like to change my hair, I like to take risks with how I dress, I like girls, & I like guys (yes), I like growing, I like learning, I like who I am and I really like who I’m becoming.”
Over the years, the multi-hyphenate has made creating queer art a priority across mediums. He has released queer anthems like the Little Mermaid-inspired single “Kiss The Boy,” and will play visionary civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin in HBO’s upcoming docuseries Equal, which will tell a diverse array of LGBTQ+ activists’ stories.
Now that he’s cementing his status as gay rom-com royalty, it’s only reasonable to ask Hollywood for a queer Lonsdale comedy every few years from now on, right? Let’s make it a tradition!
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