Joshua Rush Opens Up About Playing Disney Channel’s First Openly Gay Character

Quite a bit has changed on the Disney Channel over the past few decades. Hilary Duff is no longer Lizzie McGuire, Shia LaBeouf is no longer Louis Stevens, and Britney Spears is no longer a Mouseketeer. But more notably, the kids channel has now introduced its first gay character.

I’m watching andi mack because I’m 11 and mainly because I’m waiting for the gay shit

— s (@byleroleff) February 11, 2018

Played by Joshua Rush, Cyrus Goodman recently came out as gay in a very emotional scene of Andi Mack. To keep his storyline age-appropriate and respectful, the network consulted with Common Sense Media, GLAAD, and PFLAG. The show has even received a GLAAD Media Awards nomination for Outstanding Kids and Family Programming.

Rush and his costars recently sat down with People to discuss his historic role.

“I feel the pressure, and I also don’t,” Rush said. “I think the most important thing for me when I got this part was to do it right. I knew that I wanted to do it justice, because I knew that people were gonna end up seeing this and being like, ‘Wow that’s me, I identify with that [and] I can be who I am now,’ but I also wanted to make sure that it’s not all-encompassing. Like that’s not all of Cyrus’ personality.”

PSA: Andi Mack is Disney Channel’s Gilmore Girls if Rory had a male gay friend, in case you were interested

— Sean B. Johnson (@seanbrjo) February 10, 2018

He also expressed the excitement he felt when originally reading the script. He and costar, Sofia Wylie put in extra time preparing for the scene the night before, “just brainstorming, how are we going to do this.”

Andi Mack has recently been renewed for a third season. Watch it Fridays at 8/7c on the Disney Channel.