Falduto remembers School of Rock fondly, but it came with hardships | Photo: Facebook/NowThis Entertainment
Brian Falduto found fame as a child actor for his role in the Jack Black comedy School of Rock. He instantly won audiences over with his character’s iconic line: ‘You’re tacky and I hate you!’
His real life was a different story.
Falduto recently spoke to NowThis Entertainment about his experience following the success of the movie.
‘In the fifth grade, there was an “I Hate Brian” club,’ he recalls.
Another time in school, someone passed around a video of Falduto with the f-word. ‘It was insulting,’ he now says. ‘And I remember that was passed around, and then that kid got suspended, and then everyone was mad at me because he got suspended.’
‘All I knew at the time was that being gay was bad,’ he continues. ‘So I instantly shut it down. And so by the time I realized that I was potentially gay, I was already homophobic.
‘I replaced a lot of self-acceptance with self-repudiation and self-hatred.’
Change you or the world?
The cruel irony of it all, as Falduto says in the video, is that School of Rock was the first time he was unashamedly himself.
His character was first conceived as a tech nerd, but changed completely with the energy he brought to the audition. The subsequent bullying following the film, however, affected him far more.
In the video, he further talks about how the people in his life wanted to change him because ‘they knew they couldn’t change the world’.
‘What I’m learning now is that it’s actually the opposite,’ he says. ‘We can’t change anything about the situation, but we can change how we react to the situation.’
Falduto is now openly out and a life coach at his company Love Life. He works on dismantling the ’embedded’ feelings of self-doubt in people.
As for his character in a School of Rock sequel, he imagines Billy as a Miranda Priestly type character at Vogue.
More from Gay Star News
The ‘sassy’ kid from School of Rock is now an out and proud gay singer
