Batman, HIV and Being Queer

Actor Cory Michael Smith is a queer man, he tells The Daily Beast for the first time, coming out while promoting a new film based during the AIDS crisis.

Smith is well known to LGBT audiences for playing the private investigator in Carol who tracks down Therese and Carol at a hotel. Now he plays the Riddler on Fox’s Gotham. 

Smith’s new film, 1985, follows a man living with AIDS as he returns to Texas to spend a last holiday with his family.  Smith told The Daily Beast’s Kevin Fallon that he related to "coming out to a family, the fear of that." The Ohio native said his family took his own coming out with "a lot of love" even if it took "a lot of time."

That the story would be relatable, though, to everyone—gay or straight—was important to the film, Smith said.

“This story, a story about AIDS and stripping away politics, stripping away activism, stripping away the medical drama of it, what you’re left with is something so personal about family and connecting with family and keeping secrets with family,” Smith told The Daily Beast. “It just overwhelmed me.”

In the image below, Smith plays Adrian in 1985. 

In images from his Instagram below, Smith is seen at SXSW where 1985 premiered, as the Riddler on Gotham, and appearing in Carol.