- What's your wildest dating story?
(producer giggles)
(gentle music)
- [Producer] Turns around (laughs)
- (laughing) My God.
(rewinding)
- Happy I said that on camera. (clears throat)
(upbeat music)
Hey, what's up?
My name is Keenan Lonsdale,
and I play Andrew in the queer rom-com,
My Fake Boyfriend.
Today, I'm gonna be answering your delicious questions
about dating, queer romance,
and all the other good stuff.
I'm quite nervous.
I don't know about you but,
I haven't gotten my love life correct.
But I'm ready to give you all the advice you need.
How do I talk to people and let them know that I'm flirting
not just being friendly? (giggles)
I guess, starts with you.
Do you know for sure that you are flirting?
A subtle flirt is good.
You just want within the conversation
you want to be friendly, you want to be good,
you want to be nice, you just throw one thing out there
with really direct eye contact to them
and you hold it a little longer than you normally would.
And if they look a little confused, you just kind of like
you just keep the contact,
and you see if there's a connection there.
It's just in the eyes.
I came out earlier this year and finally have the confidence
to ask out this person I'm into.
It's very sweet.
I really want to impress, so what's your ideal date?
(whispers) Oh, the pressure.
Depends what you're into.
You can go and take them for a really good meal,
A movie is always good.
You know what I really love? I love just walking around,
like going to a park, getting into nature.
It's calming.
You find yourself asking, not just small talk,
but you get a bit deeper.
You get to know someone, it's a bit more intimate,
but you're also doing something you're exposed.
And then if it's raining, you get a little cute umbrella
and then you're really nice and close.
And you might little like snuggle in, a little kiss.
And then yeah.
Did playing a gay character in Dance Academy help you come
to terms with your queer identity?
It definitely would've played a part in it.
It got me outta my comfort zone.
I don't think I had ever kissed a guy.
I never dated a guy, you know,
before doing that on television.
In fact, I was dating a girl.
In fact, that girl was working on the show.
We're still friends now that she was working on the show
doing some background work that day.
She was really insistent on coming that day,
to watch me kiss Tom who played Sammy.
And I was like, baby, you don't have to come.
You don't have to come today.
She was like, I wanna be there.
I remember it being such a big moment.
And Tom is a lovely kisser.
It's got beautiful lips, beautiful big lips.
He knows this.
So I was happy to keep doing it.
I could hear my girlfriend in the background.
I could hear her going, "Ah!" (giggles)
Also playing the character of Ollie,
he was so, to a degree, confident within himself.
And it was nice to be able to embody that,
it was good to get me over the hump of going okay,
there's people out there that associate me
as being gay or even assume I am,
and that's not in my control.
And that allowed me to become a bit more comfortable.
I had to be okay with it.
I've thinking about my sexual identity a lot
and I'm ready to share this with my friends and family,
but I'm nervous about how they will react.
What advice do you have for me?
You gotta welcome the fact that they can react in any way
almost in a way, treated like a TV show.
I member a member of my family when I said
you know, you know, when I, when I marry
I'm probably gonna marry a man.
And they said, "What?!"
That was literally their reaction.
(screeching tone) What?! Arhhh!
And I thought I was gonna be scared
but I ended up just laughing cause I'm like,
that's so not a helpful reaction
but you just stay calm within the chaos.
Anything in life that feels
a little bit out of your control.
You remember that you have come
to terms with your sexual identity,
just because other people maybe need
a bit of processing time,
the processing time that you have already had that's okay.
You're just watching their process
and other people are not always as elegant
as the queers are.
You know?
How do you know if you are bisexual versus homosexual?
Yeah, it's an interesting question
because when I came out and I get this
because I did say I like girls and I like guys
and then everyone was like, Keenan comes out as bisexual.
I was like, I never said I was bisexual.
I've never quite identified as bisexual.
And I guess now, sitting in this now,
I would call myself quite happily a gay man.
I still recognize that I can be attracted to both.
And I'm probably pan in many ways,
you know, probably whatever,
probably a lot of different things,
but I choose to identify as a gay man.
The relationships I have are with men.
So it's really just a question for yourself
and you have to relax into it and know
that what you call yourself today might be different
to what you call yourself next week or next year.
If you could make a queer version of any famous rom-com,
which would you choose and who would you cast?
I was gonna say the Titanic, but that's not a rom-com.
(Producer laughs)
There's 10 Things I Hate About You, I'll be Heath.
Yeah. It's very tempting for me to be Julius Styles.
In my personal life, oftentimes someone's trying to like
win me over and I'm just like, I don't trust you.
I don't trust you, I don't trust nobody.
I don't trust none of these bitches with my heart stay away.
But then sometimes, you know, I've been the Heath guy too.
And I'm like. Who would I cast?
I've always had a massive crush on Demi Lovato.
She's also queer.
I would love to do a queer rom-com with Demi Lovato.
Let's manifest that.
Yes. And that you'll have no choice
but to hang out with me more and I'm like, you know what?
I know I'm a huge fan, but I will calm down.
What's the most attractive quality you look for in someone?
Honesty, love honesty.
I find it so sexy when a man can take ownership
of his feelings, of his curiosities, of his fears,
of his mistakes, of the lessons he's learning.
Because that's what I have to value in myself.
Otherwise I don't grow,
otherwise I'm not happy with the person I am.
But it's really tough to be honest with yourself.
And it's really tough to be honest
with other people until it's not.
And so someone that's committed
to being honest and being truthful,
it is (slaps lips) so nice.
Should I tell my straight best friend
that I like them or that ruin our friendship?
It might ruin a friendship, but I just say,
go for it because I've had two instances
where I have essentially come out or told my straight
best friend at the time that I felt
for them and both crashed way down in failure.
One just decided didn't want to really have a friendship
with me. Didn't know how to do it.
Like it just completely like was like, Ugh.
And then the other one, I just was like,
I'm just gonna go for it.
I'm just gonna, just gonna go for the kiss.
- [Producer] Ahhh!
- And he just did a sweet little dodging and was like,
"whoa, whoa!"
He was dropping me off at the airport.
And I was like, oh, but, and then he was like, whoa.
And then he just said, "I love you, man."
I'm like, I know I love you too.
I actually started crying.
And I was like, all right. Yep. Cool.
Thank you for the lift. And then I left.
- [Producer] You spoke your truth, you were honest.
- Spoke the truth and they accepted it, is what it is.
Your music has helped me so much with coming
to terms with who I am and being proud of my identity.
That's wild.
What song do you personally resonate with the most?
I'm a huge Michael Jackson fan.
And the one I probably resonate
with the most is Man in the Mirror.
If you wanna make the world a better place
take a look at yourself and make that change.
And then at the moment, I'm really resonating
with Kaylani's new album, Blue Water Road.
I am working on my second album at the moment,
which is really cool. It's all about love.
So it's, it's been an interesting road
like almost learning through each of the songs.
And sometimes I get right, and most times I don't,
but it's a cool process and the music is making me happy.
- [Producer] Can you give us a little teaser? A little clue?
Maybe like a title of a song?
- I'll say Two Seconds. There's a little clue.
What's your wildest dating story?
(producer laughs)
- [Producer] Turns around.
- Oh god.
- Once I flew to London for someone
and I thought we were a thing
and I realized we're not even really dating aren't we?
And then, and then we weren't.
So I guess that's pretty wild and pretty sad.
You just gotta go like screw it,
I'm gonna put my heart out there.
We're gonna do it.
You make the commitment, you take the leap and
sometimes it ends in heartbreak and that's okay.
How important do you think it is for LGBTQ plus youth
today to see themselves represented in mainstream media?
Oh, it's obviously essential.
It's essential to see everyone in media.
You know, you gotta have a 360 view of what's
going on in the world in order to, I think,
know ourselves cause we're each a
different reflection of one another.
Most of what we do is consume media.
So we need the truth.
It's not even just important for LGBTQ plus youth today,
it's important for everybody.
We're all learning about our stories
and we get stronger that way.
Lucky last it's a big one. It's the biggest one.
Recently, I got into my first same sex relationship.
Congrats.
It was really eye-opening because it made me realize
how much the traditional model for male to female
relationships has been ingrained in us.
Yeah. Yeah.
Did you experience this?
Absolutely. And what's your best piece
of relationship advice for queer couples?
The best piece I would give is to recognize that we're
in a space of healing.
You gotta give each other grace and patience and recognize
like individually you're on your own healing journeys.
This is straight relationships as well,
you know, but there's just all these,
layers of what we've had to come
through with self acceptance.
Sometimes we treat each other based upon the
lack of self acceptance and it's just important to forgive,
and to remember that and again, be patient.
I personally think the most important thing we can do is,
as they say, love yourself first
before you can love anyone else.
It will really make a huge difference
and you'll be able to receive their love
and they'll be able to receive yours.
All right. You little buzzers,
thank you so much for your wonderful questions.
They were really deep.
I hope that you enjoyed the advice.
Make sure you go check out my brand new film on Prime Video.
It is called My Fake Boyfriend.
You will not regret it.
You'll have a fun time.
(upbeat music)