Director Kenny Ortega on the Queer Aesthetic of His Movies From ‘Hocus Pocus’ to ‘High School Musical’
Ramin Setoodeh New York Bureau ChiefYes, there’s Gus Van Sant, Pedro Almodovar, Lee Daniels, Gregg Araki, Kimberly Peirce, Lisa Cholodenko and Dee Rees. But there is one director who arguably deserves to be included in that group of barrier-breaking LGBTQ filmmakers: Kenny Ortega.Ortega, one of this year’s honorees on Variety’s Power of Pride list, made movies that queer kids could relate to, even if they didn’t know they were queer when they were watching them.In 1992’s “Newsies,” Ortega discovered Christian Bale as a young actor, casting him as the star of Disney’s live-action musical about singing Manhattan newspaper delivery boys during the newsboys’ strike of 1899.