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‘Love, Victor’ star Michael Cimino wants to bridge gap between parents and kids

For 20-year-old Michael Cimino, Hulu’s “Love, Victor” is his breakout role. The Las Vegas-born actor isn’t really new to Hollywood — he’s done stray episodes of shows such as CBS’s “Training Day” in 2017 and short films including “Dog Days” in 2018. But “Love, Victor” marks his first time as a series regular and in …

For 20-year-old Michael Cimino, Hulu’s “Love, Victor” is his breakout role.

The Las Vegas-born actor isn’t really new to Hollywood — he’s done stray episodes of shows such as CBS’s “Training Day” in 2017 and short films including “Dog Days” in 2018. But “Love, Victor” marks his first time as a series regular and in a starring role. The show is a spinoff of 2018 gay rom-com movie “Love, Simon,” featuring Nick Robinson in the titular role.

Set after the events of that film, the show follows Victor, a Latino teen boy questioning his sexuality who moves from Texas to Georgia and attends Simon’s old school. In the world of the show, Simon recently graduated. Victor, haunted by the stories about Simon’s epic love and acceptance from everyone in his community, begins corresponding with him and sharing his insecurities via Instagram messages as he navigates his own high school journey.

Cimino talked to The Post about landing the role, the show’s move from its original platform of Disney+ to Hulu and more.

What attracted you to “Love, Victor”?

There are a lot of things that drew me to “Love, Victor,” but I feel like it was mostly the fact that I could connect to a wide audience and influence their lives in a positive way. I watched the “Love, Simon” movie when it first came out, and I remember telling some of my friends I was there with: “I cannot wait to be in a project like this.” I literally said that verbatim, and now here we are.

Especially [getting to] represent the Puerto Rican community — that was something that I’ve always wanted to do, and I finally got to do it. I’m Puerto Rican/Sicilian, so being able to represent my community was really cool.

This isn’t your first acting job, but it is your first time as the lead of a show. What’s that been like?

It’s been an unbelievable whirlwind of emotions; it was such an honor to lead a freakin’ show! And I want to just say for anyone that wants to be an actor, it’s unbelievably hard work but it pays off in more ways than one. Because I think everyone that wants to be an actor doesn’t necessarily know how much work goes into it; that was a big thing for me. But I came out so much stronger for it.

What was the biggest learning curve?

I think being able to function on not a lot of sleep, and function in a way where you still carry yourself well and positively.

“Love, Victor” star Michael CiminoHulu

Since you grew up in a showbiz town (Vegas), was that why you wanted to act?

I always wanted to be a singer since I can remember — I went to church group when I was 8 years old, and someone in my church group was teaching an acting class, and they were like, “Would Michael want to do this? I know he likes music.” I took it, and ever since then it’s been nonstop.

Was the audition process for “Victor” intense?

They really wanted to make sure they found the right person. Hopefully they made the right decision! The audition process was long and emotional, to say the least. Once I heard I landed the role — I was in my apartment with my roommate — I was, like, throwing people in the air, screaming, running around my apartment. It was definitely a great time.

I totally nerded out when I met [Robinson]. Because he’s someone that I really looked up to and I loved the movie. It was amazing being able to see him in real life for the first time — see the guy that started this whole journey that I was on.

The show was originally supposed to come out on Disney+ but then it moved to Hulu. What’s your reaction to that?

We had already shot everything [when that happened], but it was definitely the right move for our show, I think. Disney+ is more of a young-skewing platform and so, because of that, being on Hulu I think our show will be a better fit because of the subject matter that we have. That kind of speaks for itself.

What do you hope the audience takes away from it?

I hope it reaches adults and parents that are having trouble understanding where their kids’ heads are at. I would really like them to see how parents react and see if they gain any perspective on this issue that is honestly plaguing our society — because kids should just be able to be who they are.

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