23 year-old actor, Zach Barack - who is set to portray an as-yet-unnamed friend, and classmate, of Peter Parker in the new Spiderman: Far From Home movie - spoke candidly about how "incredibly meaningful" it is to be the first openly transgender actor to star in a Marvel film. In an interview with Variety on Wednesday, Barack gushed about his role, claiming there's "something very inherently trans" about superhero stories.
"I'm kind of losing my mind a little bit," Zach admitted, speaking about their decision to cast him. "But I'm acting like I'm not. I don't know that it fully has [sunk in]…I don't quite have the capacity to explain how meaningful it is to me." Zach goes on to call comics an "important" part of his childhood, explaining that he felt "there's something very inherently trans about those stories," referring to how a superhero characters often have to balance their life as a teenager with their secret self at the same time.
Referencing Parker's own struggle with this notion in the previous Spiderman movie, Spider-Man: Homecoming, the actor admitted that he's also felt that same struggle "on a daily basis sometimes." Zach continued to elaborate on the comparability of the two notions, saying: 'Especially being a transmasculine person because sometimes there's a pressure to be a different way than I feel naturally inclined to do because I want to fit in, and I have to actively fight that instinct." He concludes with a statement of his gratitude, saying that he hopes it will speak to others as well, "but the fact of the matter is, being in this movie is so beyond incredibly meaningful and I hope that it means something to other people."