When fans began recognizing Joel Kim Booster for his roles in Shrill, Loot, and Fire Island, which he also wrote, his brand was heavily associated with his chiseled physique. Although he’s no longer considered a young up-and-comer in Hollywood, the 38-year-old actor revealed in an interview with GQ that he still feels pressured to maintain his looks — but that pressure isn't just coming from the entertainment industry.
“I would say I feel more pressure from being gay than I do from being an actor for sure,” said Booster, whose recent roles include a brief stint in HBO's Industry as an analyst making deals in the nude and ABC's Scrubs reboot.
Although Booster said that being in a committed relationship has made him less “neurotic” about what he eats and his health routine, he still faces expectations when engaging in sex outside his open marriage.
“I’m not looking for love outside my relationship. We’re not polyamorous and so the sex I’m having outside of my relationship is all recreational at this point. And so when you’re primarily navigating [as someone] not dating, but just hooking up, I think it becomes even more focused on solely what you look like, than the entire package of who you are,” Booster told GQ.
“My husband loves me for a lot of reasons other than besides what I look like, and that’s great. But when I am hooking up with a rando, it is probably going to be mostly about what I look like. And because I sleep with men, men are much more ... They’re much less forgiving about body ideals than anyone else, especially gay men,” he added.
What’s notable isn’t that Booster — who also spoke to GQ about aging — or not aging — as an Asian man, how being financially stable has changed his approach to fitness, and the growing popularity of “looksmaxxing” among straight men — is candid about his open marriage. Plenty of queer celebrities have been. It's that he discusses it the same way he discusses his meal prep: as one more variable in the calculus of looking good.
