Last week on Grey’s Anatomy, Schmitt (Jake Borelli) made a huge decision.
After finding out that his favorite uncle had been secretly gay and had been treated horribly by his mom, Schmitt moved out of his mom’s basement and out on his own. E! News talked to Jake Borelli for his new Freeform movie The Thing About Harry, and he spilled a bit on what exactly Schmitt’s big move means for him.
“It’s huge because his relationship with his mom is so integral into who he is,” he told us. “She’s his best friend. And she’s been there for him for his whole life. But I think we’re realizing now that, even though on the surface, it seems like she’s accepting him, that there’s something even deeper that is causing her not to accept him fully. She didn’t want to talk about him outside of the house, and she didn’t want to, in lack of a better term, she didn’t want to come out herself to her own family members, saying that she had a queer son. And I think that there’s quite a bit that she can learn actually.”
As much as Schmitt loves his mom, he’s now realized she hasn’t been supporting him in the way he needs to be supported.
“It’s so huge that Levi sees this and is really standing his ground and standing up for himself and saying, ‘You know what, I’ve made a huge step in my life. And I need you to take that step with me. And if you can’t do that right now, I can’t be with you. I can’t live with you every day and I can’t have the same relationship with you that I’ve been having.’ And so in a way, he’s really, you know, buying stock in himself, which I think is huge, especially as he’s been growing so much in his confidence after coming out.”
Borelli says the move was inevitable.
“I think this is just one huge step forward that was inevitable at some point. And, you know, I’m not sure how she’s gonna react, really, in the future. And I think it’s going to be very important if she wants this relationship with him to continue because he’s at a point right now where he loves himself and respects himself too much to sort of stay in the closet for anybody, which I think is a big turning point in his character’s story.”
Tonight’s episode of Grey’s Anatomy will reveal the results of Amelia’s paternity test while DeLuca works with a visiting doctor to diagnose an incurable patient, and Bailey checks in on a foster kid Ben brought into the hospital.
It airs tonight at 9 p.m. on ABC.
The Thing About Harry premieres Saturday at 8 p.m. on Freeform.