You're probably most familiar with Mason Cook as Ray DiMeo, sarcastic younger brother of focus character JJ (Micah Fowler) on
Speechless (2015-18). JJ has cerebral palsy and is nonverbal, "speechless."
Ray gets a lot of gay subtext plotlines, at least in Season 1. In Season 2, he becomes annoyingly hetero-horny, and eventually gets a serious girlfriend.
Ray's sudden movement into hetero-horniness was disturbing not only because the gay teases were overturned, but because of the "discovering girls" rhetoric. Mason is over 18 at the time, but his character is 15. When I was 15, all I ever heard was "You'll discover girls any moment now, and everything you love will become meaningless. You'll join clubs, take classes, choose your college solely in order to see or meet girls. Your buddies will become mere strategists, helping you find, impress, and win girls. You..."
Sorry for the rant, but I really felt betrayed by Ray DiMeo in the second season.
So you may wonder why I'm posting a profile on Mason Cook
Not because of his gay or gay-subtext performances.
Born in 2000
Guest star in teencoms like Zeke and Luther
Son of the focus charater in the crime drama Legends
Classmate of the focus character on The Middle
An "eccentric, devout Christian" who has sex with the focus girl, sending her rushing for a "morning after pill," in Plan B. This was nominated for a GLAAD award because a major character is trans, but Mason is straight.
Not because of his physique.
The few shirtless photos on Mason's social media suggest that he doesn't spend a lot of time at the gym.
Although he has developed some biceps recently.
Not because of his handsomeness.
His clean-cut all-American look was sort of cute, but his recent greasy-hair hipster-bohemian look is off-putting
Not because he is gay in real life.
Mason appears to be more LGBTQ-friendly than his fershugenen Speeechless character. Here he invites his fans to "stand up against bullying in the LGBT community" on Spirit Day.
But in his social media pages, he's hugging girls a lot, and proudly displaying their cleavage, as if to brag: "I get to touch those!" He has been photographed on dates with several people identified as "girlfriends."
So, not extraordinarly handsome or built, not a lot of gay or gay-subtext roles, straight in real life, and his Ray DiMeo was upsetting. Why am I doing a profile of this guy?
Because I was left "speechless" upon discovering videos of Mason showing fans his "joie de vivre"
More after the break. Caution: explicit.