Marvel's Agents of SHIELD star J August Richards has thanked his fans for their "avalanche of LOVE" after he spoke about his sexuality for the first time.

The actor, who played Michael Peterson/Deathlok on the Marvel show, posted a photo of himself on Instagram on Tuesday (April 21) wearing a rainbow shirt and wrote about how "beautiful" his experience has been of publicly opening up about his sexuality.



"Everyone said it would be but nothing could have prepared me. Yesterday was one of the best days of my life," he wrote.

"'Thank you' feel like cheap words to describe the depths of the gratitude I feel for your support and the crushing avalanche of LOVE I felt aimed at me yesterday.

J. August Richards Instagram

"Who knew that something I once thought of as terrifying had within it something so beautiful... For every comment, like, emoji, repost, phone call, text message, everything. I felt it ALL... Thank you!!! #PRIDE #LGBTQ #BlackLGBTQ #ComingOut #SelfLove #SelfAcceptance"

Many of his followers commented about how pleased they were for Richards and sent him much love and support.

The actor spoke about his sexuality while taking part in an Instagram Live conversation about his new NBC drama Council of Dads with his co-star Sarah Wayne Callies.

The show sees him play Dr. Oliver Post, a married gay man with a daughter who takes part in a 'council of dads' with his friendship group, and Richards said that taking the role made him want to open up about his own experiences.

Dia Dipasupil Getty Images

Saying that he felt a "pressure and responsibility" in playing Oliver, he explained: "You have an opportunity to put an image into millions of homes and I wanted that image to be honest and correct. It required me to show up in a way that I haven't always when I was working."

"I knew that I could not portray this gay man honestly without letting you all know that I am a gay man myself," he continued.

"I've never done that with the people that I've worked with. That responsibility carried me to do that, because I knew how important it is to other people out there like me, who would need to see that role model."

Richards is also known for playing vampire hunter Charles Gunn in Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off Angel.



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Susannah Alexander Susannah Alexander is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy.

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