Dustin Lance Black has slammed agents and managers for the lack of out gay Hollywood actors because they force them to stay in the closet.

Dustin Lance Black spoke at an event at Student Pride in London on Saturday, February 28, about his views on LGBT in Hollywood.

But, the Oscar-winner has said that studios and producers – surprisingly – don’t have a problem with actors revealing their sexualities.

“The truth is there are tons of lesbian and gay actors in Hollywood. But for so many years now at agent level and management level there has been a lot of closeting going on. The studios are on our side, the producers are on our side, but we hit the wall with agents and managers. They think somehow it is going to hurt their bottom line.”

With the likes of Ellen Page and Ezra Miller coming out, Black thinks that it is only a matter of time before managers and agents cannot stop their clients from coming out.

“It is outdated thinking. Young actors are coming out now, there is no going back into the closet. So managers and agents will have to grow up and get a spine.”

Black – who is dating Olympic diver Tom Daley – also believes that the hiring of more diverse writers would lead to more diverse LGBT representation.

“We write what we know. The issue right now in Hollywood is it is not representational. It is going to take diversity initiatives. It is going to take studios with balls to hire diverse writers so they can start writing what they know and we get more diverse stories.”

Dustin Lance Black gave a fantastic and impassioned speech in Dublin last week, after being honoured by the UCD Law Society.