The internet has once again logged on, seen a shirtless redhead, and immediately lost its collective mind — and this time, Wicked’s Ethan Slater is at the center of it all. Broadway’s favorite ginger twink-turned-Ariana-Grande-romantic-plot-twist, Ethan Slater, woke up to discover that the world thinks he once starred in a gay porn video. One chaotic clip. One misleading watermark. One very buff twink in a suspiciously sensual pose. And suddenly social media is screaming, “Why is Ethan Slater doing gay porn?”
RELATED: ‘Wicked’ Has a Deleted Scene with Fiyero & Boq Shirtless!
A resurfaced clip from 2017 had social media collectively gasping, clutching pearls, and asking, “Why is Ethan Slater doing gay porn?” The post—now with over 67K views—features a very buff Slater leaning back in a pose that can only be described as suggestive yoga, shirtless and mid-flex, with the unmistakable stamp GAYHOOPLA.com floating across the frame like a neon sign of chaos.
Naturally, X (formerly Twitter) ran with it at Olympic speed.
Before you cancel your Wicked tickets or start Googling “Ethan Slater porn name,” let’s break down what’s actually going on.
Slater, Gay Porn, and Internet Panic: What’s Real? What’s Fanfiction?
Here’s the truth, besties: Ethan Slater did NOT do gay porn.
Not before SpongeBob, not before Wicked, not before Ariana Grande entered the chat. Not ever.
The now-infamous clip doesn’t come from an adult film set but from a 2017 short film titled FunEmployment. Slater starred in it—fully clothed for parts, shirtless for others, and apparently giving just enough “sweaty indie student film energy” that the internet decided it must be porn.
The confusion likely comes from two things:
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The lighting: It’s dim, grainy, and screams “shot on my friend’s Canon in a dingy basement.”
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The watermark: The version circulating has the GAYHOOPLA.com logo plastered on top, which is… bold, misleading, and absolutely not part of the original film.
Someone essentially took a harmless short film and gave it the Pornhub treatment. And once something looks porn-adjacent online, good luck convincing anyone otherwise.
The Internet Reacts: Chaos in the Quote Tweets
Of course, the comments were unhinged in all the right ways. A few gems:
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“He had to pay the bills during the strike somehow.”
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“I thought it was Ethan Slayyyter.”
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“He needed a quick buck. Can’t hate the hustle babe.”
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“Awkward, yes. Surprised? Never.”
Honestly? The internet stays funny.
But again—none of these jokes are grounded in truth. Slater has never appeared on GayHoopla. The man is simply a victim of 1) being ripped, 2) acting in indie shorts, and 3) someone out there with Final Cut Pro and too much time.
So What Has Slater Actually Done? (Besides X-Men-Level Damage Control)
If anyone deserves better from the internet, it’s Slater. The man’s real résumé is stacked:
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Tony-nominated breakout performance as SpongeBob SquarePants
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Beloved Broadway turn as Boq in Wicked
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Reprising Boq in the upcoming film Wicked: Part Two
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Transforming into the Tin Man for Wicked: For Good
None of these required a subscription, a login age verification, or a credit card.
Final Verdict: Slater Is Not a Porn Star — He’s Just Hot and the Internet Is Unsupervised
So, to summarize this fever dream in the most honest way possible: Did Ethan Slater do gay porn? Absolutely not — not even a whisper of it. Did he act in indie shorts where he happened to be shirtless? Yes, of course he did, as is legally required of actors hustling between gigs and trying to pay rent in 2017. Did the internet take those artsy, dimly lit clips and confidently spin them into “Slater stars on GayHoopla”? Also yes — aggressively yes — because the internet loves nothing more than a misleading watermark and the chance to turn a Broadway star into a fictional adult entertainer.
At the end of the day, Slater is guilty only of being extremely fit in a grainy student-film era and having a fandom that can run wild with a single screenshot.
So before you go believing your cousin’s repost or that messy “this you??” thread, remember: the internet fibs, but Ethan Slater’s Broadway résumé does not.