Hilary Duff says she will “have to watch the movie again” when it comes to discovering how much her Disney Channel Original Movie, “Cadet Kelly” resonated with the LGBTQ+ community.
While promoting her new show, “How I Met Your Father”, Duff spoke with Cosmopolitan about the iconic 2002 film and how she recently learned of it having some queer-coded undertones.
The film, sees Duff’s character Kelly enrol in a military school due to her strict stepfather Joe (played by Gary Cole). While enrolled she becomes rivals with her commanding officer Jennifer Stone (played by Christy Carlson Romano) as they aim to make their school the best drill team in the state.
The rivalry between Kelly and Jennifer certainly caught the attention of a lot of young queer watchers. Duff’s “How I Met Your Father” costar Tien Tran, who is openly gay and plays the out and proud Ellen on the show, first brought it to her attention.
“She was like, ‘Oh my God. It is a moment in the queer community. All that close-talking with Jennifer,'” Duff explained. “I didn’t know that. But if it helped anybody, I hope so.” Adding that “I have to watch the movie again.”
However, it seems Hilary’s former costar, Christy Carlson Romano may have already caught wind of the sparks flying between these two characters, as early this month she posted a hilarious TikTok that hints that these two characters could have been more than just “rivals”.
@christycarlsonromano Low key tho 🌈 #greenscreen #iknowsomethingyoudont #fyp #foryou #lgbtq
♬ everyone stream Carly Rae Jepsens Dedicated album – Jaden Damelio
On her YouTube Channel, Romano addressed the impact of her character on young queer women stating “This character, Captain Stone, was the sexual awakening for a lot of the girls that felt that way at that age. I had a part in that! That’s crazy, I never even thought about that. I’m very flattered.”
