Love, Simon will make history this weekend as Hollywoods first major studio film to feature a gay teen protagonist. If director Greg Berlanti had his way, however, that wouldnt be the case.

I wish it wasnt 2018 and that we werent the first teen rom-com with a gay lead to receive major studio backing, he told HuffPost. I wish we were the 10 or the 12 thered be a lot less pressure in many regards.

Based on Becky Albertallis 2015 novel , Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, the movie follows Simon Spier (played by Nick Robinson ), a charming and popular 17-year-old who is struggling to come to terms with his sexuality. He begins corresponding anonymously with another closeted student known as Blue over email, and the budding friendship turns romantic over time. Just as Simon begins to warm up to the idea of pursuing a relationship with Blue beyond a computer screen, a classmate threatens to expose his secret.

In some respects, Berlantis whole career has been building up to the release of Love, Simon. His first feature film, 2000s The Broken Hearts Club , followed a group of gay men on a West Hollywood baseball team. Since then, hes incorporated LGBTQ themes into a number of his television projects, including Dawsons Creek , Brothers & Sisters , Arrow and The Flash . Yet Love, Simon seems poised to make an even bigger impression.

In a conversation with HuffPost, Berlanti chatted about making Love, Simon, how marriage and fatherhood have affected his artistic perspective and why portraying queer themes in television and film is still incredibly rewarding.

One of the things that struck me most about Love, Simon is how the story felt true to the John Hughes teen rom-com genre, but, at the same time, its radical because its being told through a queer perspective. Was that your intention?

Absolutely. I think that was true of the book, and I think that was true of the script that I read. We had a number of conversations about those iconic movies from the 80s about coming of age, and mostly technically. The subject matter was the thing that made it feel contemporary, so we were more focused on, OK, so how as a film, stylistically, can we emulate some of those movies but let the content be the thing thats contemporary?