Justin Deeley isn’t your typical hunk. After extended appearances on 90210 and Drop Dead Diva (in which he is almost always shirtless, and keeps “a sense of humor about”), the young actor with Southern charm to spare will next turn heads in the new Geography Club, based on the acclaimed YA novel of the same name by Brent Hartinger.

In the film, Deeley plays Kevin, a closeted high school football jock who unsuspectingly falls for the protagonist Russell, played by Cameron Deane Stewart. Some parts of the role came naturally to the Kentucky-born actor, who had some considerable success in high school as a football player himself. On the day they shot the football scenes, “they couldn’t get me off the field!” he reminisces fondly.

Other aspects, though, were a stretch for the performer. “I have no idea what it’s like to harbor that kind of secret,” Justin allows. “My insecurity as an actor and worrying about the cliché—that was my biggest fear playing this character. [But] I found that it helped me find the character, as far as Kevin’s insecurity about his sexuality. That was kind of how I found Kevin.”

The results are electric, especially in the more tender and romantic scenes between the two boys. “I feel very fortunate to get the role, glad I did,” Deeley says. “This is the most proud I have been thus far in my early career.”

Warming that much to a gay role is only one of the atypical things about Justin Deeley, who goes on to identify what his takeaway was from Geography Club, a film about LGBT teens navigating the still dicey waters of the high school social and popularity food chain. For him, the message is to “stand by who you are, be very unapologetic about who you are, not in a rude way or an arrogant way. In high school it’s so difficult to do it, but there are so many characters in this film that are doing just that. They’re dealing with difficult social issues for 17-18 year old kids to deal with, and they own them.”

If only every high school jock came at the issue in the same way.

Geography Club hits theaters November 15, and VOD.