Photo: Brian Ziff
Social media star Bretman Rock is no stranger to breaking barriers.
The 23-year-old influencer nabbed the cover ofPlayboy’s digital magazine, making him the first openly gay man to don the complete bunny suit for the cover.
Brian Ziff
The cover model struck fierce poses in head-to-toe iconicPlayboybunny garb, including a racy black bunny suit, bowtie and matching bunny ears.
WhilePlayboysays Rock isn’t the first man to appear on the magazine cover, he is the first who openly identifies as part of the LGBTQ community and the first male to don the full suit.Bad Bunnyhas previously been featured on the cover, while Ezra Miller appeared in bunny ears for his feature with the magazine.
“Just for Playboy to have a male on the cover is a huge deal for the LGBT community, for my brown people community, it’s surreal,” said Rock. “Like ‘is this even f—ing happening right now?’ type of vibe. And I’m so pretty. So yeah, everything happens for a reason and it proves that I’m a big ass witch. Weird flex but okay.”
Rock took toTwitterto showcase the historical cover, tweeting, “I’m a @playboy bunny 🐰 DUHHHHHH.”
In his feature with the iconic men’s lifestyle magazine, Rock said that gracing the cover ofPlayboyhad been a goal — but one he was unsure he’d be able to attain.
“This dates back to when my manager sat me down and asked, ‘what do you want to do?’ I jokingly said ‘Playboy’ because I didn’t think it was possible. It… proves to myself that I can do anything I put my mind to,” said Rock. “And it’s crazy that Playboy believes in that as well and believes in me. It means the world to me.”
In July,Rock sat down with PEOPLE for an exclusive interview,reminiscing about his humble beginnings.
“When I say I came from nothing, I really came from nothing,” he said, referring to his upbringing in the Philippines before moving to Hawaii. “All of this was literally just a dream.”
“Growing up as an immigrant kid, we are told that we have to work twice as hard as everybody else. And we’re told to keep our heads down,” he added. “Like, when you enter someone’s house, you take your shoes off, you leave your pride at the door. And you always want to work with your head down.”
“I really do feel like there’s only a couple of people who are grounded and know how to be a human being,” he added. “So often, I go to L.A. and I feel like I’m hanging out with robots. And all they do is sit around and talk about other people. I could run my mouth, but at the same time, if that’s all we’re doing is talking about other people, it’s not cute!”
Having experienced major success, Rock said his dreams of superstardom now extend beyond himself. “It’s become everybody’s dream for me,” he said. “Everybody’s rooting for me. And it just really taught me to be so much more grateful for what I do.”
source: people.com
