Television

Love, Victor star Michael Cimino shows off muscular transformation in new series

By Demetri Woode

20th May 2025

Victor Salazar is all grown up!

Michael Cimino, the actor who memorably brought the beloved Love, Victor character to life, has just debuted his next major role in the Prime Video drama Motorheads.

Following a group of outsiders “in a once-thriving Rust Belt town” who form an unlikely bond over their mutual love of automobiles, the drama also stars Ryan Phillippe (Cruel Intentions), Nathalie Kelley (The Vampire Diaries), Melissa Collazo (One of Us is Lying), Nicolas Cantu (The Walking Dead: World Beyond) and Uriah Shelton (The Glades).

Cimino plays Zac Torres, who moves with his twin sister Caitlyn (Collazo) and mother Samantha (Kelley) to her hometown of Ironwood, where they reunite with their uncle Logan (Phillippe) and learn more about their father, who mysteriously disappeared before they were born.

In the first episode, the former Gay Times cover star continues his transformation from innocent high school twink to full-on muscular hunk, flaunting his washboard abs in a scene that’s bound to become a “that’s when I knew I liked boys” moment.

(Much like his co-star Phillippe in Cruel Intentions – you know exactly which scene we mean.)

In the days leading up to Motorheads‘ release, fans have been celebrating Cimino’s post-Love, Victor glow-up — from steamy magazine shoots to standout promo fits (see below).

Cimino memorably played Victor Salazar on Love, Victor for three seasons between 2020 and 2022. Set in the same world as the historic 2018 film Love, Simon, the series follows the title character, a teenager at Creekwood High School coming to terms with his sexuality. It received critical acclaim.

Since its conclusion, Cimino has starred in films such as Senior Year (2022), Girl Haunts Boy (2024) and Until Dawn (2025). Additionally, he played recurring characters on How I Met Your Father and Never Have I Ever (both 2023).

Cimino identifies as straight, although he’s expressed a desire to not be fit into labels. In 2020, he told NBC News: “I don’t feel that anyone is 100 percent straight or 100 percent wherever you lie on the scale. I feel like sexuality is not necessarily fluid. It’s more like a spectrum. And so finding out where you lie on that is important.”

He continued: “As of right now, I am straight. I don’t want to put myself in a box and put myself in a position where if I were to come out as bi or as gay 10 years from now, that I was defending an identity that was being true to myself.”

Motorheads is streaming now on Prime Video – watch the trailer below.