Aug 06, 2013 at 4:50 pm

Kevin Zegers Talks Cory Monteith's Death, Received His Ashes

Kevin Zegers shows off some of his chest on the cover of Bello magazine‘s Sexy Issue for August 2013.

The 28-year-old Mortal Instruments: City of Bones actor talked with the mag about the death of his good friend Cory Monteith.

“There was a group of us who were there for the whole finding out up until now, and it’s been very, very strange,” Kevin said about spending time in Vancouver after Cory‘s death. He also shared that he took some of the late actor’s ashes back to Los Angeles.

“He’s probably the closest person I’ve ever lost,” Kevin added. “It was a heavy and weird month. Cory was the nicest man I knew. It’s a f–king horrible disease,” he said referring to his own past with addiction.

“By the grace of God, I’m not dead,” he said. “I think it’s something that constantly reveals itself as something that happens to people who, for whatever reason, don’t get well, and it was by no lack of him trying or anyone else trying to help him get well. Eventually, your body just says, ‘No, it’s enough.’ But it doesn’t make it any less sad or tragic. I think the problem people had was that he looked healthy and he never showed the struggles he was having.”

Kevin also talked about playing a gay character in his new film.

“The thing that I didn’t want was for him to be some generic, prototypical character, what people would expect from the gay character,” Kevin said. “For me, it was about creating a character whose sexuality didn’t matter…I actually don’t think it’s that big of a f–king issue anymore. Certainly not with me, and especially not with the generation that read this book. So it wasn’t something that we really focused on. But one thing I was aware of was the fact that there haven’t been many great examples of a really strong gay character, one of the leads in a really big movie who happens to be gay and who’s also kind of a badass.”

For more from Kevin, visit BelloMag.com!