“’I thought I wouldn’t be very good at it because I hadn’t had any experience of it. Yes, it was a bother to me. I also used to say to myself, not often, but I did, “I can’t let people know I’m gay otherwise they won’t be able to accept me as being straight in the play or the movie.” Well, it’s not true. I don’t care about any actor’s private life, their sexuality is of interest but the point is – is the character they’re playing convincing? Do I believe them? So I think it was just an excuse and I didn’t want to cut myself off from the possibility of playing Macbeth or King Lear … [other] parts that are resolutely straight. That would be, for me, cutting off my nose to spite my face.
However, the first job I took as an actor after having come out, was as resolute a heterosexual as I could find, and that was a disgraced British politician called John Profumo who in the movie Scandal, his story is told about how he lied to parliament about having had an affair with a prostitute which he inadvertently shared with a Russian spy. … I played this part on film and my first job was to appear to be having sex with Joanne Whalley Kilmer in the marital bed, well this would’ve been a joyful scene for any straight actor to play, she’s an extremely beautiful and lovely person and I didn’t know what to do with her. So I went to a friend, Edward Petherbridge, the actor, who knows about these things and I said, “Edward, I’ve got to do this love scene, can you explain to me – can you draw me a little diagram?” So he did, he gave me some stick figures and showed me what was possible. So I’m now an expert on the missionary position, and everything went well.”
stormborns
2087
gracieabrams
romaincrisis
