Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Gay actors fear coming out & then losing work
Kate: I know of 4 hiding sexuality
KATE Winslet says some gay actors are “terrified” their sexuality will become public knowledge because they believe it will damage their careers.
She added she knows at least four of them who are concealing their sexuality.
Kate said: “I cannot tell you the number of young actors I know – some well known – who are terrified their sexuality will be revealed and that it will stand in the way of their being cast in straight roles.”
The 45-year-old actress added: “A wellknown actor has just got an American agent and the agent said, ‘I understand you are bisexual. I wouldn’t publicise that.’
“I can think of at least four actors absolutely hiding their sexuality. It’s painful... they fear being found out.”
Kate added “discrimination and homophobia” are rife in the film industry.
She said: “Hollywood has to drop that dated crap of, ‘Can he play straight because, apparently, he’s gay?’ That should be almost illegal. You wouldn’t believe how widespread it is.”
Kate, who in new film Ammonite plays someone in a gay relationship with a character played by Saoirse Ronan, 26, told the Sunday Times: “A conversation about straight actors in gay roles is important.
“I hope there will come a time when it is automatic that [gay] actors get those parts and you wouldn’t have to put punchy film stars in to get it made.”
Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey, 32, who came out in 2018, said he was told to conceal his sexuality by some in the profession.
He added: “The most conservative conversations I’ve had about me being honest about my sexuality have come from gay men in the industry... ‘Oh, no, you can’t come out’.”