A class act
Hotly tipped to become a household name, queer actor Jonathan Bailey heads our Arts & Entertainment category. We catch up with him — and his wise friend, legend of stage and screen Sir Ian McKellen — as they talk coming out, playing straight roles, getting naked together (on stage), and love pre-DMs
Jonathan Bailey bounds onto set for his Attitude photoshoot with more energy than an atomic bomb going off in a broom cupboard. Effusing charm and contagious cheer, he runs through the clothes we’ve assembled for his cover shoot, and is fully hands-on, sharing ideas with the photographer and leaping behind the camera to look at the snaps after each picture to see how he can push himself one step further to snare that perfect shot. It’s the kind of infectious approach we at Attitude Towers welcome, and it makes a COVID-minded socially distanced shoot that much more fun to deliver.
Jonny closed 2019 on a monumental high as he added a prestigious Olivier award to his mantelpiece following a rousing role as Jamie in Marianne Elliott’s revival and contemporary update of the musical, Company. He can currently be seen on screen as the philandering Anthony in Bridgerton, the huge, new, modern-day take on a classic period drama from TV genius Shonda Rhimes and Netflix. If 2020 was a quiet year for many actors, 2021 is ready to make Jonny a household name, and a worthy lead for the Arts & Entertainment category in our inaugural Attitude 101 list.
Attitude first featured Jonny back in 2018 as he warmed his impressive vocals in preparation for hitting the stage in London’s West End. For his return to the magazine’s pages — this time gracing the cover (look how far our Jonny’s come!) – he wanted a different take on the interview format, suggesting being ‘in conversation’ with Sir Ian McKellen. We were totally game.
The legend more recently lauded for his roles as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films and Magneto in X-Men, Sir Ian is a supernova star of the stage and screen, and as readers will know, one of the earliest and most high-profile actors to come out publicly, doing so in the late ’80s when the declaration could have scuppered a less well-known actor’s career. Ian lent his voice to help found queer rights group Stonewall in the UK, and has since been an advocate for LGBTQ visibility as a patron of numerous charities.
Having first met when they starred in King Lear together, Jonny visited his friend and mentor Ian to muse on what it means to be an openly gay man and actor today. Now sharing another thing in common, both are recent Attitude magazine cover stars, Jonny opened their chat by scrolling through the shoot photos on his phone with Ian…
“There’s this heteronormative, heterosexual understanding of sexuality” Jonathan