British actor and comedian Stephen Fry spoke with the Radio Times recently about sexuality and show business:
Says Fry: “I think the fact that I’m so well known to be gay makes it very difficult to have a convincing relationship with a woman on screen. Straight actors can play gay people and they’re rather congratulated on it. People say ‘Ooh, how brave of you.’ [No one says to a gay actor who plays a heterosexual person] ‘How brave of you to kiss that woman, that must have been very difficult for you’. It wouldn’t be at all difficult for me to kiss a woman – I’ll kiss a frog if you like. And why should it be difficult for a man to kiss another man? It’s difficult to ride bareback backwards while unicycling, but to kiss someone isn’t difficult. It’s just part of the insanely irrational way that the human mind works.”
Fry says that coming out is the brave act, and he’s happy to help others: “If you… have had the experiences I have had, not to share them where they can be useful is just mean. The obvious case is coming out as a gay man, which I did when it was quite a rare thing to do. You think of the average person in the playground who’s terrified of being beaten up, or the people who are not in a job like mine, where it doesn’t really matter, and these people need to be reassured that they’re not alone and they’re not freaks.”
