Jonathan Bailey thought being gay might harm his career, but “I wasn’t gonna not hold my boyfriend’s hand”

I was well aware that [of] the possibilities and the limits of queer actors and what that means to an audience and whether that bleeds into commerce and how that affects it.

So yeah, I think when I was in my early twenties, there was definitely an understanding that, to be gay would be a hindrance.

I wasn’t gonna not hold my boyfriend’s hand in the street, and that was something that I felt so strongly in an animal sense. And of course if that meant that it was gonna impede any potential work, then I was willing to take that risk.

I feel very lucky to be born at a time that I was, and that I do think fundamentally I was very confident about who I am and in my sexuality. But, you know, it’s never an easy path. I think if you can just act with kindness, then every step gets easier, maybe.

And then Brokeback Mountain came out when I was in my sixth form [final two years of high school], and I changed my thesis on representation in terms of homosexuality in Brokeback Mountain, just so that I had an excuse to go back to cinema about 15 times.

But even though the stories itself were painful, it was just enough to see actors performing them, which just shows how bread-crumbed I think we were, at that point.Jonathan Bailey speaking to Elton John during the Elton John Impact Awards about his journey as an out gay actor.