Actor Ben Whishaw, who is set to take on the role of Freddie Mercury in an upcoming biopic, has spoken to The Sunday Times Magazine about the courage it takes to come out as gay.
Actor Ben Whishaw, who is set to take on the role of Freddie Mercury in an upcoming biopic, has spoken to The Sunday Times Magazine about the courage it takes to come out as gay.
Whishaw, who married his partner Mark Bradshaw last year, discussed the similarities between the character he plays in new movie Lilting and his own life.
In the movie, he plays a gay man struggling to come to terms with the death of his boyfriend and forced to tell his partner’s grieving mother about his relationship with her son for the first time.
On whether he was able to relate to someone who felt they couldn’t come out to their mother, Whishaw said:
"It is hard, I applaud anyone who does it. There is so much tension around doing something like that, that maybe you’re not quite thinking rationally. You can say absurd things because you are in a panic.
Asked about coming out to his own parents, he said:
"I identify with the character in Lilting in as much as I had a lot of fear in doing it for a long time…it takes courage and people have to do it in their own time, which is a negotiation you see happening in the film."
Watch a trailer for Lilting, AFTER THE JUMP…
