Colin Firth: ‘There are risks for gay actors coming out’
Posted on Feb 02, 2010 under Actors, Movies | No Comment
A Single Man star Colin Firth has said there are “risks” for a gay actor coming out as they could harm their career.
The 49-year-old, who is married to wife Livia Giuggioli, is playing the role of a gay college professor in his new movie and said gay actors are still struggling to cross “invisible boundaries” in their careers.
He said: “There might be risks for a gay actor coming out. The politics of that are quite complex, it seems to me. If you’re known as a straight guy, playing a gay role, you get rewarded for that.
“If you’re a gay man and you want to play a straight role, you don’t get cast – and if a gay man wants to play a gay role now, you don’t get cast.
“I think it needs to be addressed and I feel complicit in the problem. I don’t mean to be. I think we should all be allowed to play whoever – but I think there are still some invisible boundaries which are still uncrossable.”