Barrowman: closeted actors are “just sad”

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a pink background.

Torchwood leading man John Barrowman has criticised gay stars who refuse to come out of the closet.

The openly gay actor said his sexuality did not influence the kind of roles you got offered as an actor and believes it is “just sad” that someone would deny their sexuality to the world.

“If it (being gay) has been a problem, no-one ever told me so. I know people who lie about being gay because they think it will affect their work chances. That is just sad,” he told The Stage .

Last year actor Sir Ian McKellen admitted that his career rocketed after he came out in 1988.

However, the Lord of the Rings star admitted that coming out was a tough challenge:

“It is very, very, very difficult for an American actor who wants a film career to be open about his sexuality. And even more difficult for a woman if she’s lesbian.”

Rupert Everett claimed in his memoir, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins, that he lost jobs in About a Boy and Basic Instinct 2 because he’s openly gay.

Howard Bragman, CEO of American PR company Fifteen Minutes, explained in Out Magazine that he believes there are four kinds of gay men in Hollywood:

“There’s the openly gay; the gay and everybody knows it but nobody talks about it; the married, closeted gay who doesn’t talk about it; and the screaming ‘I’ll sue you if you say I’m gay’ person.”

Bragman also said that when actors he deals with are struggling with their sexuality he advises them to come out, because even if their career turns less lucrative they will be happier with themselves.

“A lot of actors are afraid of being defined by their sexuality.

“In Hollywood they don’t cast by positives, they cast by negatives: ‘This one’s too this or that.’

“And actors don’t want to give red flags. They’re actors and want to talk about their mutability, not their personal lives,” he added.

John Barrowman can be seen in a new series of Cardiff-based sci-fi drama Torchwood which begins on the BBC this week.

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