Andrew Scott Says ‘Openly Gay’ Is Outdated

Andrew Scott has some strong views about the term ‘openly gay,’ asserting that it should be abandoned and eliminated from usage due to its association with feelings of shame.

During a recent roundtable discussion with The Hollywood Reporter, the Irish actor stated, “I’m going to make a pitch for getting rid of the expression “openly gay”. Scott was joined by fellow actors Colman Domingo, Robert Downey Jr,  Paul Giamatti, Mark Ruffalo, and Jeffrey Wright.

“It’s an expression that we actually only ever hear in the media. You are never at a party, and you say this is my openly gay [friend]. You never say it. Why do we put ‘openly’ in front of that adjective? You don’t say you’re openly Irish, you don’t say you’re openly left-handed,” he stated. 

“There’s something in it that’s a little near ‘shamelessly’. You’re open about it? I’d nearly prefer shamelessly. If you’ve got to say it to understand it, just say ‘out’ possibly, or, you know what, just don’t say it at all. Now I think it’s just time to park it,” he said. 

Coming Out

The All of Us Strangers actor came out as gay during an interview with The Independent  in 2013. 

“Of course, it’s part of my make-up, but I don’t want to trade on it. I am a private person. I think that’s important if you’re an actor,” he said at the time.

Scott added that there was a difference between privacy and secrecy, sharing that while he was not a secretive person, he just wanted to “get on with my job” which involved pretending to be “lots of different people”. 

Scott has discussed his feelings on the term ‘openly gay’, in the past, sharing how the connotations of the phrase carries a sense of ‘defiance’ that he doesn’t resonate with. In a 2019 interview with GQ, the actor highlighted that people are not introduced as “openly gay” in social settings like parties, and he found the implication of defiance unnecessary. 

LGBTQI Actors In Diverse Roles

Scott also rejected the notion that LGBTQI actors are limited to certain roles, emphasising that sexuality is not a skill to be cultivated, “It isn’t a talent.”

Instead, he said he’d taken work like Fleabag, where he’d been nominated for Best Actor for the Broadcasting Press Guild Award in 2020, to prove how gay actors could still convincingly portray the chemistry in a heterosexual relationship. “You believe the relationship. That’s my job”, he said. 

Scott’s latest film, All of Us Strangers is a fantasy drama that weaves together two narrative threads exploring diverse forms of love. Andrew Haigh’s film traces the journey of Adam (Andrew Scott), a solitary gay screenwriter who reconnects with his deceased parents, (Jamie Bell and Claire Foy), and finds himself deeply enamoured with his younger neighbour Harry (Paul Mescal). Director Haigh described Mescal and Scott’s relationship as genuine, “Their chemistry is real, They are so close to each other”.