The 38-year-old star of Fellow Travelers, Bridgerton, and Wicked spoke candidly during a conversation with Sir Elton John for the inaugural Elton John Impact Awards podcast series, distributed by iHeartMedia. Bailey said, “I was well aware [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.”
Bailey said that in his early 20s, he believed being gay would be a hindrance in the entertainment industry, especially during a time before marriage equality became law in England in 2014 and in the United States in 2015. Still, Bailey said he refused to hide his relationships in public.
He shared, “I wasn’t going to 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 going to impede any potential work, then I was willing to take that risk.” The actor also reflected on the importance of queer representation in film and television, crediting stories like Brokeback Mountain for helping him feel seen and hopeful about the future for LGBTQ+ generations.
