I just read the Guardian profile of Tovey and, frankly, I think it's very clear that he's talking about his career. He's basically saying that his persona and the way he 'reads' on screen has given him access to a greater variety of roles than say - I dunno - Chris Colfer or Sean Hayes. I've seen or read a few interviews with him over the years in which he's said - I'm paraphrasing here - that growing up in England, virtually all portrayals of gay men in British media were highly camp and exaggerated. He never saw someone like him - someone a little rough around the edges - presented as a gay man and kind of assumed there was no room for him in the, quote-unquote, "gay community". In his own, small way, I think he's kind of helped widen that tent a bit and that should be celebrated.
In the past he's also talked about how difficult his first few years out of the closet really were. It's kind of glossed over in this article, but he's said before that it took a long time - longer than he wished - for his dad to come to a place of love and acceptance. When he talks about his Dad forbidding some of his more creative aspirations as a kid, I don't think he's praising that style of parenting. In fact, I imagine if he had kids of his own, he'd let them explore.
He's well into his 30s and is looking back on a very successful career. When I read that article, I see him saying that although those experiences from his youth were terrible at the time - the knife attack; his father's harshness and, at times, cruelty - he thinks they undoubtedly shaped the man he became and, perhaps indirectly, shaped the kind of career he was able to forge. I do not get the impression that he wishes to shame, humiliate or speak ill of gay men with different gender expressions of degrees of masculinity or femininity. In fact, I got the impression that he's a deeply sensitive man who has a very clear eyed view of his place in the industry as an out, gay actor. And, for what it's worth, he's been out and proud for a long time now, he's often championing the work of gay artists, musicians and filmmakers via his social media accounts and seems to fully embrace and celebrate his orientation. I don't think his statements, his success, or even his pride in his career are acts of fem-shaming.
Updated On: 3/3/15 at 03:35 AM
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