Russell Tovey Says He's Glad He's Not "Really Effeminate," Breaks Our Heart
We've had a crush on Russell Tovey even before he was cast in HBO's Looking. But the out actor has really disappointed us with a comment insulting less-than-butch gay men.
In an interview with the Guardian, Tovey admits he was bullied as a kid, and was even knifed once. But he says he's thankful he didn't turn out too swishy.
Tovey's pop, apparently, forbade him attending theater school, where he might have—gasp—been able to be himself.
Yes, Russell Tovey is an actor, not a role model—and he might have just been giving his opinion about the kind of abuse he would have suffered as a lad.
"If they’d asked for my wallet or phone I would have understood it," he says of his attackers. "But it wasn’t anything to do with that. They just wanted to fucking hurt me. For years afterwards I was left with an insecurity.”
But considering he's a star in the only gay-centric TV show not on Logo, he should have been smarter with his words.
Tovey also praised the gym as the solution to feeling preyed upon. "The pack can sense you’re weak. It made me so frustrated. And going down the gym, discovering the gym three years ago, and really going for it – I feel a lot more in charge. I needed to exorcise that feeling of being a little scared, skinny rat.”
We're glad you've exorcised those demons, Russell, but other gay men have done the same without lifting weights or stiffening their wrists.
Or, as one brilliant Twitter user put it:
@russelltovey it'll be okay honey pic.twitter.com/B6SiqOvZdf— Sean AF (@cheprin) March 1, 2015
h/t: Fusion
