Lee Pace talks growing up as part of the queer community after starring in ‘Angels in America’
The actor came out last year and starred in the Aids epic play on Broadway alongside Nathan Lane and Andrew Garfield
By Steve Brown
Words: Steve Brown
Lee Pace reflects on playing closeted Mormon Joe Pitt in the Broadway play Angels in America.
The 40-year-old actor has starred in the likes of Twilight, Guardians of the Galaxy and The Hobbit franchises and last year, he starred in the Aids epic play on Broadway alongside Nathan Lane and Andrew Garfield.
At the same time, Pace came out as a ‘proud member of the queer community’ and now, while speak to Marc Malkin on Variety’s The Big Ticket podcast, the actor reflect on growing up queer and said he never experienced the dangers his Angels in America character faced.
He said: “I’ve always felt very safe, you know? I was in the drama department in high school. I went to Julliard.
“I’ve been playing queer characters. My first movie I played a trans character.
“I’ve never felt the danger of that, you know? So, to walk in the shoes of someone who that danger is so real that he can’t utter it, it taught me something about myself and about my community… We’re not all so lucky to get the free pass in life.
“As a community, we can be very unkind to each other, I feel like. It’s very judgmental to kind of look at someone and [think] you oughta do it like this… there’s a more gentle way to be and I guess before I played Joe, I could look at that character on the page and think, ‘What a coward.’
“After playing him, I don’t see a ‘coward.’ He had a journey. I see someone who did something that was very hard to do.”