Looking actor Russell Tovey on being ‘typecast in gay roles’ and his desire to play David Hockney
Tovey says he's not worried about being typecast: "There are billions of queer characters around the world so how the hell can I be pigeonholed?"
By Gary Grimes
Looking actor Russell Tovey has said he doesn’t care about being ‘typecast in gay roles’ as there are so many ‘varied, nuanced’ queer characters to play.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone UK, Tovey spoke about a time, early in his career, when he was advised to avoid being typecast by only playing gay characters.
“When I was younger, people would tell me that I didn’t want to be typecast in gay roles, and I’d just say that there are billions of queer characters around the world so how the hell can I be pigeonholed?” said the actor, who famously played Jonathan Groff’s love interest in the cult HBO gay series.
“There’s so many stories to tell and every one I’ve done has been so varied, nuanced, and moved the dial somewhere along the line. I absolutely have to keep doing these roles.”
Aside from Looking, Tovey has played a number of gay characters including that of Joe Pitt in the 2017 London revival of the seminal gay play Angels in America, and a turn in the Russell T. Davies dystopian series Years and Years.
He next appears on the big screen in Plainclothes in which he plays an undercover police officer in 90s New York who is tasked with entrapping gay men cruising in public toilets, only to fall for one of the men he is pursuing. “Gay men were being targeted when they were cruising bathrooms, and the police would trap them and ruin their lives,” he says of the film’s plot.
“If people are having to be brave, they should be brave right now because they’re going to be on the right side of history” – Russell Tovey
The actor told the publication that the current political climate in the US has only emboldened him to want to tell more queer stories. “What’s happening in the States is fucking terrifying, but it makes me more determined to tell gay stories and to play gay characters,” Tovey said.
“If people are having to be brave, they should be brave right now because they’re going to be on the right side of history, and I think I’ve always really run towards that.”
Tovey, who is also a keen art collector and hosts the art podcast Talk Art with Robert Diament, also revealed there is one gay character he dreams of playing – the acclaimed British painter David Hockney.
“We wanted to interview him for the podcast, and he’s evaded us so far, but I would love to play him,” the star said. “I think the story of him making art that was very coded and very queer at a time when it was still illegal, at the Royal College of Art, is amazing.
“His story too, coming from Bradford and Leeds and going to Malibu and living this incredible life where he’s been surrounded by friends, muses and lovers. That story is phenomenal.”
Tovey can be seen as Brian Paddick in Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles De Menezes on Disney+ out now.