Lee Pace on Kit Connor’s sexuality: ‘it’s none of my business’
"I look at him, and he’s so great in the show, and all I think is, 'I want to see what else you do'."
Lee Pace has reminded people that someone else’s sexuality is none of their business as he comments on the speculation around Kit Connor before he came out.
At the beginning of November Connor, who plays Nick Nelson in Heartstopper, returned to Twitter to come out as bisexual. He had previously quit the platform over accusations of ‘queerbaiting’ and people demanding he reveals his sexuality given his Heartstopper character.
Pace, who came out publicly in 2018, commented on the furore around Connor in a recent interview after being asked about his own coming out.
“The media has a way of talking about things. I feel strongly, and did then as I do now, that I reserve my right to contain multitudes, and I would wish the same for all other actors,” he tells Vulture. He then brings up Heartstopper, a show he calls “beautiful”.
“It’s so, so good,” he continues. “And one of the actors faced a similar Tower of Babel about the whole thing. It’s absurd. I look at him, and he’s so great in the show, and all I think is, ‘I want to see what else you do. I want to see all of the people you inhabit in your career’.
“I actually don’t care about anything else. I don’t want to know it; it’s none of my business anyway. I’d rather take your word for it than some kind of hot take on it, you know? He’ll choose to reveal himself in the work he does, in the way he interprets characters, in the way he chooses the characters he wants to play.”
Pace also discusses his role as Calpernia Addams, a trans woman, in the film Soldier’s Girl.
“There weren’t many representations of trans people available at that time, and certainly none that wanted to do what we wanted to do with this movie,” he notes. “She wasn’t the butt of a joke; she wasn’t punished for the choice she had made in her life. I worked very closely with Calpernia Addams while we were shooting. She was there for the entire filming. So much of my preparation was just being inspired by her, trying to honor her, and mostly trying to understand her.”
When asked previously by GQ if he wanted to discuss the ongoing debate about who should play queer roles and specifically trans roles, Pace declined but added producers “might” have cast someone else if the film was being made now.