Russell Tovey gets ‘visibly emotional’ discussing trans rights and court ruling on word ‘woman’

Russell Tovey has addressed the recent Supreme Court ruling on the word ‘woman’, calling the climate of transphobia in 2025 “horrific”.

The Looking actor was said by a journalist to be “visibly emotional” while discussing the matter in a recent interview with i paper.

Tovey’s comments follow Pride In London, Brighton Pride, Birmingham Pride and Manchester Pride today announcing in a joint statement that they have suspended political parties from participating in their events over institutional transphobia in the political system.

“You have to hope that it will turn around again” – Russell Tovey

Speaking to i, Tovey – currently starring in Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes on Disney+– said: “[The filmmaker] Derek Jarman said in the late 80s that if you wait long enough the world moves in circles.

“There was blatant homophobia in the red-tops and the government. It was horrific. Then we had this great moment of openness. Now the transphobia is horrific.”

The Plainclothes actor furthermore added: “No feeling is finite. The world keeps spinning. You have to hope that it will turn around again. […] It’s fucking horrible at the minute. It’s just horrible.”

Elsewhere in the interview, the 43-year-old reflected on the HIV/AIDS crisis and Section 28, a UK law perceived as prohibiting local authorities from “promoting homosexuality” or “promoting the teaching of the acceptability of homosexuality” in schools which was repealed in 2003.

“Section 28 fucked me up,” he said. “Coming of age, realising that I liked men at the same time as Aids, I would constantly mix sex and death. To have a generation that doesn’t even consider death around sex blows my mind.”