And now … a word with Stephen Fry

This year, the multifaceted and out-and-proud Stephen Fry will be accept the Making A Difference Award for his thirty years of LGBT advocacy at the Matthew Shepard Foundation Honors Gala. His folks were kind enough to give us the scoop on what he’s been up to. Check it out.

What made you want to be an actor?

It’s so hard to explain. There’s a British tradition called pantomime: it is Christmas entertainment for the family that has been a staple of British life for centuries. My brother, 18 months older than me, always used to come with me and we both adored it. But whenever it came to one of the characters inviting a child to come on stage and help with some magic, or distributing candy, or whatever it might be I would be standing up screaming “Me, me, me!” driving my arm so hard in the air I was in danger of dislocating it.

My brother however: same father and mother, almost exactly the same genes, absolutely the same upbringing, would disappear under the seat and curl himself in an embarrassed ball, determined to be invisible. I couldn’t understand him, and he couldn’t understand me. Fortunately, there are more people like my (adorable) brother than there are like me, or the stages of the world would be more populous than the auditoriums!
What has been your favorite role? Why?

Well, I think it’s a tie between the film role of Oscar Wilde in the 1996 film Wilde and the stage role of Malvolio in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the Broadway run of which I finished in February this year. The part of Wilde was exceptionally important to me; the man, his achievements, his wisdom, but his downfall, his disgrace and the tragic and bitter end to it have always fascinated, appalled and attracted me since childhood. It was he who first in some measure vindicated my sexuality. To be able to be one of many to bring him to further audiences was an opportunity I will never receive again. Let’s face it, I don’t get offered the roles that Brad Pitt turns down… As for Malvolio. Well, I have always been an impassioned advocate for the works of Shakespeare. I regard him as one of the most complete miracles of his or any other age. The chance to work with Mark Rylance, the greatest stage actor alive in the English speaking world today in my opinion (and the opinion of many, many others) was something I could not turn down. We had an extraordinary run from the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, to the Apollo Theatre in the West End and then across to the Belasco on Broadway, where we were welcomed with open arms. I felt the indescribable pleasure for the length of the run of feeling that I belonged on the Great White Way.

What is your dream role?

Well, that is always a hard one. I would like one day to play Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Parts One & Two. I’d like to play Lady Bracknell in The Important of Bring Earnest. I do like being surprised by directors and producers and being offered parts I would never have considered, including parts that aren’t necessarily obvious but which would test me.

With the new Amazon Prime series “Transparent,” there’s discussion again around the question of if LGBT actors should play the role of a straight/cisgender character, and if straight/cisgender actors should play LGBT roles. Given that you have played both gay and straight roles, how do you feel about this?

My general view is that best actor best suited to role should get the job. Obviously when it comes to colour and issues of ethnicity the choice is clear. But I do not believe you have to be transgender or have undergone sex reassignment surgery to be able play a character who has. I’ve never strangled a man or woman to death but would be prepared to play a character who dreams of doing so and might actually go through with it. Acting is acting after all. Nonetheless I have great sympathy with transgender people who see the rare chance to play a role in a script only to watch the part go to a cisgender actor who they not believe has the proper emotional history to bring to bear on the role. It’s tricky. But most of all, let’s not go to war over this. We have enough people hating us from outside to start fomenting an internal war!

Do you think being out has changed your career path and the roles you’ve been offered?

Probably. I am offered figures in authority, eccentric figures slightly at one remove from society, or sometimes outright gay. I don’t worry about this. These are usually the best parts. I have played husbands and seem to be able to cope too. Neil Patrick Harris is an exemplar here.

You’ve been outspoken about mental health care and the stigma around the issue. There’s still stigma in some parts of the world and some communities around being LGBT. Are there any similarities for you, in terms of how it felt, to come out as gay and to speak publicly about having cyclothymia?

It’s a very similar scenario to some extent. Most people can see that mental disorders and conditions like Bipolar Disorder seem to have derived from birth and are most certainly not a matter of choice – as with sexuality. And as with sexuality society has a long history of stigmatising these conditions. Coming out as gay was an easy enough matter for me, since I worked in a profession where being gay had a long history of being accepted. Certainly from Noël Coward onwards, it had been an ‘open secret’ and by the time I arrived as an actor, pioneers like Ian McKellen, and in music Elton John, had made it easier and easier.

Without, I hope being sanctimonious or self-righteous, the number of letters I got in those early days from teenagers and from their parents thanking me for making them feel less alone gave me enormous heart and convinced me that I was on the right road. The first step then towards being honest about one’s struggle with a mood disorder didn’t seem so hard.

Are the needs of LGBT people with mental illness different from the rest of the population? What are your suggestions for LGBT people living with mental illness?

Gosh, that’s a big question. Being queer or transgender is not an affliction, a disorder or disease. Living with bipolar, schizophrenia or any other mental condition takes a recognition that one has a chronic condition that needs managing. The management can be through pharmaceutical intervention, talk therapy, mindfulness programmes, diet and exercise changes, all kinds of things. None of these will “cure” the mental problem, but they may well make them much easier to deal with. Where LGBT and mental health issues collide is over stigma. And stigma is society’s problem not the problem of the LGBT or mental health community. What we have to deal with is the ignorance, fear and prejudice that blight the lives of those who have nothing wrong with them in any moral or transgressive sense. It is society that is ill. After all, zoologists have reckoned there are up to at least 750 species of animal that have been observed exhibiting same-sex behaviour, or gender role transformation (which is very common in a wide range of fauna). There is only one species on earth, however, which has exhibited homophobia or transphobia. And that is the species homo sapiens sapiens. Us. So let’s not allow the foolish, ignorant or bigoted ever to use words like “natural.”

On your travels for “Out There,” what was the most surprisingly positive thing that you encountered? What was the most disappointing?

The heroes are those who endure. I spoke to a young transman, biologically born female. He first felt he was a lesbian and had been brave enough, in Uganda of all countries, to tell his parents. They colluded with another family to have the son of that family rape him at the age of 14. This is called, and what a chilling phrase it is, “corrective rape.” It was an agonising 30-second penetration that caused him to scream and bleed. In that 30 seconds he became pregnant and HIV positive. It is hard to believe a more horrific scenario. His ‘religious’ parents, pious Catholics no less, took him to an abortion clinic where the foetus was painfully removed. Then he was thrown out of the house.

Using his wit, his intelligence and his intellectual curiosity he continued his life and he now lives comfortably with his male identity, but on the absolute outer fringes of Kampala society. Such fortitude and endurance is inspiring. As is the work being done by illegal, often raided organisations in Uganda, Russia and all over the world.

I met too frankly preposterous, if it weren’t for their banal evil, politicians and pastors who told knowing lies about the evils of homosexuality in order to attract bigger flocks to their churches and more votes and power to their corrupt councils. LGBT people seem to be being scapegoated more and more just as at the same time in more enlightened countries more and more freedom to express themselves, marry, be given official intersex status and so on is offered.

Who are some of your LGBT heroes?

Always (Oscar) Wilde first and foremost. Martini Navratilova, Elton John, Armistead Maupin, Billie Jean King, Radcliffe Hall, Alan Turing, Ronald Firbank … oh there are so many, thank goodness.

  [sponsored content]