LONDON, UK – The London Evening Standard’s Culture Editor and weekly columnist Nancy Durrant recently sat down with award winning British actor Jonathan Bailey known for his comedic, dramatic, and musical roles on stage and screen.
The 35-year-old actor, who stars as Anthony Bridgerton in the Netflix streaming service series Bridgerton and as the character of Tim Laughlin, a fictional aide to Wisconsin Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy in the Showtime series Fellow Travelers, is openly gay.
Based on the book series by Julia Quinn, Bridgerton’s period drama storyline revolves around a fictional family and is set in the world of Regency era London during the social season where marriageable youth of nobility and gentry are launched into society.
During the interview with the Evening Standard about his role in Fellow Travelers, Bailey gave the publication rare insight into his own relationship status, and confirmed that he does have a partner, who he described as a “lovely man.”
As they discussed the actor’s new series Fellow Travelers, based on a 2007 novel by Thomas Mallon, in which he co-stars opposite Matt Bomer as Hawkins Fuller a World War II veteran and official at the State Department who vigilantly hides his homosexuality.
The story line of the two closeted gay political staffers who fall in love at the height of the 1950s Lavender Scare in the series chronicles their hidden romance over several decades, navigating through various historical events such as the Vietnam War protests and the AIDS crisis.
As the interview progressed the Evening Standard delved into a discussion comparing the storyline of the ‘Travelers’ and the current political and cultural landscape for the LGBTQ+ community with “rights for women and LGBTQ+ people are being rolled back across the world. Hate crimes based on sexuality have risen by 112 per cent in the last five years in England and Wales alone. How does he feel?”
Bailey related a story from just this past October, when he was in Washington D.C. attending the annual Human Rights Campaign National Dinner, and had an opportunity to meet President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden.
Reflecting on the dinner he told the Evening Standard, “It was an incredible experience,” he said. “I met President Biden. I was there with Shonda Rhimes, she was being given an award, Matt Bomer was given another one; I was introducing him. My first political gala. I had the most amazing night; had a drink; couldn’t sleep; buzzing.”
However, it was his experience the next morning at a coffee shop that was rather jarring. He continued his narrative:
“I woke up the next morning, it was like a montage. Sunshine, I was like, this is brilliant. I went into a coffee shop, and I was wearing a Human Rights Campaign cap from the night before. And the young lady who I was ordering from recognised me from Bridgerton, we were just chatting.
“And a man arrived behind me and he said, ‘Are you famous?’ And I said something like, ‘I’m really famous for ordering coffee,’ which is actually quite an annoying thing to say,” he laughs. “And then he got my cap, and he pulled it off my head and he threw it across the room and he said, ‘get out of this fucking coffee shop, you queer.”
The room went still, Bailey told the Evening Standard. But he related that he walked over, picked up his hat, and put it back on his head. “If you don’t take that cap off, I’m gonna fucking shoot you,” it came again. “Where I’m from, people like me kill people like you.”
It was, of course, terrifying. But “in the moment, everything slows down,” he says. “No one knew what to do, apart from one girl, she was amazing. Angela, she came up, and she got her phone out and she said, ‘I’m recording this message, I think you are welcome in this country. And what you’re saying, I think, is appalling.’ That happened sort of five minutes in, and he left.”
The Evening Standard noted that the man was from Pennsylvania according to Bailey who apparently asked him, and what Bailey took from the experience, he said, is that “potentially, there is a kid who – that’s his father. That’s his uncle. That’s his teacher.”
He pauses. “My life was threatened. My body believed it; my brain didn’t and it took me a while to really catch up with it. But I’ve got friends and security. There are so many people that don’t. They are surrounded by that every day, and the torment of what that must be like, the amount of fear that was generated… If that’s what children are surrounded by, they’re not going to be able to grow in any way.
“And of course, that’s not just an American story,” he continues. “It’s international. And it’s terrifying, that [here in the UK] we’re not looking after queer people, in terms of allowing them into the country. Because that is the reality; people’s lives are literally at risk.”
Before shifting into other topics, Bailey told the Evening Standard reflecting on both Fellow Travelers and the incident in the Washington coffee spot:
“People are still living in the closet. Or they’ve had a moment where they’re watching and they realise, that was their father’s story, or their mother’s story; or it’s people who have been affected by this, but for the first time are understanding the trauma.
“People are so shocked that this is such recent history, but the majority of people in the world are living under that sort of belief system. And people on Instagram message from areas in the world where just getting through the day without being outed is survival.”