Ben Aldridge Reflects on Comg Out as Gay: 'Felt So Powerful'

Contents:

• BEN ALDRIDGE SAYS HE COULD 'BREATHE EASIER' AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY AT 34: 'I NEED THAT SO BADLY'
• ‘KNOCK AT THE CAB’ STAR BEN ALDRIDGE GETS EMOTNAL RELLG COMG OUT AS GAY: ‘YOU’RE GOG TO MAKE ME CRY’
• ‘SPOILER ALERT’ ACTOR BEN ALDRIDGE CAME OUT 2020. NOW HE’S A LEADG GAY MAN TWO BIG STUD FILMS.
• AFTER G OUT PUBLICLY, BEN ALDRIDGE IS BRGG MORE GAY REPRENTATN TO PRIMETIME TV
• BEN ALDRIDGE REFLECTS ON COMG OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY AT 34, SAYS 'I COULD JT BREATHE EASIER'
• KNOCK AT THE CAB’S BEN ALDRIDGE ON G OUT AS GAY AND MAKG HOLLYWOOD
• BEN ALDRIDGE PRAIS 'PROGRSIVE' GAY RELATNSHIP KNOCK AT THE CAB (EXCLIVE)
• 'SPOILER ALERT' - JIM PARSONS AND BEN ALDRIDGE ON THEIR GAY 'LOVE STORY'
• BEN ALDRIDGE AND PEARL MACKIE ON THE SUBTLE WAY THEIR GAY CRIME DRAMA IS HELPG QUEER KIDS BELONG

BEN ALDRIDGE SAYS HE COULD 'BREATHE EASIER' AFTER COMG OUT AS GAY AT 34: 'I NEED THAT SO BADLY'

"I have really relished playg gay men, " he add to EW.

Ben Aldridge me out as gay not even three years ago wh a post on Instagram.

“The journey to pri was a long one for me, ” he wrote alongsi vtage photos of gay rights protts as well as a vio of him playfully kissg another man on the cheek.

‘KNOCK AT THE CAB’ STAR BEN ALDRIDGE GETS EMOTNAL RELLG COMG OUT AS GAY: ‘YOU’RE GOG TO MAKE ME CRY’

Aldridge says he uld never have imaged playg gay characters when he first got to the bs.

“If people didn’t want to work wh me bee I was gay or they wanted to stop stg me, then I wasn’t terted workg wh those people eher, ” he says.

Now that he’s walked through the closet, his world has gotten much bigger and, well, gayer. And so seems, as Aldridge, an tablished London theater actor who me out publicly as gay 2020, thsts himself to leadg-man rol two major stud films after a recurrg role “Fleabag” and a more substantial part, as Thomas Wayne, HBO’s “Pennyworth.

‘SPOILER ALERT’ ACTOR BEN ALDRIDGE CAME OUT 2020. NOW HE’S A LEADG GAY MAN TWO BIG STUD FILMS.

Night Shyamalan’s apolyptic horror film “Knock at the Cab, ” portrayg another gay character, this time alongsi “Lookg” actor Jonathan Groff.

3, as gay dads vatng at a remote b, which ends up not beg much of a vatn at all when they’re taken hostage. From the Park Lane Hotel New York Cy, Aldridge spoke about how feels “vigoratg” beg a gay actor playg gay characters, his reactn to Sally Field portrayg his onscreen mother and the “wave of progrs” LGBTQ-led ntent. There’s the moment where there’s this -gayg of K’s place right before his parents e over.

It’s funny bee I feel like that’s relatable to every gay person. I thk somethg the film do very subtly is show the journey of… as gay people, until the moment our parents fd out about our te selv, we are very ed to managg their handle on the tth and what they know about .

AFTER G OUT PUBLICLY, BEN ALDRIDGE IS BRGG MORE GAY REPRENTATN TO PRIMETIME TV

And I thk the -gayg of the apartment, I n relate to almost -gayg myself a ltle b when gog home when I was younger, and maybe potentially drsg differently or jt beg more nsc of that.

And they both have gay children themselv. They had so much re over and over playg parents to gay children. Is this your first gay character?

BEN ALDRIDGE REFLECTS ON COMG OUT PUBLICLY AS GAY AT 34, SAYS 'I COULD JT BREATHE EASIER'

I played a gay character on stage a play lled “The Lyons” my 20s. And then I had done a UK tective seri [“The Long Call”] jt before filmg this where was apparently the first ever gay tective on UK screens. In a reflective post, he shared a slishow of planks of the LGBT+ rights movement: the Gay Liberatn Front packg London’s Leicter Square 1972, Stonewall Rts pneers Marsha P Johnson and Sylvia Rivera walkg New York Cy’s 1973 Pri para.

Lol attractive gay man Andrew Stt played the “hot prit” on the btally dark show, whose thirst-spirg role both forever changed the word “kneel” and earned him a Cric’s Choice Award. It will feature a gay lead character, played by an actor who is gay (Aldridge), and directed by Lee Haven Jon, who is also gay. “There was somethg very eeg for me as an actor to be directed by a gay man and to have other queer people on set.

’ It’s ITV, and ’s mastream, and ’s a married gay uple. And was a gay director and two gay actors. While promotg his new thriller Knock at the Cab, the 37-year-old actor said he “felt so powerful” after g out as gay June 2020 when he was 34-years-old.

KNOCK AT THE CAB’S BEN ALDRIDGE ON G OUT AS GAY AND MAKG HOLLYWOOD

A few months ago, Ben explaed how another one of his new movi prented gay characters a different way than he’s ever seen before. He unrstood he was different by age 8, was lled “gay” and was bullied.

“I grew up an evangelil hoehold, and through osmosis, om society, had absorbed that beg gay wasn’t really an optn or a good thg to be, ” he says, addg that he’s no longer a wasn’t terted sports and remembers prayg “to be a normal boy”: “I wanted to not be who I was, basilly.

BEN ALDRIDGE PRAIS 'PROGRSIVE' GAY RELATNSHIP KNOCK AT THE CAB (EXCLIVE)

Night Shyamalan did want to work wh him — Aldridge found out the director was eyeg him for “Knock at the Cab” on the day “Spoiler Alert” on Pl Tremblay’s 2018 novel, “The Cab at the End of the World, ” the film revolv around married gay dads — Aldridge and Jonathan Groff (“Frozen, ” “Haton”) — vatng wh their young dghter and taken hostage by four strangers. The 37-year-old English actor me out publicly back 2020, self-intifyg as gay through a simplistic, scroll-and-you’d-miss , four-sentence post.

“It means somethg more to me, ” he says of playg gay men on screen, “and I thk feels much more signifint that I’m tellg the stori I really re about. The scen that show your life outsi the b—the lack of acceptance om your parents, not disclosg your sexualy when adoptg Wen, the homophobic attack at the bar—seem to expla why Andrew liv life on the fensive.

'SPOILER ALERT' - JIM PARSONS AND BEN ALDRIDGE ON THEIR GAY 'LOVE STORY'

I thk bee on a very practil level, what do is expla Andrew's prumptn that 's a homophobic attack the first place.

I never really want to look too also have an ultra fast shirtls moment by the lake, which the gays of Twter will most likely turn that to a meme rerd, I hope so. They should jt do, do a “00gay” or somethg else.

Knock at the Cab and Spoiler Alert star Ben Aldridge has opened up about g out as gay as he leads the Film, TV, and Mic tegory this year’s Attu 101, empowered by Bentley.

BEN ALDRIDGE AND PEARL MACKIE ON THE SUBTLE WAY THEIR GAY CRIME DRAMA IS HELPG QUEER KIDS BELONG

For Aldridge, his own g-out was a slow procs of growg past his fears of what means to be a gay man. Sneakg a peek at gay characters on screen was no easy feat for young Aldridge, pecially when his parents banned their children om watchg even the most anodyne TV shows.

Ben Aldridge has mted a rdal s of the gay muny. "Gays love horror, " Aldridge remarks om his Hackney flat East London, where the 37-year-old actor has been based for the past 18 years.