'Pri's' Bill Nighy se siar stggl for gays, strikg mers - Los Angel Tim

Contents:

• ‘PRI’S’ BILL NIGHY SE SIAR STGGL FOR GAYS, STRIKG MERS
• EMMA. STAR BILL NIGHY ON A MORN JANE ATEN AND CRYG AT GAY WEDDGS
• IS BILL NIGHY GAY?

‘PRI’S’ BILL NIGHY SE SIAR STGGL FOR GAYS, STRIKG MERS

When Bill Nighy was a young actor at the Natnal Theatre London, olr gay st members would talk to him about the untry’s harsh polici, which forced them to stay the gay, relled the rangy 64-year-old Brish actor, “jt stopped beg an imprisonable offense my lifetime.

“It was only 30 years ago that a natnal newspaper England uld scribe the gay muny as the slime of society and no one mented, ” said Nighy, who beme a favore wh Amerin dienc such films as “Love Actually” and “The Bt Exotic Marigold Hotel. In the te-life drama, which opens Friday, Nighy plays Cliff, a gay, shy former mer who has kept his sexual orientatn a secret out of fear that g out will leave his life durg the yearlong natnal mers’ strike 1984, “Pri” revolv around the birth of the Lbians & Gays Support the Mers movement and how the activists help the mg muny of Onllwyn South Wal. Though many of the unn members and townspeople are ially antagonistic to the group, Cliff and several of the women the town — led by Imelda Stnton’s spired Hefa — warmly embrace the years ago, acrdg to Nighy, the mers were beg treated as badly as the gay and lbian muny.

EMMA. STAR BILL NIGHY ON A MORN JANE ATEN AND CRYG AT GAY WEDDGS

“The film uldn’t be green l until had some regnizable actors, ” noted Matthew Warch, who directed the CBS Films Schzer, who plays gay activist Mark Ashton, said workg wh Nighy was a “master class film actg — gettg to watch him work and craft his character. "When I was a young man, I ed to work wh people who uld risk seven years jail this untry for any public displays of affectn or any mor of sexual activy between two people of the same genr, " Nighy says of England's crimalizatn of homosexual activy that was on the books until the late '60s. "Show bs, or the theater my se, was a refuge for gay people, " Nighy says.

""If I were to be asked, 'What were the velopments my lifetime that I was obscurely proud not to have gotten the way of, one of them would be (It's not over yet, as you know) the emancipatn of gay men and women my lifetime, " he the terview below. Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Bill Nighy (centre) was uned wh his Pri -stars at the London premiereThe 1984 mers' strike and the gay rights movement may seem like unlikely on-screen partners - but their g together Matthew Warch's film Pri has produced, acrdg to actor Bill Nighy, "the most important Brish film of recent years" Nighy is one of the stars of the movie, which documents the te story of how Lbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgenr (LGBT) groups beme the biggt fancial supporters of the mers, who went on strike for more than a year 1984, prott agast wispread p closur.

IS BILL NIGHY GAY?

Pri foc on one London group of lbian and gay activists, who "adopted" a mg muny south Wal, spe ial spicn and prejudice om Stnton, Paddy Conside, Domic Wt and Andrew Stt - Moriarty TV's Sherlock - are also part of the ensemble st.

If you were asked by your grandchildren what velopments your lifetime ma you most proud, one of them might be the civil rights movement Ameri and the other would be the emancipatn of gay men and women. "You have to remember that Pri is set 30 years ago and the Gay Pri march weren't a celebratn or Mardi Gras, they were polil events that would see protters beaten up by the police.

"Gay men and women were margalised and victimised. "What is so funny is that we are makg a film about failure - bee the mers ultimately lost their battle - but we do feature a scene the film of the Gay Pri march London 1985. The full might of the Natnal Unn of Meworkers showed up for the first time history to that march, and that was a direct rult of the gay rights movement and their fundraisg.