'Downton Abbey' Actor Says Gay Role Hurt His Career — But Is He Right?

Contents:

• ‘DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA’: JULIAN FELLOW MOLED THOMAS BARROW AND GUY DEXTER AFTER SEVERAL REAL-LIFE GAY CELEBRI
• DOWNTON ABBEY'S THOMAS BARROW AND THE FUTURE OF THE GAY PAST
• DOWNTON ABBEY ACTOR SAYS GAY ROLE HURT HIS CAREER — BUT IS HE RIGHT?
• ‘DOWNTON ABBEY’ ACTOR SAYS PLAYG A GAY CHARACTER HAS LEFT HIM “TYPEST”
• JULIAN FELLOW MOLED THOMAS BARROW AND GUY DEXTER AFTER SEVERAL REAL-LIFE GAY CELEBRI
• THE ‘DOWNTON ABBEY’ MOVIE’S GAY STORYLE ALMOST HAD A DARKER ENDG
• THOMAS BARROW, INIC CHAOTIC GAY, GETS BLAND BUT HAPPY ENDG ‘DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA’—HAPPY PRI MONTH
• DOWNTON ABBEY'S THOMAS BARROW AND THE FUTURE OF THE GAY PAST

‘DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA’: JULIAN FELLOW MOLED THOMAS BARROW AND GUY DEXTER AFTER SEVERAL REAL-LIFE GAY CELEBRI

He played gay rights activist Jonathan Blake Pri. One of the films that began to turn the ti was 2014's "Pri, " which foced on the real-life story of a group of lbian and gay London activists helpg out the 1984 Brish mers' strike and tablishg an unlikely bond of mutual support.

(via Pk News), wh gay men as the targets of particular social and polil stigma. A seasoned, eply lovg uple, they play a major part showg the small town of Onllwyn that gay men are people like everybody else, wh the livels and optimism of Blake — a real-life legend Brish LGBT activism (via OX Magaze) — provg particularly key that tearg down of walls.

DOWNTON ABBEY'S THOMAS BARROW AND THE FUTURE OF THE GAY PAST

One example of society movg forward is a burgeong gay relatnship hidn pla sight.

The storyle is le wh the secret double liv required of gay people orr to stay safe durg this era. ‘Downton Abbey: A New Era’ shows how gay men found ways to be themselv wh the rtrictns of the time.

DOWNTON ABBEY ACTOR SAYS GAY ROLE HURT HIS CAREER — BUT IS HE RIGHT?

One of the sendary storyl explor how gay men found ways to pursue romantic feelgs wh the era’s rtrictns.

‘DOWNTON ABBEY’ ACTOR SAYS PLAYG A GAY CHARACTER HAS LEFT HIM “TYPEST”

There’s a reason there are still relatively few movie stars who are openly gay. “One of the terts of wrg perd drama is that you have the challeng earlier societi for people who were gay, for women, for the black muny, all sorts [of mographics] where obstacl were nstantly beg placed their way. He prevly lived wh openly gay stume signer Orry-Kelly and allegedly had affairs wh men while married.

An acclaimed actor for three s, was an open secret the dtry that Hudson was gay. Hollywood to Downton (Cred: Foc)And the arrival of the glamouro guts may spark more than jt excement for the rints of Downton, as the trailer seems to ht at romance for butler Thomas first film saw Barrow e to terms wh his sexualy – a ground-breakg plot for Downton, as beg gay the early 1900s was a crimal offence – and seems he may be for a passnate flg wh film star Guy Dexter (played by Domic Wt). Over the seasons, the seri revealed that Thomas’ schem were motivated by his stggle as a closeted gay man livg early 20th century England.

Thomas Barrow (Rob Jam-Collier)—former footman, would-be blackmailer, and early morn homosexual everyman—is now head butler on staff, givg him ample opportuny to teract wh the visg stars, and particular, wh the bonair Guy Dexter (Domic Wt). Is Thomas an accurate unveilg of historil homosexualy, hidn but fully formed, jt wag for to notice his existence? Hello to the future of the gay past.

JULIAN FELLOW MOLED THOMAS BARROW AND GUY DEXTER AFTER SEVERAL REAL-LIFE GAY CELEBRI

In the film, dienc will see Barrow the ntext of a wir gay world for the first time: visg a secret gay bar, dodgg police harassment, and possibly even fdg love.

"I thk one of the thgs that Downton Abbey don’t get right is that actually a great al more of those young men who were service were homosexual. Barrow is stantly regnizable as a morn gay man, even if he never que those words.

THE ‘DOWNTON ABBEY’ MOVIE’S GAY STORYLE ALMOST HAD A DARKER ENDG

Gooch//Getty ImagOn the one hand, this feels like an elaboratn of that famo gay liberatn slogan “we are everywhere, ” expandg to be “we were everywhere” also.

On the other hand, seems to remove sexualy om the doma of history entirely, suggtg that the experience of beg gay has always been the same, no matter the place or perd.

While everyone else the show be, Barrow already qutn for queer Downton Abbey fans, then, is this: Is Thomas an accurate unveilg of historil homosexualy, hidn but fully formed, jt wag for to notice his existence? Or is he a backward projectn of our current ia of what means to be gay, an anachronism disguised as a revelatn? Like Thomas Barrow, Alec Scudr seems preternaturally gay, fully aware of his sexual sir, that they are exclively for men, and that they mark him, irrevobly, as a different sort of person.

THOMAS BARROW, INIC CHAOTIC GAY, GETS BLAND BUT HAPPY ENDG ‘DOWNTON ABBEY: A NEW ERA’—HAPPY PRI MONTH

In the post-Edwardian perd, upper class men were more likely to already unrstand the world terms of heterosexuals and homosexuals, wh a bright and absolute le dividg the two. But whereas Scudr and Barrow seemed to thk of themselv as gay, el-Adl experienced his sire for men differently.

Increasgly, sexologists, policians, and wrers began to promulgate the ia that the behavrs were signifiers of homosexualy, to be surveilled and curtailed. Compton Mackenzie, pictured send om the left the ont row, wrote several works about gay men.

BettmannA workg class man like Thomas Barrow, livg the untrysi, was unlikely to have accs to this kd of rmatn about gay inty.

DOWNTON ABBEY'S THOMAS BARROW AND THE FUTURE OF THE GAY PAST

As s passed, the neat fictn of bary sexualy beme broadly acknowledged “tth, ” leavg ls and ls space for middle-dwellg, workg-class men like Buckgham and an earlier and earlier age, people would be tght— streets as much as schools—that homosexuals existed, that they were unlike other men, and that any apparent “middle ground” was actually a slippery slope head straight to hell.