We’ve loved Russell Tovey for a long time, especially after he started gaining attention for his time on Being Human and Looking.
Like all of us, Tovey went through his own gay awakening when he was younger, and he’ll never forget the first time he saw a man giving another man a rim job.
Sitting down with W Magazine to talk about the first full-length documentary produced by WeTransfer’s WePresent platform, Life is Excellent, Tovey took some time to reflect on his life, his role models, and his status as a queer icon.
When asked if a particular piece of media first stirred that queer identity, Tovey said a movie called Beautiful Thing about two boys falling in love on a housing estate “made such a difference” because when he watched it, he saw himself within the characters.
Following that, when the original UK version of Queer as Folk came on, it “terrified” Tovey because of the more explicit content.
“I remember the first episode, there was a rimming scene,” he said. “I was like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’ I had no idea what it was. It was so terrifying, but so ‘wow!’ The show felt like a light shining. I’m going to look at that light. I’m going to head towards there because that seems like a safe ground and it’s going to explain all the things that are going on in me.”
When it comes to the general media trying to water down onscreen LGBTQ+ representation, Tovey said he’s done his best to allow his recent projects, including the documentary, to tell the story of someone’s existence to make it “as universal as possible.”
One such film he thinks is bringing gay intimacy to the silver screen? Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, of whom Tovey worked with on Looking.
“We were just talking about his new film,” he said. “He’s able to show intimacy in such a way that you don’t see anything but everything’s happening. It makes it so universal. I want to tell stories that connect to as many people as possible.”
