Ben Whishaw Recalls 'Blatant Homophobia' being Rampant 'Not So Long Ago'
Out "No Time to Die" and "Paddington" actor Ben Whishaw is starring in "This is Going to Hurt," a BBC series set in 2006 and based on the memoir of a gay British doctor.
In an interview with Esquire, the 41-year-old spoke about the role, and about his memories of how commonplace anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment was a decade and a half ago.
The article explained that the series involves more of the life of author Dr. Adam Kay, whose 2017 memoir the series is based on, than the book itself did, and "shows Kay hiding the relationship with his boyfriend from his family and colleagues."
Whishaw, who plays Dr. Kay, mused, "This is set in 2006, which isn't that long ago, but it was different in terms of how gay people were accepted."
Following up on that thought, the actor said, "I remember blatant homophobia: People shouting at you, throwing shit at you and trying to start a fight with you. It was common. Normal."
"I'm not saying that doesn't happen anymore because sadly I hear about it," Whishaw added, "but it definitely started to get a bit better."
Perhaps — but maybe only "a bit." News reports have noted a steep rise, over the last seven years, of anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes in Britain.
Whishaw may be best known to American audiences as MI6 quartermaster Q in the three most recent James Bond movies, including last year's "No Time to Die," the final film in the series to star Daniel Craig.
Though Q being gay was only fleetingly referenced in the film, it constituted the first time a recurring character in the franchise was revealed to be anything other than heterosexual (a teasing bit of bisexually-suggestive dialogue from Bond himself, in 2012's "Skyfall," aside). Whishaw recently addressed the character's cinematic coming out, taking note of how the reveal was made and then swiftly set aside. "I think I thought, 'Are we doing this, and then doing nothing with it?'" Whishaw told UK newspaper The Guardian of his reaction to the moment in the film's script. "I remember, perhaps, feeling that was unsatisfying."
Whishaw's filmography is more overtly out and proud, and includes starring roles in the 2018 miniseries "A Very English Scandal" (as the same-sex lover of a prominent British politician), the 2008 movie version of "Brideshead Revisted," in which he plays gay aristocrat Sebastian Flyte, and the upcoming "Passages," about a gay couple whose relationship is roiled by an affair with a woman.
He's also played straight characters — including an airport security officer who acts out in the acclaimed 2021 film "Surge" — and provided the voice for the 2014 and 2017 big-screen "Paddington" movies, with the third installment in the trilogy due to start production in the coming months.