Someone in the Sherlock cast has come out, though the Cumberbitches may be disappointed at just who.
Andrew Scott, who plays arch-nemesis Moriarty on the hit BBC series, has come out as “a gay person” in an interview with The Independent. Oddly enough, the recent spate of antigay attitudes in Russia spurred on the low-key coming out in the interview. Though the interview covers his career and how Sherlock has changed it, he’s heavily promoting an upcoming BBC drama called Legacy which required him to do a Russian accent. To prepare, he studied videos of Russian President Vladimir Putin, but that stopped when Putin introduced antigay legislation. As Scott tells it, “being a gay person, I switched to Rudolf Nureyev videos instead.”
Scott’s brief admission of his sexuality and the drive to continue to “be lots of different people” is indicative of the new era of coming out, the tried and true method of dropping a nugget in an overarching interview a la Zachary Quinto and Jim Parsons, and then move back to career talk. ““Mercifully, these days people don’t see being gay as a character flaw,” he says. “But nor is it a virtue, like kindness. Or a talent, like playing the banjo. It’s just a fact.”
Another fact is that Sherlock and its heartthrob star Benedict Cumberbatch (obsession of the aforementioned “Cumberbitches”) have a huge amount of gay-oriented fanfiction on the net. So much so, that he’s been called an “erotic god” in China. It’s highly likely now that with Scott officially coming out, the Moriarty character will enter the gay erotic fanfiction on the net, most of which is centered around the sexual exploits of Cumberbatch’s Sherlock and his sidekick Watson, played by Martin Freeman.
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Though Moriarty is their nemesis, something tells us that the brains of the internet will think of a few choice situations in which to bring these three…together.
Cam
Congratulations to him!
TheBigOne
I’m a bit partial to Martin Freeman myself.
And it makes me happy that more and more actors are coming out and not thinking twice about doing so. I always enjoy watching a movie with one of “us” in it.
hotshot70
My gaydar kept going off watching the show, I just had the beeps zeroing in on wrong guy!
Teleny
@hotshot70: lol, me 2!
Rockery
In the thumbnail he looks so familiar, (not in the picture) I swear I know him from somewhere, must be a gay short or something or maybe I’m confusing him with someone else.
mz.sam
I’m a Cumberbitch and I’m suicidal because its not him!
LakesideM
Thank you for this story – but let me embellish Andrew Scott’s credentials! I found his performance as Moriarty terrific, and so did members of BAFTA. Andrew won the award for Best Supporting Actor in a British Drama last year, beating heavy competition.
So he is a rising star in the UK, and once celebrated by his colleagues.
BTW – From the first brilliant episode (based on the actual Conan Doyle stories) I have relished the amazing work of Mr Cumberbatch. Talk about a rising international star.
JasonBrownUK
Glad it’s him, I think he’s HOT 😉
Rockery
Not that anyone cares
but I know who I was thinking of and it’s not him it is Dave Levey from Hell’s Kitchen, they look identical (in the thumbnail picture)
jwrappaport
@TheBigOne: Kinda liked Martin Freeman ever since I first saw The Office.
zeemee
Dear Rob Smith,
Thank you for this excellent article.
I only have one minor quibble: Moriarty has been part of the gay fanfic scene since the beginning… he won’t be ‘entering’ it as he’s already firmly established 🙂
Thank you!
One of the hundreds of Mormor, Sheriarty, Johniarty, Morcroft and other ship Writers.
<3
latelygay
Sorry, Queerty editors, but there is no story here and it is entirely disingenuous of you to present it as such.
As far as I’m aware, I don’t know that Andrew Scott has ever been been closeted. He admits to being a private person but he has never denied his sexuality and a quick Google reference reveals plenty of references to that effect.
He ‘expanded’ on his personal life in an Independent interview at the beginning of last year thus:
‘Mercifully, these days people don’t see being gay as a character flaw. But nor is it a virtue, like kindness. Or a talent, like playing the banjo. It’s just a fact. Of course, it’s part of my make-up, but I don’t want to trade on it. I am a private person; I think that’s important if you’re an actor. But there’s a difference between privacy and secrecy, and I’m not a secretive person. Really I just want to get on with my job, which is to pretend to be lots of different people. Simple as that.’
So, given that, I’d recommend this story is taken down. There’s no news here and its cheap to cash-in on a supposed sleb outing.
hannahbanana
@latelygay: “He never was in the closet.” Not privately, but publicly he was. I love you gay-deniers. Guess what , there is no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny! Do another “quick Google search” and you’ll find he has misled interviewers early in his career by saying he had a girlfriend when he lived in Dublin, but hadn’t had one for three years. Didn’t say why, though. In the same interview he was asked if it felt strange to play a gay man (he was playing Oscar Wilde’s lover in a play at the time) and his answer was, “no, it isn’t strange playing a gay man.” Not exactly admitting to being gay, was he? Quit acting like the gay police. The story should not be taken down.
chub4bears
Didn’t Moriarty blow his brains out on that roof after kissing Sherlock?
SteveDenver
He’s a beautiful guy and a talented actor. There has been a running play with Sherlock’s sexuality since the very first episode when the landlady isn’t sure whether or not Watson will want to sleep in a separate bed and the restaurant owner thinks Watson is Sherlock’s date. Moriarty played perfectly into that. Andrew Scott is taunting and bitchy, just on this side of unrequited love and evil efficiency.
He’s so hot!