Is Brideshead Revisited Ben Whishaw Intentionally Confusing the Press About His Sexuality?

Whether actors like Glee‘s Chris Colfer or Ugly Betty‘s Michael Urie want to play coy about their sexuality is one thing. But what about an actor that, depending on which magazine you read, is sometimes straight and sometimes gay? Meet Brideshead Revisited‘s Ben Whishaw.

In a New York magazine piece titled “Dancy and Whishaw, Heterosexual British Actors, Sometimes Hug,” interviewer Mike Vilensky’s first question reads, “You’re both straight. Did you have any hesitations about taking explicit gay roles?” Whishaw doesn’t correct him, notes Michael Musto. (In the online version, the article is titled “Role Play: Dancy and Whishaw, stars of gay play The Pride, sometimes hug.” And the first question has been changed to “Did you have any hesitations about taking explicit gay roles?”)

But in Out magazine, editor Aaron Hicklin tells Musto the actor “essentially outs himself.” Well, that might be a stretch, but in that piece, Whishaw says, about taking gay roles, “It’s intriguing to me that these parts come along. Of course the choices you make express something about you to the world, and of course the work I do is all about me, but rather than me standing up and making statements about myself and things, I’d prefer to let the work do the speaking.”

Then again, Out‘s own online version of the article is subtitled, “The British actor may swing both ways in his latest show, The Pride, but he reveals that when it comes to his personal life, he is not a man of labels.”

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Including the label “gay,” right?

BELOW: Whishaw in an interview about Brideshead:

(Photo: Whishaw in Perfume: The Story of a Murderer)