“It was a disability, almost.” Ben Whishaw reveals he held off from publicly coming out at the start of his career in the early 2000s

Actor Ben Whishaw has revealed that he held off from publicly coming out at the start of his career in the early 2000s.

Whishaw, 43, who has starred in films such as Skyfall and Paddington, said: “I think it’s down to every single person to do what’s right for them,” he explained. “For me, it’s better to be out.”

“I’m definitely happier. I remember days when I wasn’t out and that was a more stressful and unhappy position,” the actor said. “So I’m grateful that’s over and also grateful that we live in a world where it’s not a shameful thing.”

“When I started in the early 2000s, if you had said to another actor you were gay, it was implied or sometimes said explicitly that that was something you shouldn’t make a big thing about,” he revealed. “It was a disability, almost.”

“There weren’t a vast number [of out actors], and nobody my age. But gay people of my generation came in at a strange time post-AIDS, which had a whole knock-on effect,” he recalled. “Yet it was one secret I didn’t need to keep.”

“It doesn’t need to be anyone’s business, but being happy in oneself, not ashamed, is probably better,” he noted.

Two years ago, Whishaw revealed to The Guardian that his sexuality weighed on him and “was really unresolved for [him].”

At the time, he explained how growing up, there was a thought that “there’s something wrong with you because you’re attracted to a certain thing.” Revealing, “That takes a lot of time and understanding to get over. And understanding doesn’t just arrive because you’ve been explicit and open to other people.”

“The equating of homosexuality with weakness – it’s taken a long time for me to understand there’s no reason why it should be anything of the sort,” he said in the 2022 interview before adding, “Honestly? I feel like I’m only starting to conquer that now.”