Sherlock Actor Disagrees That LGBT+ Characters Should Only Be Played By LGBT+ Actors

Sherlock actor Andrew Scott warned against limiting LGBT+ characters to only LGBT+ actors in a new interview promoting the latest season of Fleabag.

The openly gay actor sat down with The Huffington Postto talk about his character, who develops a romantic bond with Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s titular Fleabag. He explained that the most important part for him as an actor was chemistry.

“It’s not remotely difficult for me to have chemistry with Phoebe Waller-Bridge and that goes for a lot of women I’ve played opposite. It’s ludicrous and almost insulting to say otherwise,” he said.

“The most important thing is that you have a real chemistry with the person you’re playing opposite.”

While he admits that gay actors haven’t necessarily been afforded the best roles in the past: “There hasn’t been a particularly level playing field with regards to who gets to play what. I can only speak for myself, but I think it’s very important that all of us are able to imagine acting is about being empathetic: what is it like to be in someone else’s shoes?

“So, I think it’s dangerous territory to go down sometimes to think that we’re only allowed to play our own—not just our own sexuality, but our own nationality or identity—that we’re only allowed to… represent things that are within our experience.

“I think we have to look at every individual situation and make sure everyone gets the chance to play all the different parts. But I think going down the road of ’a person is that they have to play that,’ is dangerous.”