Actor Andrew Scott, who plays Moriarty
on the BBC's Sherlock, has come out gay.
Scott has previously hinted at his
sexual orientation, including a reference during an interview in
January about living with his partner in London.
In a new interview with the
UK's The
Independent, Scott stumbles over his sexuality when he
explains that as “a gay person” he avoided Russian President
Vladimir Putin in looking for a Russian accent for the film Legacy.
“There isn't a huge amount of footage
of Russians speaking English as a second language, so I started
looking at Vladimir Putin videos on YouTube. But then Putin
introduced anti-gay legislation this summer – so, being a gay
person, I switched to Rudolf Nureyev videos instead. It was another
Nureyev defection of sorts!”
He added: “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.”