Out British actor Russell Tovey
recently told UK gay glossy Attitude that the backlash over
his comments last year about effeminate gays upset him.
In an interview with The Guardian,
Tovey said that he was grateful to his father for toughening him up.
“I feel like I could have been really
effeminate, if I hadn't gone to the school I went to,” Tovey
said. “Where I felt like I had to toughen up. If I'd have
been able to relax, prance around, sing in the street, I might be a
different person now. I thank my dad for that, for not allowing me
to go down that path. Because it's probably given me the unique
quality that people think I have.”
Tovey, who this year joined the cast of
ABC's Quantico, said that he was upset by the backlash over
his remarks.
“Things come out the way you don't
intend them to,” Tovey
said.
“It was a very upsetting time for me.
I wasn't expecting that sort of attention. I learned a lot from it
and I've grown from it. It's made me feel more impassioned about my
responsibility, which I took for granted.”
“I never set out to be anything other
than an actor, but when you're from a minority of any type and become
successful you become an ambassador by proxy, which is something I'm
fine with now,” he added.