There's a wonderful interview with Amanda Barrie in which she talks about how being in her 80s isn’t stopping her living life to the full
She’s still working and has recently appeared on The Baby Boomers’ Guide To Growing Old, BBC’s fly-on-the-wall documentary, The Real Marigold Hotel and Holby City.
The interview in The Glasgow Evening Times is well worth a good read. It outlines Amanda's history from when she first shot to fame in the 60s in the Carry On films, through her marriage to Robin Hunter and then again to Hilary Bonner in 2014.
Speaking about her sexuality, Amanda says this: “It was difficult when I was on Coronation Street. I was always worrying it would come out, because at that time, there were people there who might not have been prepared to work with me. It’s changed so much in 16 years – I watched Corrie the other night and virtually everyone seemed to be gay!"
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To add to Amanda's point (totally almost wrote Alma there) about being afraid of her sexuality coming out: in Rob Mallard we have an out gay man playing a heterosexual character. We already have straight actors playing gay characters - Todd, Sophie and Kate - but it doesn't often happen the other way round. It would've been inconceivable in the 80s.
ReplyDeleteI think that we had quite a number of gay actors playing straight characters during and before the 80s. Although they weren't "out" in a public way,I'm sure that all their fellow actors were well aware of their sexuality.
ReplyDeleteThat's why the "out" part is crucial.
ReplyDelete