Last week, I linked to Dlisted’s coverage of Lee Pace’s profile in W Magazine. Pace is starring in the Broadway revival of Angels In America, the play about the AIDS crisis in the 1980s. Until now, I hadn’t actually read the source interview at W Magazine, and now I’m obsessed with W’s photos of Lee at his 100-acre-plus country farm/estate, hanging out with his kitty Arctic Freeze – go here to see. In any case, Lee spoke to W about the play and playing a closeted gay man and well, this is how the conversation went:
The last time Pace was on Broadway was in a revival of another classic gay play, Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, which like Angels takes place at the onset of the AIDS crisis. “Our understanding of what it means to be gay is just so different,” Pace said of the climate in 2018. “It’s culturally different. It’s just so much further down the road. It’s an interesting thing for me to think about in this moment while working on this play.”
Pace added that he feels it’s important for gay actors to play the gay roles in both plays, but stopped short of labeling himself. He seemed a bit flustered and surprised by the question. “I’ve dated men. I’ve dated women,” he explained. “I don’t know why anyone would care. I’m an actor and I play roles. To be honest, I don’t know what to say—I find your question intrusive.”
It did not seem to me that this was Lee Pace’s big coming out interview. He seemed uncomfortable with the thought of even quietly confirming in a W Magazine interview that he identifies as gay. Well, Lee Pace thought about it for a few days and decided he does want to label himself:
In a recent phone interview, I was asked questions that I wasn’t expecting and found myself momentarily at a loss for the right words. My privacy is important to me, so I protect it. When interviewed by the media, I keep the focus on my work.
As a member of the queer community, I understand the importance of living openly, being counted, and happily owning who I am. That’s how I’ve always lived my life…
..just as it’s been important to me to portray queer characters with dignity for my entire career: A Soldier’s Girl (Showtime. 2003). The Normal Heart (Broadway. 2011). Halt and Catch Fire (AMC. 2014-2017). Angels in America. (Broadway. NOW.)
Onward, with Pride.
“As a member of the queer community…” Okay, got it. To be clear, no gay or bisexual person “owes” us any kind of statement or public confirmation. I don’t even believe that W Magazine was, like, actively trying to out Lee Pace. Lee was promoting his work in one of the seminal works of the LGBTQ community, a play that is practically a sacred work to the queer community. Even Andrew Garfield was getting questions about his preparations and how he identifies (he stars in the play as well). And if Lee wants to walk this line, so be it. He wants to be private, and I believe him – he’s not falling out of clubs or being a hot drunk mess on Watch What Happens Live. He’s mostly just hanging out with his cat on his farm and doing his work (and dating men).
Photos courtesy of WENN.
I hate the idea of people being outed, but I’m not sure what Lee Pace expected after he said “he feels it’s important for gay actors to play the gay roles in both plays” Obviously there is a follow up to that which a journalist would ask.
Exactly. He explicitly said he believes that gay men should be the only ones playing the particular role he’s playing. He wasn’t put on the spot by the interviewer either, he ventured into that topic on his own. How the obvious follow-up question was a surprise is beyond me.
Yea I’ve seen alot of people claim he was outed, and it’s like no that’s not what happened.
Yes, I have seen plenty of outrage about this ‘outing’ too and he definitely opened the door to the follow-up question wide.
What does deserve outrage is the journalists reaction on twitter. I don’t even mind him calling Lee Pace ‘she’ because that was clearly a gay community thing (watch Project Runway All Stars where the gay men are constantly referring to themselves as ‘she’) but he was very snippy.
Bryan Moylan has always been terrible, going all the way back to his days at Gawker. He really should just stick to recapping reality TV shows.
He barely mentioned it. As far as Bryan Moylan goes, that is NOT snippy (his Real Housewives recaps are hilariously bitchy).
Its sad that he was kinda forced into coming out as its his business and no one else’s. Have been a fan of his work for a long time, I LOVED Pushing Daises (that’s when i first saw him).
But purely on a superficial note: he can talk to me all day, his voice does things to me. *heads off for a cold shower*
Well I mean he said “I think it’s important that gay actors play the gay parts in the play.” (Don’t know if he’s trying to shade Andrew and James McArdle or not) but He’s been in the industry long enough to know there gonna ask the obvious follow up . I mean they asked Andrew Garfield. Lee blocked the writer on twitter, tbf the writer seems super salty about it. I think it’s the publiscts fault they should have warned him. It was always going to come up.
Reporters as a rule avoid “outing” people in Hollywood by making sure they give the actor a chance to bring up the topic on his own. Which is exactly what Lee Pace did. If he wanted to stay in the closet he should have stayed away from making gay-baiting statements while playing a gay character.
That picture with the chicken… love it.
It reminds me of a Grant Wood sketch!
Hmm, far be it from me to question how people self-ID, but whenever people 30+ use “queer”, I always side-eye. It feels like a cop out. He was adamant about gay actors playing gay roles, but he can’t say he’s gay. Everybody’s journey is different I guess.
Completely disagree, queer is a term and identity in of itself. He could just identify with that term better than gay.
Because maybe he’s NOT specifically gay? Queer encompasses the spectrum of non-heterosexual and non-cisgender. And since he doesn’t owe anyone an explanation of his sexual identity, it’s not a cop out.
Exactly.
Exactly. We’re all assuming he identifies a gay man. But maybe for him it’s a little more complicated than that, so Queer fits better?
Queer has a very long history within the LGBT+ movement. This idea of being a “cop out” or “offensive” is a very new idea by people who are not familiar with the full details of the historical background of the term. I use queer to describe my orientation because I don’t feel like “bisexual” or “pansexual” really properly describes it. I am not surprised that an actor his age would use the term, either.
Queer is a very much a spectrum within the LGBTQ community. Maybe gay doesnt cover for him the full spectrum of his sexuality.
Sorry but I’ve been in the lgbt community for 20+ years and was a leader in many sections of it and you’re telling me that I’m a cop out because queer fits best as my identity (having loved men, women, trans, genderqueer etc)??! You don’t get to tell me how I get to identify.
I didn’t tell YOU how YOU should ID. You’re entitled to ID how you want. But as I admitted I can’t help but side-eye folks that use the term because it feels like a cop-out to ME. But that’s my own bias and my own fault for treating this gossip site like a journal in flippantly expressing that with my word choice. But here I am and here we are.
Dont know about the queer tag but i have heard that the male bi community is wary of him. They think he is going to be yet another stat who claims bisexuality as a way to ease into coming out as gay. Men who do that are very damaging to the bi community because it erases them further. It confirms to many that men arent bi and are really just “straddling” to avoid stating they are gay.
Both the gay and bi community is weary of these vague statements that can mean literally anything. “Queer” today is claimed by straight women who are overweight, non-white women write think pieces about being “queer” because they are not white, straight couples who are into BDSM call themselves queer, straight people who dress in androgynous fashion call themselves queer, straight swingers, straight people with disabilities are claiming “queer sexuality” etc.
Cute kitty. Beautiful man.
I have nothing serious to really add to this other than there were rumors that he was dating Hobbit costar Richard Armitage during filming and they’ve been spotted a couple of times together since then.
They were dating for a good few years (there’s a few pics on tumblr) but have since spilt up and lee is now dating some young fashion IT guy.
I remember reading he was bisexual back when the hobbit came out, so I wouldn’t say he was outed during this interview.
Yes, Richard and Lee lived for many years together at Pace’s farm in NY. They were beautiful couple, but apparently broke up last year and now Lee’s with some young thing who’s all over his social media feed. I first noticed Lee in Twilight. And I agree with the other poster he does have a very sexy voice.
If this is how he chooses to come out, so be it. Congrats, Lee! It doesn’t matter what the spirit is called, it matters how it makes him feel and no one else.😊
I’m glad he’s handling this as well he can, but I’ll point out that the writer is a total jackass who has outed (or attempted to out) gay men in Hollywood before. (He was the guy who basically stalked and pressured Anderson Cooper to come out – WHILE HE WAS IN THE MIDDLE EAST AS A WAR CORRESPONDENT.) Patting himself on the back is pretty ridiculous given that history.
Wow. I didn’t realize that he was the one who did that.
Out Magazine literally put Cooper on the cover titled “the glass closet” years before Moylan “outed” him. I don’t know anything about Moylan “stalking” Cooper, but he is FAR from the first person to discuss Cooper’s sexuality.
Me after that article (a la Jim Carrey in Dumb & Dumber): So you’re saying I have a chance.
Lol
Lol. Comment of the day right here. ^^
I cackled. Thank you!
Well this isn’t exactly a secret. There have been stories about Lee since forever. Didn’t Ian Mckellen or some other Hobbit cast member accidentally mention Lee dated men? I feel like we already all knew this. And Lee may not have wanted to open the door to the “Are you gay?” question but he kind of did that to himself when he stated gay roles should only be played by gay actors. He probably didn’t think through what would be the follow up question to that.
It does seem like he is struggling with some guilt over not being out sooner. And its made him come off as both unjustifiably indignant and untruthful in his tweet messages. For instance he says that has “always” lived his life willing to counted but is that true? Then if he has always believed this why did he bristle when asked a basic follow up question to a declaration he made about gay actors playing certain parts? And if he has “always”….”believed in living openly” where is even one red carpet pic with him and a male partner? Or just one of him with a man looking like an actual couple out an about. I’m sure he would argue that he is just private but so is Kerry Washington and Daniel Day Lewis and Steve Buschemi and you can still find pics of them with past and present significant others looking like significant others.
Its his journey but I hope he one day sees that nobody could blame him for maintaining a glass closet. And that it would be more helpful if he was just honest about that part instead of staging himself as though he was always woke and activist about all this.
Agreed. Yes, yes, it’s his journey, etc. etc. But it is offensive when a celeb or someone famous comes out and says, “I was never in the closet” (or some version of it). Yes, you were, if this is news to the public at large. If you willingly talked about any other aspect of your life and belief systems and creative process and you pose for photo shoots inside your home and work and other private places and you tell people almost anything about yourself BUT this one specific thing, you are publicly closeted and you haven’t earned the right to be salty about it when you get side-eye for it. (End mini-rant.)
Its also possible that his partners werent ready to “come out” and thats why there hasnt been any official red carpet photo ops.
Wasn’t that reason ( according to rumours) that he and Richard broke up? Lee wanted to come out and Richard didn’t?
The first thing I ever saw him in was Soldier’s Girl, where he played a transgender woman. He and Troy Garity were amazing in it and it was based on a true story. Ok that’s all I got.
He is so, so beautiful. He is just the most magnetic character EVER on Halt and Catch Fire, it’s no wonder he enjoyed both men and women on the show; you can’t help but be drawn to him.
I loved how the show made his sexuality fluid and it was never even spoken of. Halt was so underwatched, what a beautiful show.
I know this is a serious discussion, but all I can think of is that I’d like to switch places with the chicken in that top photo.
Please delete comment wrong email used and do not want my google profile listed.
The chicken is even into him, look at him all nestled in! ha ha who wouldn’t be!