Obsession star Richard Armitage comes out: ‘How you identify is not fixed’
Richard Armitage has opened up about his sexuality for the first time. In an interview with Radio Times, the actor – who currently stars in Netflix’s romantic thriller series Obsession – revealed that he came out as LGBTQ+ at age 19 to “anybody who mattered”. “I was always waiting for that question to punch me in the face, and it never did.
I thought, ‘Are people being polite, or is it that they don’t want to know?’” said Armitage, before explaining that he didn’t want discussions over his sexuality to overshadow his career. “I don’t know that I ever wanted to put myself in front of the work I was doing, anything about my family or personal life.
I just thought, ‘Let the work speak for itself. If I declare who I am and my sexuality, then I’m saying it’s fixed and I don’t know that, or if I might feel something for somebody further down the line. “I doubt it, but I don’t know.
It’s more relaxed now. As a writer and producer, I do wonder if anybody has to be defined by who they’re in love with.” Armitage praised the younger generation and their progressive conversations surrounding LGBTQ+ issues: “I love the idea that whatever gender, sexuality, the fluidity of who you love, how you identify, is not fixed. “That was always a thing: If I declare who I am and my sexuality, then I’m saying it’s fixed and I don’t know that, or if I might feel something for somebody further down the line.
