Wait, did Richard Burton really sleep with Ian McShane & compare him to Liz Taylor? Let’s dive into this!
The Guardian‘s interview with the legendary Ian McShane, which used this eye-catching quote from the actor as its headline:“When I was about to get it on with Richard Burton, he said I reminded him of Elizabeth.”Subscribe to our newsletter for your front-row seat to all things entertainment with a sprinkle of everything else queer.Wait, what?
Were McShane and Burton FWBs back in the day? And in what ways is McShane like Liz Taylor? We had to know more…Ian McShane: ‘When I was about to get it on with Richard Burton, he said I reminded him of Elizabeth’ https://t.co/TRjqgFagDHThe wide-ranging interview with the star—best known these days for his role on HBO’s epic Western Deadwood and in the Keanu Reeves action franchise John Wick—starts by asking which of the “so-called serious” actors he’s worked with over the years was the funniest.McShane’s initial answer is Oliver Reed, who he shared the screen with in the ’72 crime drama Sitting Target, but then he turns his attention to the late, great Richard Burton, his co-star in the ’71 British gangster flick Villain.“Richard was terrific,” McShane recalls. “I think he was very underrated when we did Villain and I played his bisexual driver fixer, Wolfie.” Bisexual, you say?
Could Villain a forgotten queer classic?McShane continues: “There’s the infamous scene where we’re about to get it on and he looked at me and said: ‘I’m very glad you’re playing this part.’ I said: ‘Really, Richard?’ He said: ‘Yes, because you remind me of Elizabeth.’ I said: ‘Well, that’s nice.'”Unfortunately, that’s where the story begins and ends.
