Actor and former Sesame Streeter Bert has broken one of the major taboos that surround acting by revealing that he is not gay.
Bert had known for a long time but had only recently come to tell his friends he was straight. He felt he had to speak as he had been “living a lie” he said.
“At first there had been feelings there but I was convinced it would go away. I just thought it was a phase – it was inconceivable for me to think that I could be straight. I lived my life normally as society says we should – have a husband and a big circle of gay friends”
He also talked of the pressure to “be a real man” in Hollywood.
“The pressure was always there” he told us “There was no drinking with the other guys after work…then there would be pressure not to go the strip clubs….we could never go to smoke filled rooms to do secret deals and then there were the women….the pressure to treat them with respect, listen to them & behave as equals was always there and it eats away at you; all the time.”
“Just because you are straight, it doesn’t mean you fancy every woman who walks the planet,” Bert told the Rochdale Herald. “I don’t want to be known as a straight actor. I am an actor first and foremost. I am a man.”
He revealed that he was “anxious about people’s reactions” to him being straight and that he felt he could not have come out earlier in his acting career. “It is the toughest, most macho of male environments, and with that comes an image,” he said. “In many ways, it is barbaric, and I could never have come out without first establishing myself and earning respect as an actor.
However he paid tribute to his Partner Ernie and the rest of the profession “who have been so, so supportive” he said “apart from Ian McKellen – he called me ‘a wanker’ and now won’t take my calls.”
