Antony Cotton: ‘People say I’ve put gay cause back 21 years’
By Sam Rigby
Antony Cotton has revealed that he often receives abuse from young gay men who don’t like his character on Coronation Street.
The actor spoke about the negative reaction to Sean Tully at Manchester Pride’s Fringe festival on Tuesday (August 19).
He explained: “I get a lot of stick from people who say, and these are people who are 21 years old, ‘you’ve put the gay cause back 21 years.’
“Or they say ‘you’re a disgrace to this village’. You’d be surprised how many kids say that to me.”
However, Cotton dismissed the suggestion that Sean is not a “political gay character”.
“Sean has never had to explain who he was, he never had to come out, he was just accepted into the community of Weatherfield from the start.
“So for every one of those people who say to me that Sean’s a stereotype, and that he doesn’t have a political storyline, actually the fact he’s never had to explain himself makes him the most political gay character in soap,” he said.
Cotton recently spoke to attitude.co.uk about a controversial new storyline coming up for his character this autumn – read more here.