‘Sherlock’ star Andrew Scott opens up about coming out

Sherlock

star Andrew Scott has admitted he had “feelings of isolation and shame” as he was getting to grips with his sexuality.

Dublin-born Scott, 37, best known for playing the villainous Moriarty in Sherlock, came out as gay in a newspaper interview last November (2013).

Discussing homophobia in his native Ireland in a new interview with Hot Press, Scott said: “I don’t think that people are intrinsically homophobic, because otherwise we’d have to give up. I think people are ignorant, and there’s a lot of work to do.”

He then continued: “But it’s also very important for me to say that, I wasn’t bullied, it never affected my career, my parents were great about it. I mean it was always easy for them, and when I was younger, I still had feelings of isolation and shame, and that was compounded by a law that backed up that feeling.”

The law Scott referred to is the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act and the 1885 Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, which served together to make homosexuality illegal in Ireland until they were finally repealed in 1993.

Scott then said: “And so, in ridding ourselves of that archaic law, you free up that mind space for young people, so that they can focus on all that stuff they should be focusing on, and allowing them to be outward looking. When someone is outward looking, rather than inward looking, it means that they become kind and generous and thoughtful people, and that’s what makes people happier. That’s why it’s a human rights issue.”

Last month (February) Irish drag queen Panti Bliss delivered a powerful speech on homophobia at a Dublin theatre – which Scott hailed in the interview as “brilliant” and “extraordinary”.