Danny Dyer: I was bullied because people thought I was gay
By Ben Kelly
Everyone’s favourite hard man Danny Dyer revealed he was the subject of homophobic bullying growing up, simply for being an actor. The straight Eastender opened up about his story in his new autobiography The World According To Danny Dyer: Life Lessons from the East End.
In the book, Dyer states “I actually suffered from homophobia, despite not being gay… to my mates, and some who weren’t quite as matey, being an actor is exactly the same as being homosexual.”
He continues, “There is no difference between the two. The bullying I got was sometimes horrible. I got ‘actress’ and ‘poofter’ and all the rest of it. It got so bad that I stopped telling people anything I was doing and used to sneak off to the acting and slide on back over the maisonettes smoking weed before anyone could even tell. It was like living two lives. I’m not saying it made my life hell, just difficult.”
Dyer also writes about how changing times have brought about more tolerance. “Too often when people look at the present, they start whining on about how much better it used to be years ago. Let’s be fair – people of my dad’s and granddad’s generation were pretty intolerant. Some people won’t see that as a bad thing, but I do. Homophobia and racism are the modern terms, though if you’d mentioned homophobia to my dad he’d have thought it was an album by The Who.”
He adds, “From the outside my dad might have looked homophobic but I don’t think it ever crossed his mind there was a problem with that.”
Danny Dyer plays Mick Carter weekday evenings in Eastenders. The World According To Danny Dyer: Life Lessons from the East End is out now.