Russell Tovey Recalls a Fearful Time of Linking Intimacy and Death

The 1980s battle cry "Silence = Death" rang out at the height of the AIDS epidemic – but for a generation of gay men, another message hid in the echoes: Sex might equal death. Out actor Russell Tovey remembered what that was like in a recent interview, saying, "Coming of age, realizing that I liked men at the same time as AIDS, I would constantly mix sex and death."

UK newspaper the Independent reported that Tovey grew up during a time in England that was marred by a version of the "Don't Say Gay" laws that now exist in some places in the United States. Tovey explained that Section 28 – the edict that forbade schools to acknowledge LGBTQ+ people and relationships – "fucked [him] up" as a young queer person.

Today's queer youth have it much easier, he told The i Paper, the Independent relayed. "How lucky they are!" Tovey marveled at today's comparatively friendly social climate. "How wonderful that is!"

"The actor, 43, found fame in Alan Bennett's 2004 hit play 'The History Boys,' reprising his role in the film adaptation two years later," the Independent noted. "He came out as gay in the Nineties as the AIDS pandemic drew to a close."

The terror of those times made its mark. "To have a generation that doesn't even consider death around sex blows my mind," Tovey told The i Paper.

The gay community has made great strides since then. The UK adopted marriage equality before the U.S. did, and the conservative Tory party took a much different path to that pursued by the Republican party in America, evolving to a place of relative welcome toward sexual minorities.

But the Tories more recently did another pivot regarding queer people, even as anti-trans bias came to the fore.

Tovey lamented that Britain "had this great moment of openness," but currently "the transphobia is horrific" – a reference to the recent decision by the UK Supreme Court that denies trans women legal recognition as women under the country's Equality Act, a ruling the Court says will not upend anti-discrimination protections for trans people, but which British trans women fear could impact their access to medical care and impact their ability to participate in athletics.

Tovey has thrived as an out actor, starring in the U.S. comedy "Looking" and pursuing a successful film career. As previously reported, Tovey is featured in the four-part miniseries "Suspect: The Shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes," in which he portrays Brian Paddick, who was the deputy assistant commissioner on the London police force in the summer of 2005, when a series of bombings and attempted bombings led to a manhunt with tragic consequences for the innocent de Menezes, who was gunned down by police while riding the subway. The police department pushed a narrative that de Menezes had been acting suspiciously – wearing a bulky coat despite the hot summer weather and jumping a subway turnstile – but security footage showed none of that to be true. Even so, the media ran with the fictitious, but official, version of events.

At the time, Paddick was Britain's highest-ranking openly gay police officer, and he pushed back against the lies being told about the tragedy. His insistence on the truth had consequences for his career in law enforcement. Paddick is now a Member of Parliament.

"Tovey's next film is a kind of history lesson, too," The i Paper noted, explaining that the upcoming "Plainclothes" "is based on a homophobic police operation that took place in Syracuse, New York in 1997."

Tovey stars in that film as "a closeted gay man who falls in love with the undercover detective tasked with entrapping men like him," The i Paper detailed.

"Playing a gay man in America matters more than ever," Tovey told The i Paper of the movie, which took less than a month of filming, the outlet noted.

"Can I not just do 10 of them a year?" Tovey quipped.