Photo: David M. Benett/Hoda Davaine/Dave Benett/WireImage
Ben Aldridgesays he “underestimated how significant” coming out publicly would impact his life.
During theKnock at the Cabinactor’s appearance onVariety’sJust for Varietypodcast this week, Aldridge, 37, said he “felt so powerful” after hecame out via an Instagram postin June 2020.
“It sounds dramatic, but I could just breathe easier,” Aldridge toldVariety’sMark Malkin. “I underestimated how significant that was to me. I really did. I thought, it’s not that I’d played it down, but I didn’t know what it would do to me physically. And just for days afterward I was like, ‘I needed that so badly.’ "
“I wasn’t aware of how much I needed to do that and how much I’d potentially hung onto, conveniently hidden behind,” he added.
Aldridge noted he felt “so powerful to be able to stand alongside and be part of my community” in that moment.
“The journey to pride was a long one for me,” Aldridge wrote onInstagramback in June 2020 in celebration of Pride Month, alongside a black-and-white photo of a Pride event. “I love the LGBTQ+ community and am incredibly proud and thankful to be a part of it.”
“So much won,” he added at the time. “So much more to fight for.”
Ben Aldridge and Jim Parsons inSpoiler Alert(2022).Linda Källérus/FOCUS FEATURES
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Aldridge told Entertainment Weekly that coming out did “help align me in queer projects that I wouldn’t have necessarily been considered for” in his acting career, such as the romantic comedySpoiler Alertand the new film from directorM. Night Shyamalan.
“A journalist put it to me, ‘Do you feel like the universe has rewarded you for coming out?’ I don’t believe that itwouldreward me, but I think in being authentic, you interact with the world in a different way,” Aldridge said. “Therefore, what comes back at you is also gonna be different.”
“I have really relished playing gay men,” he added toEW. “It has given the work that I’m doing much more meaning. I’m meeting myself in my work.”
Knock at the Cabinis in theaters now.
source: people.com
