When Did Jonathan Bailey Come Out as Gay? 'Wicked' Star Reveals His Experience - Just Jared - Celebrity News and Gossip

Jonathan Bailey is speaking out about his coming out journey.

The 38-year-old Wicked star sat down in conversation with Elton John as part of the first-ever Elton John Impact Awards, in which Jonathan was honored for his impact on the LGBTQ+ community.

The special launched as a podcast series on June 1, and as an audio special across iHeartRadio PRIDE stations.

At one point, Elton asked Jonathan if he ever felt pressure to hide his sexuality, or if he was ever scared to come out as gay, or if he had enough confidence to do so that coming out wasn’t scary.

“I think there’s so much nuance to it,” Jonathan said, via THR.

“In a way, I feel innately that I knew myself at quite a young age actually, and the hardware is one of confidence. And then of course, you just take on these stories and these narratives that are sort of like cobwebs.”

“And the closer I got, I found acting. And I think the reason why I loved acting is because for the first time, in a world where you have to sort of code switch and be hypervigilant about what you’re saying and how you come across, especially to your peers, if they’re gonna acknowledge something that you say or the way you say it as denoting of your sexuality,” Jonathan continued.

“To then get given a script and to actually be able to lean into the right thing to do and to then be truthful in it felt really, really good.”

He also spoke to perceived limitations for openly gay actors.

“I was well aware that [of] the possibilities and the limits of queer actors and what that means to an audience and whether that bleeds into commerce and how that affects it. So yeah, I think when I was in my early twenties, there was definitely an understanding that, to be gay would be a hindrance,” Jonathan admitted.

Ultimately, he decided it was better to live his authentic self, regardless of how it affected his career.

“I wasn’t gonna not hold my boyfriend’s hand in the street, and that was something that I felt so strongly in an animal sense. And of course if that meant that it was gonna impede any potential work, then I was willing to take that risk.”

Jonathan also addressed early inspiration in media.

“Brokeback Mountain came out when I was in my sixth form [U.K. equivalent to the final two years of high school], and I changed my thesis on representation in terms of homosexuality in Brokeback Mountain, just so that I had an excuse to go back to cinema about 15 times,” he said.

“But even though the stories itself were painful, it was just enough to see actors performing them, which just shows how bread-crumbed I think we were, at that point.”

Emma Corrin is also ppening up about their coming out experience during Pride Month.

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