Russell Tovey fell ‘desperately in love’ with a ‘much older actor’ while filming early TV show

Russell Tovey has revealed that he fell “desperately in love” with a “much older actor” while filming an early television series.

The gay actor opened up about coming to terms with his sexuality and his first major crush in an interview with Attitude magazine.

“I was doing a TV show and I was desperately in love with this much older actor and had such a crush on him, and I didn’t think anyone knew,” Tovey said.

“I thought I was hiding it very well, but I wasn’t. This older actress took me for a walk along the beach where it was filming and explained to me that I might be gay.

“She said, ‘If you are, that’s great; if you’re not, that’s fine. But you might be.’ It felt like, oh, that’s an option. That is something I can possibly be. That’s what those feelings I’m having are.”

Russell Tovey felt ‘lost’ as a younger gay man

Tovey continued: “It’s confusing because you’re living in a world where you’re being told there’s nowhere you can look to understand, what are my feelings?

The only place I’ve experienced some sort of homophobia was once at a Soho House festival.

“You feel lost and at that age, to have someone put their hand out and go, ‘Come here. This is just me giving a bit of advice.’ It stayed with me forever and changed everything.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Tovey opened up about a bizarre homophobic experience he had at a Soho House festival.

The Years and Years star said: “The only place I’ve experienced some sort of homophobia was once at a Soho House festival.

“Me and my friend Matt Kennard, who is actually straight, were at the bar getting drinks and somebody says, ‘Come on, gay boys, hurry up, gay boys.’ We ended up having a scrap with the guy. It was just like, ‘Excuse me? What the f**k is going on? This is f**king Soho House, of all places!’ It was so preposterous and bizarre.

“It was so odd. Homophobia is so odd. It’s just so odd,” he said.

The May issue of Attitude magazine is out now.