Baby Reindeer star Jessica Gunning has opened up about her sexuality in an inspiring interview with podcast Reign with Josh Smith.
The actor said: “I came out actually in November 2022 and that was a mega, mega thing for me. I’m surrounded by gays, all my friends are gay and so it wasn’t that I was repressing anything. It
was just that I didn’t think I could be, and I still can’t articulate it in the best way. But yeah, I realised I was a big old gay, and I was like, ‘that’s what it’s been. That’s what it is.’”
Jessica shared that she had often felt “alien” throughout her life, wondering if her body type was a contributing factor. “For so long, I’d thought, and I’m a bigger woman, and I thought maybe it was to do with my size, that I felt a little bit almost alien, or I was tagging along. But as soon as I realised, I was like, ‘no, it’s that.’ That was the most liberating thing.”
“It’s been a little secret, I guess I’ve been keeping from myself even. And not in a kind of hating way. I never felt I was repressing anything in a bad way or that any reaction would be bad. I just kind of was like, I didn’t think I could be.”
The actor, who starred in moving gay activism film Pride back in 2014, added: “I mean, in hindsight, I used to go downstairs and watch The L Word. So probably that would’ve been a bit of a giveaway… I should have even known when I did Pride, I would cry all the time. All the time. I found it so emotional. I should have really known then. And then I did a play with Cate Blanchett where I got to kiss her every night on stage again, should have known then. All these signs from the universe! It took me 36 years, but I did it.”