Jonathan Bailey is one of the busiest men in Hollywood. And from Bridgerton and Wicked to Heartstopper, Fellow Travelers and Jurassic World Rebirth, he has been front and centre these past few years.
This week, however, the 37-year-old announced a surprise career move, as he confirmed that he would be taking a break from acting, and soon.
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“I’ve been working solidly for about three years now, which has been amazing and mind blowing,” Bailey explained to British GQ in a recent interview. “But with everything happening in the world right now, I’m going to stop acting for a bit next year and just focus on the Shameless Fund.”
Bailey founded the UK-based charity in June 2024, with the intention of supporting LGBTQ+ non profit organisations through creative collaborations. And working with major A-list names from Cara Delevingne and Kylie Minogue to Scarlett Johansson and Cynthia Erivo, the Shameless Fund is going from strength to strength.
“Over the next few months, I’ll be focusing on staffing and making sure we get all the right people in the right places,” Bailey added in the recent interview.
“There’s this statistic: out of every £100 raised in the U.K., only [1p] goes to the LGBTQ+ community,” he added. “You really have to dig to find solutions, and I genuinely think The Shameless Fund is exactly that.”
“A few years ago I thought, ‘What can you do as an actor?'”, Bailey recalled to Vogue when he set up The Shameless Fund. “There are so many amazing people who are on the frontline.
“They’re the real heroes that are working for organisations, and charities, and initiatives, which can speak to so many specific groups of people,” he continued. “How can I raise money without asking people to actually donate and sponsor, [but rather] to invite people to experience art and beautiful, inspiring, naughty, and exciting collaborations?”
We will continue to update this story.