Out Actor Ben Whishaw Is 'Definitely Happier' Being Out; The Closet was 'Stressful and Unhappy'

Gay British actor Ben Whishaw recalled in an interview over the weekend that being in the closet was "stressful and unhappy," and declared, "I'm definitely happier" now that he's out.

The "Passages" star, 43, "has been openly gay since he entered into a civil partnership with ex Mark Bradshaw in 2012 (they split in 2022)," Buzzfeed noted, although it wasn't until 2014 that "he publicly discussed being gay for the first time in an interview with the Sunday Times."

Whishaw spoke with the Sunday Times again for a profile published on Sept. 6 in which the newspaper reckoned that the James Bond franchise regular – he has portrayed Q in those films since 2012's "Skyfall" – "has, quite quietly, become one of our country's great actors, while not thinking he is great at all."

Whishaw has also voiced Paddington Bear in three movies (in 2014, 2017, and again for the forthcoming "Paddington in Peru," set to hit screens in November), and, when he met with the Sunday Times, he was studying lines for his role as Vladimir in a new production of Samual Beckett's classic play "Waiting for Godot" in London.

When the conversation turned to how few gay British actors are out of the closet, Whishaw became pensive. "I feel like we could have a whole hour on this. It's complex."

The Sunday Times corespondent suggested that Whishaw's own busy career stands as proof that gay actors need not fear damaging their careers by coming out, to which the "Women Talking" star responded, "Honestly, I don't think about that."

"I think it's down to every single person to do what's right for them," Whishaw went on to add on the topic of queer actors coming out, before making the personal note that, "for me, it's better to be out. I'm definitely happier."

"I remember days when I wasn't out," Whishaw went on to say, "and that was a more stressful and unhappy position."

The "Mary Poppins Returns" actor recalled, "When I started in the early 2000s, if you had said to another actor you were gay, it was implied or sometimes said explicitly that that was something you shouldn't make a big thing about. It was a disability, almost."

"There weren't a vast number," he added of openly gay actors of the time, "and nobody my age. But gay people of my generation came in at a strange time post-AIDS, which had a whole knock-on effect."

"Yet," the "Surge" star said, "it was one secret I didn't need to keep. It doesn't need to be anyone's business, but being happy in oneself, not ashamed, is probably better."