Nicholas Galitzine Felt "Guilt" About Playing Gay Movie Roles
"I felt a sense of uncertainty sometimes."
Nicholas Galitzine is no stranger to steamy sex scenes, but he doesn’t want moviegoers to conflate his real life with the characters he plays. The actor has become known for his portrayals of complex LGBTQ+ men, though he himself isn’t part of the community. “I identify as a straight man,” Galitzine told GQ in a May 8 profile. He went on to explain how he had to overcome a sense of “guilt” to justify taking these LGBTQ+ parts.
“I am Nick, and I’m not my role,” Galitzine said. “I have been a part of some incredible queer stories. I felt a sense of uncertainty sometimes about whether I’m taking up someone’s space, and perhaps guilt. At the same time, I see those characters as not solely their sexuality.”
Many of Galitzine’s standout performances have been as queer characters. His early breakout movie was 2016’s Handsome Devil, in which he played a rugby player who falls for his boarding school roommate. In 2020’s The Craft: Legacy, he played a bully who later came out as bisexual. Most recently, he pined for the president’s son as a gay prince in Red, White & Royal Blue and slept with half of England as a bisexual courtier in Mary & George.
Galitzine hasn’t exclusively played gay or bisexual characters, though. In fact, three of his biggest movies have him playing very stereotypically straight men. He played a troubled Marine in Purple Hearts, an aggro jock in Bottoms, and a suave pop star in The Idea of You. Really, the main connective tissue in Galitzine’s career is his commitment to bringing palpable sexuality to the big screen — in whatever form.
And yes, that means he naturally has an opinion on the ongoing discourse about Gen Z’s aversion to sex scenes in movies and TV shows. “I wonder if it’s the pornification of our generation,” Galitzine mused. “Or maybe the fact that due to the digital age, something so human as having sex feels like an affront.”
He himself doesn’t have an issue with a spicy moment, mentioning that he didn’t understand why people were so scandalized by Saltburn. “A lot of people were really squeamish with the sex scenes in it,” he recalled. “You know, clearly Mary & George f*cked me up, because I thought they were very normal.”
