Fry: 'Not brave to play gay characters'

Actor Stephen Fry has lashed out at the way straight actors are praised for playing gay characters.

The TV star has voiced his opinion on the way male stars who are heterosexual, are lauded as "brave" when they share an intimate moment on screen with other men.

In contrast he says a gay actor playing a straight character would not be praised for convincingly portraying a relationship with a woman.

The QI host was speaking about the single status of his latest TV character solicitor-sleuth Peter Kingdom.

Fry, 50, said: "I think the fact that I'm so well known to be gay makes it very difficult to have a convincing relationship with a woman on screen.

"Straight actors can play gay people and they're rather congratulated on it. People say 'Ooh, how brave of you'."

But Fry, 50, added that no one says to a gay actor who plays a heterosexual person: "'How brave of you to kiss that woman, that must have been very difficult for you'."

He said: "It wouldn't be at all difficult for me to kiss a woman - I'll kiss a frog if you like. And why should it be difficult for a man to kiss another man?"

Fry added: "It's difficult to ride bareback backwards while unicycling, but to kiss someone isn't difficult.

Many Hollywood stars have received critical acclaim after taking on gay roles including Philip Seymour Hoffman who starred as Truman Capote in a movie about the gay author and Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger who were cast as secret lovers in Brokeback Mountain.

© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.