‘I am no clown’: Billy Porter on how it’s taken the industry over two decades to take him seriously
Billy Porter says he’s struggled to be taken seriously over the years – as he warns critics that while he “may wear dresses on the red carpet, make no mistake, I am no clown”.
The Emmy-winning actor – whose movies include Cinderella, The Intern and Like A Boss – tells Sky News it’s taken around 25 years to be treated like a professional artist.
“My brand, once I got in, has been ‘fabulous’, ‘Billy Porter is fabulous’, ‘Billy Porter does fabulous’.
“I am a very serious human being – and the conversation that I am having with the world is ‘fabulous’ and ‘serious’ do co-exist.”
His latest movie is Our Son, alongside Welsh actor Luke Evans, a moving drama that tells the story of a same-sex couple navigating the difficulties of co-parenting through a divorce.
After 13-years together, Nicky and Gabriel find themselves squabbling over the custody of their eight-year-old son, Owen.
Porter and Evans also collaborated on a song for the film’s soundtrack – Always Be My Man – which they performed at its Tribeca Festival premiere last year.
Porter says he hopes the film will help change some perceptions about him – and about the nature of gay relationships, too.
(R-L) Porter and Luke Evans. Pic: Universal
‘Let’s talk about what happens after’
“To have it be about humans – not a heterosexual, not a homosexual – but the breakdown of a human marriage, was really important to me.
“Because as a 54-year-old black, out, queer – whatever you want to call it – gay man, who’s been in the business for over 30 years, I’ve been watching ‘coming out stories’ for 30 years.
“I am tired of them. We got that story. Let’s now talk about what happens after coming out.”
The actor thinks the world has come a long way when it comes to how same-sex relationships are treated and played out on screen.
He says we should “honour” that, before complaining about where we’re not.
Porter became the first openly gay man to win an Emmy award for Best Actor in a drama series for his role in Pose back in 2019.
But the star says he was deeply disappointed by the energy around the film’s release in the US, late last year.
Pic: Universal
‘It hurts my feelings’
Released with little fanfare, it’s been compared to divorce dramas including Kramer Vs Kramer and Marriage Story – and largely judged to be wanting.
Porter says: “They just threw it out. Nobody saw it. Nobody even knows it’s out. And that hurts my feelings. It does. It deserves better than that.”
He goes on: “There was no care. With that said, it does not diminish the value – this will be there and people will be able to find it.
“Our movie – because it’s a movie – will have a life. And I’m excited about that life. I’m excited about the release in the UK and Europe. It’s already having a life that didn’t exist [here in] America.”
Porter says the film wasn’t given a chance to really take off in the US, but hopes it may do just that here for its UK release.
Our Son in UK cinemas now.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
The Salt Path author Raynor Winn’s fourth book has been delayed by her publisher.
It comes amid claims that the author lied about her story in her hit first book. Winn previously described the claims as “highly misleading” and called suggestions that her husband had Moth made up his illness “utterly vile”.
In a statement, Penguin Michael Joseph, said it had delayed the publication of Winn’s latest book On Winter Hill – which had been set for release 23 October.
The publisher said the decision had been made in light of “recent events, in particular intrusive conjecture around Moth’s health”, which it said had caused “considerable distress” to the author and her family.
“It is our priority to support the author at this time,” the publisher said.
“With this in mind, Penguin Michael Joseph, together with the author, has made the decision to delay the publication of On Winter Hill from this October.”
A new release date will be announced in due course, the publisher added.
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Winn’s first book, released in 2018, detailed the journey she and husband took along the South West Coast Path – familiarly known as The Salt Path – after they lost their family farm and Moth received a terminal health diagnosis of Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD).
But a report in The Observer disputed key aspects of the 2018 “true” story – which was recently turned into a film starring Jason Isaacs and Gillian Anderson.
Raynor and husband Moth (centre) with actors Jason Isaacs (L) and Gillian Anderson (R). Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
Experts ‘sceptical of health claims’
As part of the article, published last weekend, The Observer claimed to have spoken to experts who were “sceptical” about elements of Moth’s terminal diagnosis, such as a “lack of acute symptoms and his apparent ability to reverse them”.
In the ensuing controversy, PSPA, a charity that supports people with CBD, cut ties with the couple.
The Observer article also claimed the portrayal of a failed investment in a friend’s business wasn’t true, but said the couple – whose names are Sally and Tim Walker – lost their home after Raynor Winn embezzled money from her employer and had to borrow to pay it back and avoid police action.
Anderson played Winn in a movie about the couple’s journey. Pic: Steve Tanner/Black Bear
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It also said that, rather than being homeless, the couple had owned a house in France since 2007.
Winn’s statement said the dispute with her employer wasn’t the reason the couple lost their home – but admitted she may have made “mistakes” while in the job.
“For me it was a pressured time,” she wrote. “It was also a time when mistakes were being made in the business. Any mistakes I made during the years in that office, I deeply regret, and I am truly sorry.”
She admitted being questioned by police but said she wasn’t charged.
The author also said accusations that Moth lied about having CBD/CBS were false and had “emotionally devastated” him.
“I have charted Moth’s condition with such a level of honesty, that this is the most unbearable of the allegations,” Winn wrote on her website.
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