Russell Tovey: I’m glad I didn’t become ‘really effeminate’
Looking star Russell Tovey has said he is thankful that he didn’t become go to theatre school and become ‘really effeminate’.
The out actor told the Observer he is “glad” his father refused to allow him to go to a drama school.
He said: “I was so envious of everyone who went to Sylvia Young Theatre School. I wanted to go but my dad flat-out refused.
“He thought I’d become some tapdancing freak without qualifications. And he was right in a way. I’m glad I didn’t go.
“That might have changed… I feel like I could have been really effeminate, if I hadn’t gone to the school I went to, where I felt like I had to toughen up.
“If I’d have been able to relax, prance around, sing in the street, I might be a different person now.
“I thank my dad for that, for not allowing me to go down that path. Because it’s probably given me the unique quality that people think I have.”
In the same interview, he recounted details of a horrific knife attack when he was aged 18.
He said: “I’d been in a pub in Romford, getting the train to my to meet my parents in Brentwood. I was wearing a cardigan. At that time you never wore a cardigan in Romford.”
Two men sat opposite Tovey on the train – before launching an attack on him. The actor was punched repeatedly and slashed above the ear with a knife.
He continued: “If they’d asked for my wallet or phone I would have understood it. But it wasn’t anything to do with that. They just wanted to f**king hurt me.”
