The Guardian Weekly 14 January 202254 Culture
“It genuinely was news to me, I promise you,” he says. We
gossip for a bit, off the record, but he insists he isn’t doing
it. “I defi nitely am not Doctor Who, and I’m not going to be
Doctor Who,” he says. “It’s not happening! I can tell you I’m
defi nitely not doing it.”I
N IT’S A SIN, Ritchie moves to London from the
Isle of Wight to become an actor, and arrives
with gusto on the city’s gay scene, partying and
sleeping his way around town. When Aids begins
to tear through his social circle, he is in denial,
at one point giving a petulant speech accusing
the government of fear-mongering and trying to
stop gay men having sex. He values his freedom
as a gay man; he votes for Thatcher. He is afraid and he is
defi ant. He is a complicated character, which makes his
story all the more aff ecting. It feels authentic.
Given that Alexander moved to London (from Glouces-
tershire) at 18 to become an actor, there are parallels, aren’t
there? “For sure. Except he’s a fucking Tory,” he jokes. What
does he think Davies saw in him? “I don’t know. But it’s not
often you see a character that’s so connected to your life
that’s gay, that had these big ambitions, that was hiding
something from the people around him. I felt all of those
things. So I thought, ‘ Oh yeah, I could do this. I can get
into his head.’”
He put acting on the back burner for Years & Years, and
hadn’t acted for six years when It’s a Sin came along. He was
intimidated. “I just thought, ‘ What have I got myself in for,
thinking I could do this?’ I was doing well as an actor, but
I had never read something like It’s a Sin. You could wait
your whole career and not get something as good as that,
so I was like, ‘I have to do it, and do a good job.’”The reaction made it clear that he pulled it off. The
programme won over critics and audiences in the UK and
in the US. Alexander often cried while reading the script
and when learning his lines. “I know a lot of us on set felt
the same. So I suppose it isn’t surprising that some people
were similarly aff ected by watching it, or had an intense
response. I hadn’t realised how much of a shadow it had
been for lots of people .”
Alexander says that at times he found the public reaction
to It’s a Sin “overwhelming”. “I felt like maybe some of what
people experienced watching the show, I went through it
in my own way, just by learning more about the history,
because there were huge gaps in my knowledge of what
happened in the UK in the 80s. That was a really deep,
profound experience for me, as a human, but also as a gay
man. It felt like it contextualised a lot of my experiences
growing up.”
Even now, Alexander still gets messages from people
who have seen Growing Up Gay and identifi ed with the
struggles he went through as a young, closeted teenager
who was bullied at school. “It’s so weird to be in a position
of spokesperson or representative in any way of my commu-
nity, as a gay man. You bump up against so many issues, like
representation politics. But I think if you can give people
some of the foundations of an idea or concept or a way to
discuss something, even if it’s just an opening, then people
can do the rest themselves. That’s a good thing, I think.”
I wonder if the documentary is similar to It’s a Sin, in
terms of it opening him up to hear about other people’s
pain? “Mmm,” he says. “It’s hard, sometimes. I’m just try-
ing to fi gure out a way of answering you and not crying
myself, right now.” But he starts to cry, anyway. “This is
what I mean, when it’s overwhelming, because you see
how much people are in pain,” he says, his voice wobbling.
He composes himself, carries on. “You know, I do these
quite big, exposing things. Like, even It’s a Sin, obviously
I’m playing a character, but then I have to really step back
from it.”
Pop star duties are calling Alexander. He has Years &
Years CDs on his kitchen table that he needs to sign, some
social media posts to do to promote his latest single. I ask
if he’ll return to acting soon. He hesitates. “I think I will,
yeah,” he says. “When it’s something I want to do ... It’s such
a bizarre job. And I feel like I left it behind for a reason, to
make music and do Years & Years. ”
Alexander once said that he had planned out his life
until he was 25. Is there a new plan in place now? “No plan
any more,” he says easily, but then he changes his mind.
“Actually, have you seen Grace and Frankie ?” He’s talk-
ing about the Netfl ix show starring Jane Fonda and Lily
Tomlin. “I just love their set up. They’re two women who
are best friends living in this gorgeous place by the sea, in
their 80s, still having sex, getting stoned and getting up to
all sorts of trouble.” He grins. “My vague plan is to end up
with something like that.” •
Night Call will be released on 21 January
REBECCA NICHOLSON IS A GUARDIAN AND OBSERVER WRITERMusic and television
Sing out
Olly Alexander
and Elton John
performing at the
2021 Brit awards
JOHN MARSHALL Acting up
Alexander
(centre) as Ritchie
in It’s a SinAs a gay man, It’s a Sin
contextualised a lot of my
experiences growing up