Wicked star Jonathan Bailey 'felt really scared' growing up gay in school

"I felt frightened and I felt unsocial and I felt wholly constricted astatine assorted points successful my life", histrion Jonathan Bailey says of increasing up cheery successful school.

While promoting Wicked: For Good, the histrion donated 1 of his interrogation slots to speech astir the foundation helium is simply a patron of: Just Like Us, which works with LGBT+ younker successful schools.

"That's thing that I would person truly benefited from erstwhile I was young," helium said, talking exclusively to Sky News astir his charitable work.

In surveys of thousands of UK pupils, Just Like Us recovered that LGBT participants aged 11 to 18 were doubly arsenic apt to endure anxiety, slump and to beryllium bullied, and that lone fractional felt harmless astatine schoolhouse connected a regular basis.

"I experienced each of that," helium said. "It became wide rather aboriginal connected that thing that was precise circumstantial and wide to maine astir who I was, it wasn't harmless and it wasn't celebrated."

Whether arsenic Lord Anthony successful Bridgerton, being crowned sexiest antheral live and arsenic the Winkie Prince Fiyero successful Wicked: For Good, Bailey has breached done an outdated stereotype.

Historically, it was considered a vocation hazard to beryllium retired - a heterosexual romanticist lead's vocation was astatine hazard if his sexuality was public.

For the Winkie prince actor, acquisition tin play a relation successful defying limitations.

"This is beyond sexuality," helium said, "it's race, it's class, it is wherever you're from, we are each fixed limiting narratives that we person to interruption escaped of.

"I thought not lone was I not going to beryllium capable to play these sorts of parts due to the fact that of my sexuality, but that I wouldn't beryllium capable to bash Shakespeare due to the fact that I didn't spell to play school.

"They're the benignant of stories that we request to beryllium reminded of is that really lasting up and being harmless capable to beryllium capable to accidental who you truly are, and to beryllium susceptible astatine that age... these formative years, is inspiring to everyone successful the classroom."

But classrooms successful the UK are facing tightening budgets owed to "spiralling costs" that endanger to outstrip the maturation successful schoolhouse funding.

Citing fund and clip pressures connected teachers, Just Like Us has made its talks escaped successful schools. Does the histrion deliberation the authorities should beryllium doing more?

He said: "I'm a precise arrogant member of an unthinkable teacher who works successful the authorities system, and I cognize however overmuch she cares astir her school, her pupils.

"The resources are being crunched, and the occupation is that it volition beryllium the arts and it volition beryllium truly important conversations that Just Like Us bring into the schools and these... things that are going to go, and that's conscionable truly sad.

"But I'm not the idiosyncratic to travel up with solutions different than I tin bash my bit."

Bailey, Cynthia Erivo and Bowen Yang are among Wicked's LGBT cast, and successful Wicked: For Good, openly cheery histrion Colman Domingo joins them arsenic the dependable of the Cowardly Lion.

But not everyone is encouraging the onscreen representation: A "warning" by blimpish radical One Million Moms said that the Jon M Chu-directed films are "normalising the LGBTQ lifestyle" to children and takes purpose astatine the cast.

The alert urges radical to boycott the sequel "even if you person seen Wicked: Part One".

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When asked astir the pushback, Bailey is resolute: "I don't adjacent acknowledge... the happening that's important to maine is however bash I chat to small Johnny successful each this.

"I'm thrilled to beryllium surviving successful a clip wherever I tin play the Winkie Prince and wherever Just Like Us is doing the bonzer enactment that they're doing."