Harry also talked about starring in the upcoming film, My Policeman, where he plays a museum curator who falls for a police officer in the 1950s — a time when being gay was criminalized.
When asked about it, Harry said, “It’s obviously pretty unfathomable now to think, ‘Oh, you couldn’t be gay. That was illegal. I think everyone, including myself, has your own journey with figuring out sexuality and getting more comfortable with it.”
“It’s not like, ‘This is a gay story about these guys being gay.’ It’s about love and about wasted time to me. So much of gay sex in film is two guys going at it, and it kind of removes the tenderness from it. There will be, I would imagine, some people who watch it who were very much alive during this time when it was illegal to be gay, and [Michael] wanted to show that it’s tender and loving and sensitive.”
The comment about gay sex in film — and how it’s just “two guys going at it” — didn’t sit well with people, who called out the singer.
(watching a movie about gay sex) man these guys are really going at it………… https://t.co/T6q3waTutk
@IndieWire This is so funny because queer cinema has been mostly about tenderness and longing, since, ya know we weren’t allowed to show positive queer representation in media for a few decades. It’s totally cool if your movie doesn’t get hot and steamy, but… (1/)
@capybaroness So much gay sex in movies is just about gay men having sex. The goal of my new movie is to have all the cache gay sex affords me without any of the gross stuff like men fucking each other
The backlash actually became a huge meme. Here are some of the most viral tweets that came from the controversy:
harry styles when he finds out gay people fuck each other instead of just wearing ugly outfit combos and painting their nails pink together https://t.co/HnDea65LjY
The last thing Imma say about this and I’m done — you didn’t hear Daniel Radcliffe doing all this when he got rode hard, and put away wet as Allen Ginsberg in Kill Your Darlings (2013) he bit the pillow, hiked up his caboose and SHUT UP! Learn from this!!!
