Emmerdale star Danny Miller has spoke out on I'm A Celeb about his experience acting as a gay character, when he is a straight man.
Danny explained to camp mate Frankie Bridge a new producer, who he said 'made his career' decided his character, who was always depicted as shy around girls, was gay.
Danny agreed and wanted to take on the role straight away.
Read more about I'm a Celeb here.
Danny recalled: “I just sort of said, didn’t have to think about it, I went, ‘Yeah, I’d love to be able to portray something that’s not really been done in Soap.’ There’s obviously gay characters in Soap, but in terms of against all stereotypes of a gay man, and it made me think that would be so good.
“At the time, 13 years ago, it wasn’t as kind of open and accepted at that time as it is now. I think part of it helped change some perceptions of it really.
"I’ve had loads of fan letters and stuff that have come through at work that said, ‘You helped me come out’, ‘You helped me deal with my sexuality’ and stuff and you think, ‘Wow’.”
When asked if he ever got “stick” for playing a gay man and being straight, Danny said: “People are always saying it to me when they meet me, they’ll go, instantly if it was a bloke, ‘How do you kiss them men?’”
He added: “That’s exactly what we’re trying to stop, the stereotype of how do you do that?”
Campmate and Eastenders star Adam Woodyatt said in the Telegraph: “Danny, taking on that character at such a young age is brave and it can be quite daunting. It is challenging. Sadly, there’s still a lot of homophobia out there.”
Matty Lee said to his campmates: “When I was in high school, that was a horrible environment for anyone to come out. Not a single – not to my knowing – not a single gay person there, or who was out anyway. If I’d never moved to London I wouldn’t have had any gay mates. A lot of my mates in London are gay and I love them. But without that I wouldn’t have known any.”
Adam said: “The younger generation now are so much more accepting.”
Matty said: “My generation wasn’t nice still in high school. I couldn’t even be a diver without being punched.
“I would get that sort of bullying from just being a diver. Just because I wear little trunks. And it’s a shame because people should be who they want to be, whether it’s their profession, whether it’s their sexuality, their gender, their race… people should be able to do what they want to do.”
Danny played the character of Aaron Dingle for 13 years and some of his storylines include romantic advances towards his best friend, coming towards his sexuality, his relationship with Jackson Walsh and dealing with Jackson's suicide.
I'm A Celebrity continues tonight at 9pm on ITV.
To get the latest showbiz news from WalesOnline sent straight to your inbox sign up for our What's On newsletter here .
