John lithgow gay
Interview: Sundance Newlyweds John Lithgow and Alfred Molina Are In Love In Genuine Life Too
John Lithgow and Alfred Molina’s heartbreaking, complex and perhaps even career-defining performances in Ira Sachs’ “Love Is Strange” contain been a major talking point of the 2014 Sundance Film Festival thus far.
As Ben (Lithgow) and George (Molina), the two portray an aging lgbtq+ couple who — after finally getting the chance to tie the knot after 39 years together — run into solemn financial troubles when George is fired from his job at a Catholic private school when synonyms gets out about his nuptials. This evolves into a nuanced, beautiful portrait of not only their love but the affection of the many friends and family members around them, with Lithgow and Molina providing the centerpiece of an impressive ensemble (that includes Marisa Tomei and Cheyenne Jackson).Though as wonderful as it is to watch the pair’s seemingly effortless chemistry on screen, it somehow doesn’t quite compare to witnessing it in person.
In an interview the morning after “Love Is Strange” made its world premiere at Sundance, it was immediately clear that Lithgow an
John Lithgow talks Love is Strange and why he and Alfred Molina construct a great gay couple
MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: John Lithgow is one of America’s most respected and prolific actors. A gigantic name on Broadway where he is regularly up for Tonys, he won for best actor in 1973 for The Modifying Room and in 2002 for Sweet Smell of Success. He garnered optimal supporting actor Oscars for his role as transsexual ex-footballer Roberta Muldoon in The World According to Garp (1982) and as a bashful Iowa banker in Terms of Endearment (1983) and has been nominated for 11 Emmys, winning three times as best actor for 3rd Rock from the Sun and once for Dexter. And he doesn’t end there. Whenever acting function is not forthcoming, he writes poetry and children’s books and has never been one of those angst-ridden actors waiting for the phone to sound.
He’s such a delightful, funny, bighearted man and we made each other laugh so hard
“I’m interested in lots and lots of things,” Lithgow admits in his distinctive cultivated tones. “So to evade that anxiety, I just go and do something else, to the signal where I clutter up my li
Dear John Lithgow,
If I could tell my teenage self the news that you’d playing Dumbledore in an upcoming TV adaptation of Harry Potter, she’d be so excited.
I grew up watching 3rd Rock From the Sun and include rewatched each episode countless times. It led me to your other serve and made me a lifelong fan. As for Harry Potter, it’s tough to overstate how passionate I was to it as a teenager. I waited 12 hours in line for the last book to come out. I bought wizard robes with my first paycheck.
But when I heard the casting news in 2025, my stomach dropped.
In your career, you’ve played remarkable LGBTQ characters, and in interviews, you’ve talked about being surrounded by LGBTQ friends and loved ones in your life. You were nominated for an Academy Award in 1982 for playing a transsexual character. In a recent interview, you described your approach to Roberta Muldoon, a trans woman nature in The World According to Garp, saying that you “decided to underplay everything [and] make her a perfectly normal person” who “feels more herself than she’s ever been.”
In 2014, you played a gay man in Love is Strange, and in inte
There’s a beautiful moment in Ira Sachs’ indie slap Love Is Strange involving two older men – a Unused York couple, forced to live apart after one of them loses his job, tearfully embraces. Life-changing? No. But that’s the point: Its simplicity is a revelation. That distinctly post-gay perspective is what attracted John Lithgow to the role of Uncle Ben, an elderly artist adjusting to life away from his husband, George (Alfred Molina), after financial woes drive them into separate residences. During a recent chat with Lithgow, the star discussed being touched by the gay community’s response to Love Is Strange, the underrepresentation of LGBT people in film, and his groundbreaking turn as a trans woman alongside Robin Williams in The World According to Garp.
“Love Is Strange” is resonating with the gay society on a very personal level, especially now that many of these longtime gay and lesbian couples are able to wed. For you, what does it mean to be part of a motion picture that means so much to the gay community?
It’s extremely moving to me. Even if the whole lgbtq+ marriage issue had not become such a major issue of our times, this would still be a very, very moving film j
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