Personal Life
Daniels is openly gay – he has remarked "Out? I've never been in" – and lives with stage actor Ian Gelder. They began seeing each other during a 1993 production of Joe Orton's Entertaining Mr Sloane. Daniels was already sure of his sexuality in his teens, although he did not discuss the matter with his parents because they did not have a very close emotional relationship. He was "cautious about mentioning it when I left drama school, because AIDS was terrifying everyone and there was a huge, homophobic backlash." He decided to be open about being gay at the age of 24 years, while appearing in an all-star benefit performance of Martin Sherman's Bent. Daniels has said:
Homophobia is still shockingly prevalent in film and TV. I know I've lost work because of being gay, and it is always an issue. Even on a serious BBC2 drama there will be some suit in some office going, "Hmmm, isn't he a poof?" I don't consider myself politically gay, but whenever I catch a whiff of that now, I'm on it like a ton of bricks.In 2007, Daniels was ranked number 79 in the annual Pink List of 100 influential gay and lesbian people in Britain published by The Independent on Sunday, down from number 47 in 2006.
In his spare time, he is an amateur painter and Ashtanga yoga devotee.
Read more about this topic: Ben Daniels
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