Simon Haines is also bisexual, a subject he’s happy to talk about. So, as it’s Bisexual Awareness Week, QX spoke to Simon not just about his career as an actor and his upcoming big release, but also about being bisexual and the causes close to his heart.
Hello Simon. How did you get into acting, and what has been the highlight of your career to date?
One of my primary school teachers bought a camcorder (ageing myself here) and set up a film club for us. We made something very profound about a talking fish finger. Then, for the Year 6 school play, I convinced them to let me play the female lead. In drag. Problematic (stealing the best part from the girls), but also iconic. Later, I was lucky enough to get into Cambridge and then into Guildhall. When Gandalf and James Bond are alumni, you believe you can make it. My career highlights are the people — just having fun with cast and crew, on camera and off camera — I laughed so much working with Celia Imrie and Phyllis Logan. They shouldn’t pay me really — it’s not work.
You made your first appearance on Emmerdale this year, when your character, Owen Michaels, went on a date with Robert Sugden. Owen drugged Robert’s drink and tried to take him home, but was caught out and sent packing. There have been quite a few LGBTQ characters in Emmerdale over the years. Have you seen any shift in the way LGBTQ folk are portrayed in soaps like Emmerdale?
Soaps have always been pioneering, but representation is so much better across the board on TV now. In the first scene I shot for Emmerdale, all 4 male characters were queer. That means we can show the full spectrum of queer life: queer villains and queer heroes and everything in between. Although Owen is a villain, what I found surprising and beautiful about the writing was that another character, Dr Liam, very compassionately pointed out that Owen has had a hard life and is in a very bad place. That’s absolutely not to excuse what Owen does, but I loved the nuance the writers put in. He wasn’t a demonised caricature. He’s a human being who does a terrible, terrible thing.
In your personal life, you are bisexual. Do you think bisexual people face a lot of prejudice?
Society is still a work in progress. Last year, a very liberal artsy friend said to my face, ‘I would never date a bi guy.’ This is a really good, kind, progressive person. They would never say something like that to someone of another minority. We had a conversation about it and they apologised. But it’s not really about them, it’s about who we see (and don’t see) around us. Some men in the public eye are coy about their sexuality, which is totally their prerogative. But for me, it feels so important to be openly bi. The main thing I would say is that while there is prejudice out there, there are also plenty of people who will totally accept and embrace you for who you are.
Have you ever played a bisexual character, and are there any that you would like to play?
Not yet. Because I don’t think there are many bi characters out there yet. They need to be written! One character who I’ve always heard talked about as gay but who I now read as absolutely bi is Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams. He’s an ex-American footballer whose wife recently cheated on him with his male best friend (who Brick may or may not have fancied). I’d love to play him. I’m about the right age and physique to play him now. And I have a great Mississippi accent! But mainly, I’d love to play lots of bi roles that haven’tyet been written. Ideally, roles written by bi writers, please and thank you.
You are in the remake of the 1987 film, based on Stephen King’s novel, The Running Man. It is scheduled for release on November 7, 2025. Tell us about your role.
I’m not allowed to say much, but that job was awesome. Edgar Wright and Glen Powell are such huge names in the film world, yet they are both so warm and down-to-earth. And a massive shout-out to the queer legends in the cast, Colman Domingo and Katy O’Brian!
Have you done much stage acting, and is this something that you would like to do more of?
The first few years of my career, I only did stage. But I am itching to do a play again, actually. A good bi play!
What roles do you have your eye on?
Curved ball, but I’d love to play Shakespeare’s Richard II — he’s considered potentially bisexual, actually. But mainly, I just love how self-righteous and self-pitying the guy is. He’s fab. I’d love to work with Mike Leigh; improv is my jam. And it would be fun to be in another big franchise. I played Malendol in The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, and it’s so magical to be part of something close to people’s hearts. Narnia? Maybe I could be a talking tree or something. I definitely want to tell more queer stories. Maybe there are some bisexual trees in Narnia. And Star Wars — a bi Jedi would break the internet, but it needs to happen.
What else are you working on?
You can catch me in every episode of season 1 of Murder Most Puzzling on 5. Phyllis Logan (Mrs Hughes from Downton Abbey) plays a sort of hot-mess, boozy Miss Marple. I play a very vain local news anchorman called Rod Reed (lol). They let me improvise a lot, and it got harder and harder for us not to ruin the takes laughing. Maybe Rod Reed will come out as bi in Season 2. And then I just wrapped on the first season of a hilarious Cold War spy thriller — PONIES for Universal, opposite the unspeakably lovely Emilia Clarke. And I’m about to start filming on a queer indie coming-of-age feature film, which is making me so happy, being with queer people telling queer stories that will really resonate.
Outside of acting, what are you passionate about?
The causes closest to my heart are young people and their well-being, homelessness, and all things LGBTQ+. I support an amazing therapy charity called Rephael House, which offers therapy to children and young people, as well as adults, especially those going through bereavement, pregnancy crisis or domestic abuse. I am so grateful that I had several years of good, low-cost therapy, which utterly transformed my life. On the sillier side, I was a fantasy nerd growing up. When I got cast in The Rings of Power, I listened to loads of obscure Tolkien audiobooks and started learning bits of Elvish just to be ready. (Elen síla lúmenn’ omentielvo.) Outside of that, I’m slowly teaching myself jazz piano. Maybe someone can cast me as a bisexual jazz pianist.
