The White Lotus' Murray Bartlett wanted to give up acting

Born in Sydney and raised in Perth - and now one of Hollywood’s hottest properties - the Emmy Award-winner was the leading man at last night's GQ Men of the Year Awards. 

Born in Sydney and raised in Perth, the Emmy Award-winning star has been named GQ's Man of the Year. 

It’s hard to believe there have been times when GQ Australia’s 2022 Man of the Year, Murray Bartlett, thought he should just give up acting.

The breakout star of The White Lotus counts Meryl Streep and Rose Bryne among his current workmates. On Wednesday night at Crown Sydney, he was named GQ Man of the Year where Bartlett joined Russell Crowe, Anthony Albanese, Catherine Martin, Elvis star Olivia DeJonge and Dylan Alcott, and more for an evening celebrating the country’s brightest talent.

But worldwide fame for the out gay star, born in Sydney and raised in Perth, only came at 50.

“I can’t say I never had expectations about what work might follow after certain jobs and sometimes it didn’t play out that way. Of course, there will be moments of disappointment and it’s not that I didn’t feel it was hopeless or walk away from acting – I did that a number of times, momentarily – but I’ve had a really good life,” he says.

Murray Bartlett poses with the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Limited Or Anthology Series Or Movie for "The White Lotus" during the 74th Emmy Awards.

“In hindsight, maybe I was always moving towards this point. It didn’t feel like it sometimes. But I’ve been an unemployed actor many times and I’ve seen the ebb and flow of things. I like to think that I’m a bit more mature and a bit wiser and I feel like I’m in my own skin at this point in my life. That’s the amazing thing about getting old that they don’t tell you. Having these opportunities now, I can really appreciate them in a much more balanced way.”

But now he is one of Hollywood’s hottest properties and was the leading man at the GQ Men of the Year Awards, awarded by GQ Australia in association with Boss. Bartlett has never been busier. He joins fellow Australian star Byrne in season two of Apple TV+ series Physical, is currently starring in Welcome to Chippendales, joins Streep in upcoming series Extrapolations, and appears in HBO’s The Last of Us.

Murray Bartlett stars in The White Lotus.

In Bartlett’s GQ Australia cover story, available exclusively in The Australian on Friday, November 25, The White Lotus star discussed his reaction to reading some of the show’s most shocking scenes for the first time, the camaraderie on set, being openly gay in Hollywood.

“We really bonded in a unique, once-in-a-millennium way,” he told GQ of filming The White Lotus in Hawaii at the height of the pandemic. “The whole thing seemed surreal. It was hard to tell if we’d actually made a show or if we were in some kind of fever dream.”

Bartlett says he never worried about how being openly gay might affect his career, and hopes the gay characters he has played on screen might serve as role models for others to look up to.“I never thought about hiding it,” he says of his sexuality.

“It just didn’t seem like the life I wanted to have. Pretty early on in my career when I got gay roles, I thought this is a cool opportunity to bring some honesty and integrity, and authenticity to a gay character, and to send a beacon to people who don’t feel like they can be honest about who they are”

GQ Men of the Year collectors edition magazine inside The Australian on Friday, November 25.