Stephen Fry's Disappearance
March 21, 2005 12:32 PM   Subscribe

Has Stephen Fry ever given a full account of the time he ran off to Belgium and away from the production of Simon Gray's play Cell Mates (as angrily related by Gray in the highly enjoyable Fat Chance)? It's been ten years, but I can't find anything other than passing references in interviews to his "little wobble". He's been amazingly candid about his past before, and I'd love to read his version of events.
posted by PinkStainlessTail to Media & Arts (8 answers total)
 




Response by poster: Sorry, I should have been clearer about what I meant by a full account: those statements were issued at the time of the whole kerfuffle, and contradicted shortly thereafter by a few months of "enforced rest" at clinics in London and Santa Barbara. I was wondering if he's gone into more detail on what he was actually going through at the time, now that the dust has settled a bit.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 2:19 PM on March 21, 2005


I suspect this is about all you'll hear from Fry on the matter now.

If you've ever seen his appearence on Have I Got News For You, where they played the song written about his vanishing, his toe-curling embarassment is obvious.

I note on his website that he says he stopped being celibate about the mid-nineties. I wonder if that's just coincidence though...
posted by dodgygeezer at 2:20 PM on March 21, 2005


Response by poster: Ah, that Netdoctor piece is kind of what I'm after, thanks Felix. I'd still love a longer piece though, as a sort of answer to Fat Chance, where Gray (admittedly in the throes of anger and panic) basically paints Fry as a needy coward, rather than someone who was suffering.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 2:31 PM on March 21, 2005


Fry has apparently not addressed the issue further, and seems to be interested in getting it behind him; which is probably for the best as far as his happiness goes.
posted by felix at 3:02 PM on March 21, 2005


I haven't found anything that goes into more detail than the material linked here. I'm a great admirer of Fry, and I really feel he just lost the plot there for a while and is now profoundly embarrassed about it. I think he can talk about the embarrassments of his youth (as in "Moab") with greater ease because he's moved on from them. This one was probably a bit too recent and a bit too much like a relapse into a fundamental insecurity he probably thought he'd put behind him.
posted by Decani at 3:39 PM on March 21, 2005


Best answer: I got into a discussion about it on Usenet right after he disappeared. Soon after taking Fry's side, I received a short email from the man himself, whose whereabouts were still unknown at the time. He didn't share his demons, but he was genuinely appreciative of the support. Nice man.

(I'll just leave out the whole bit where I replied with a really dumb question about a brand name he cleverly referenced in his email.)

Per the netdoktor link - it's good to know we-the-Internet were perhaps of some comfort at the time and not just accessories for an ego wank. Next thing you know, I'll have faith in humanity and won't know what to do with all of this chocolate...
posted by Liffey at 7:08 PM on March 21, 2005


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