We are extending our personal stories and journeys in our Pride series beyond the month of June. Tom Prior is shot by Morgan Shaw and styled by Chalisa Guerrero in Ben Sherman, Boss, Gant, Kuro, Jekeun, and more in this Fucking Young! exclusive.
“I was approached to play the lead in “Firebird” back in 2014. I had no idea it would have such life-changing consequences for my life.
It was a story that ticked all the boxes for me. I grew up infatuated by the stories of James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Tintin. “Firebird” was a Cold War era story, playing a soldier amongst the heat and intensity of a real airforce base defending the Soviet Union, but with the twist of adventure – not saving the world, but following love and truth. Embarking on a clandestine forbidden love affair was the mission at hand! It was a true hybrid of a romance and a thriller, and I was sold. After I was offered the role, I gave Director Peter Rebane some suggestions on how I believed the script could be improved, and while we shot a few scenes to ‘prove the concept’ of making the film and raising the financing, he graciously took the feedback and this lead to us co-writing together for two and a half years; diving deep into the political and social context of the time. And that took me to Russia to meet the real man behind the story…
When meeting Sergey Fetisov, for the first time in May 2016, Moscow was on full-scale rehearsals for the annual Victory Day parade, where tanks, missiles, and thousands of soldiers line the streets and parade to ‘celebrate’ ‘winning’ the second world war… It was a crazy insight into the military might behind Russia. When I met Sergey, I realised quickly he was a beacon of light, even at a time when love (between same sexes particularly) was so heavily restricted and controlled. He was such a sunny man and was ever positive and hopeful in his demeanour. He had followed love in the most dangerous situations. Embarking on a same-sex love affair, as we show in “Firebird,” could have gotten him thrown into a hard labour camp for five years (the survival rate of these camps was not remotely healthy either). However, during one of our interviews with him in Moscow, he casually flirted with a male waiter in a restaurant in a pretty dodgy looking suburb of Moscow while I was getting to know him. He was unfazed, yet wise.
Looking over the young photos of Sergey and speaking to him, I chose to portray him in the way in which he showed up in the world – as someone determined to go after their bliss, no matter what. Watching the film back in hindsight, I believe it was the right decision. The only trouble was, this behaviour ended up having quite a contagious effect on my overall life and inspired me to look radically at my own dreams, my own calling, identity, what love means to me, and how I too show up in the world.
I am a believer in demonstrating the behaviours of change in the world. And just as Sergey was inspired in action, so too am I, more than ever. When we demonstrate the behaviours of change around us, it gives permission for others to do the same, and we can change the world that way, and even more so through showing it via filmmaking. That is the core of why I told the story of “Firebird” and poured almost seven years of my life into it. I trust and hope that the film can bring a little more courage to audiences, as it has for me, but also have them ask of themselves, how to be even more authentic in their lives.
Since the film emerged I have been endlessly asked about my personal life in addition to how I identify. But ‘identifying’ a certain way has felt restrictive or the opposite and can come with expectations about one area of my life, or worse, can make one feel ‘other’ or different. My truth today, is that I don’t identify any particular way. It is not in naivety that I say this, as I am grateful and venerate the progression of what identifying has allowed through decades and centuries of struggle.
But today is about being authentic; having authentic connections and following the calling of my heart, that is how I will identify. I have always believed that sexuality is all on a spectrum, and now is time in history to allow the lines to blur. I am who I am – always learning, growing and changing and I will fall in love with, who I fall in love with.
I am forever grateful for the journey which making “Firebird” took me on.“
Drôle de Monsieur has opened its first Asian flagship. It’s right in the heart of Seoul’s futuristic retail scene, inside The Hyundai Seoul department store.
Are you ready for the ride? Carne Bollente and Simons invite you to the Carne Ranch, an exclusive collaboration that captures the spirit of the Wild West and gives it a playful twist.
Desigual and BOTTER have joined forces to create High Tides, a collection that combines the Caribbean spirit of BOTTER with Desigual’s Mediterranean roots.
After a successful first collaboration in 2024, the festival teams up again with The Queer Archive, an international art collective, to spotlight queer creativity in all its forms.
Santino Calvani, Bigoa Biel, Christian de Putron and Micah Walk shot by Julia Godoy and styled by Agustina Rey Francos, in exclusive for Fucking Young! Online.
There’s something quietly special about hobbies, those small rituals that give us space to breathe, to focus, and to connect with something real. Forét’s FW25 collection, Hobby Market, is a love letter to those moments.
Saint Laurent Rive Droite just teamed up with award-winning hearing protection brand Hears to drop a limited-edition pair of earplugs that combine luxury design with acoustic innovation.
It’s the bag you put inside another bag or the one you stuff full of everything else. It doesn’t care what it carries; it’s built to hold whatever you throw at it.
“MiMa is first and foremost a space for discovery and inspiration. That was a core idea from the very beginning, both in the way we curated the selection and in how we designed the space itself.”
FANG NYC’s FW25 collection pulls from creative director Fang Guo’s travels, from Georgia’s concrete Kartlis Deda monument to Crete’s pink sand beaches, to play with contrasts.
To celebrate the release of Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II on PlayStation 5, Ninja Theory has teamed up with London’s Passarella Death Squad for a limited capsule collection.
Turn the page. Breathe deep. Your pupils are already dilating. The high is coming.
Issue 26 brings together two electrifying covers that take the dopamine dive from Sadiq Desh captured by Cris Cerdeira to multidisciplinary visual artist and photographer Tomás Pintos’ cover story, Besos hasta agotar stock (Kisses Until Sold Out), developed from the live performance creating a space where glamour
meets exhaustion.
