Matt Lucas has revealed he is autistic as he spoke publicly about his diagnosis for the first time this week.
The 52-year-old actor, who appeared on Romesh Ranganathan’s BBC Radio 2 show last week, admitted he enjoys “periods of solitude” as he discussed how he balances his work.
The star, who is about to start appearing as Fagin in Oliver on the West End in October, told Romesh: “I’ve never spoken about this publicly, but I’m autistic.”
Explaining how he’s adapting his career to meet his neurodivergent needs, he continued, “…and so I enjoy those periods where I’m very social, like you are in the theater, and then I also enjoy those periods of solitude where I can just write on my own.”
Romesh asked Matt, “Do you think you have to charge each battery, like you’re going back and forth between those two things?”
Matt agreed and responded, “Yeah, and so on my days off, you know you do theater six days a week, and on my days off, other than resting and resting my voice and stuff, on my days off I like to not see people and give them a break from me.”
Matt Lucas revealed he is autistic when he spoke publicly about his diagnosis for the first time on BBC Radio 2 last week, admitting he enjoys ‘periods of loneliness’
He joked, “I’m one of the few people who doesn’t mind being sick.
‘You know, when you’re really sick and you have to cancel everything for a week and you lose your voice, I think, ‘Oh great, I’m sick. I don’t need to see anyone.
“But just that charging time is very important to me.”
Matt’s latest interview comes after the star shocked fans when he appeared on The One Show last month looking worlds away from his Little Britain days.
The actor sported a ‘bizarre beard’ as he revealed he had grown the facial hair ahead of his stint as Fagin.
Joking about his new look, he told presenters Clara Amfo and JB Gill: “I’m growing this crazy beard.”
Clara replied, “Well, let’s talk about that. I don’t think we’ve ever seen you like this.’
Matt then explained, “Well, I’ve never tried it. I grew a mustache for three weeks during the pandemic, but I mean, you know, I’ve talked about this before. I have alopecia.
‘I lost my hair when I was six, shortly after that photo [a picture on screen] was taken, actually.
‘So seven weeks ago, when I knew I was doing this, I thought, “Okay, what happens if I don’t shave?” And this is what happened.’
He joked: “So my goal is to grow it down to my ankles, and then when I’m playing football and it’s freezing in the winter.”
Matt stars as criminal mastermind antagonist Fagin, who leads the group of pickpocketing kids in Oliver! from September 22 for six weeks on London’s West End.
Matt’s latest interview comes after the star shocked fans when he appeared on The One Show last month and was seen worlds away from his Little Britain days with a new look and ‘bizarre beard’
Fans were shocked by his beard debut on The One Show, writing on X: ‘I didn’t recognize Matt Lucas, quite a change since I last saw him. Looks good though’; and “Matt Lucas looks like a different person.”
Matt has been open about his lifelong battle with alopecia after he started losing his hair at the age of six a delayed response to impact in a traumatic car accident.
In a column for The Guardian in 2017, Matt wrote that losing his hair “shaped his youth” and later his career.
“I woke up one morning to find several hairs on my pillow,” he wrote. ‘The next day the same thing happened, only this time there were many more. By the end of that summer, all my hair had fallen out.”
Although the actor said his childhood was “tough” and that he was “mocked and bullied” because of his baldness, he said it ultimately helped him in his career.
“Would I have gotten my big break in Shooting Stars as a baby if I had a full head of hair?” he wrote.
