Matt Lucas Opens Up About Autism Diagnosis For The First Time
Matt Lucas has stated that he has been identified as autistic after revealing the true details of his personal life journey. Last year, the humorous actor disclosed, for the very first time, the ways through which he chooses seclusion to relax amidst a very demanding calendar of his work and personal life, as the interview of Matt with Romesh Ranganathan on BBC Radio 2 exposed that he is autistic.
Matt admitted publicly for the first time: ‘I’ve never, ever spoken about this publicly, but I’m autistic.’
That means I like to be very social, and you’re like in a theatre environment, and then I also like the periods of seclusion where I can just write on my own.’
Clinically, autism once was considered as a debilitating developmental disorder in which the affected individual was intellectually disabled and struggled with language acquisition.
However, recently experts have broadened the definition of autism.
Symptoms range from repetitive words or behaviors and resisting changes in schedules to problems in social interactions.
Matt Tells Romesh Ranganathan About Autism Diagnosis on BBC Radio 2
On a Saturday program, Romesh raised a question with Matt: ‘Is this sort of constant back-and-forth between the two that you have; do you need to recharge every battery?
Matt’s answer was, ‘Indeed. And off-duty, so to speak, you do theatre six days and seven at the most without resting, and also you are resting your voice and all such things. In fact, I don’t like people to see me very often and let them have a break from me, just to be able to have that recharge time myself.’
Last month, Matt, who initially hit the mainstream with his sketch series Little Britain, amazed the audience with a new look. During an appearance on The One Show, he looked completely different.
At one point, Matt was shown with a ‘wild beard,’ which he explained had been done to prepare for his role of Fagin in the West End production of Oliver.
While commenting on his new appearance, he told Clara Amfo and JB Gill, ‘I’m growing this bizarre beard.’
‘Clara said, “Well, let’s talk about that.” I don’t think we have seen you in that way before.’
“Right, What Happens If I Don’t Shave?” : Beard and Playing Fagin
Matt continued, “You know, it’s always been the case; I’ve just never really wanted to go there. I have alopecia, which basically means I lost my hair at six, not long before the [a picture on screen] photo was taken.”He laughed, “Seven weeks ago, when I knew that this would be the case, I thought, well, let me test my theory by not shaving. And voila! That really did happen!” He quipped, “So the plan is to keep growing it right down to my ankles, and whenever I get the opportunity to be at the football match, it’s a bit frigid during the winter.”
During his six-week run Matt Lucas will portray Fagin, the criminal mastermind who is the leader of the pickpocket team of children in the West End version of Oliver! starting from September 22.
The beard of Matt Lucas caused a shock to his fans after his appearance on The One Show, where they tweeted, ‘It was so unexpected to see Matt Lucas without a beard, but quite some a change from the last time I saw him. ‘Still a good look though,’ and ‘It almost seems to me like Matt Lucas has completely changed.’
From Bald Baby on Shooting Stars to Bearded Fagin: Matt Lucas on Autism and Alopecia
Matt has openly talked about the alopecia battle he has had to fight during his lifetime after he lost his hair when he was six years old in a delayed reaction to being knocked down during the very traumatizing car accident.
In an article for The Guardian in 2017, Matt explained that he losing his hair ‘was a great factor in my development as a child’ and that he had ‘a different job later on’ because of his baldness.
‘I found some hairs on my pillow I had just woken up on,’ he wrote. ‘The next morning, exactly the same happened; this time, though, there were many more. At that point, I had completely lost my hair.’
Despite the actor explaining that his childhood had been ‘hard,’ as he was ‘teased and bullied’ for going bald, he said that it had, in the end, made him more successful in his profession.
‘Do you think I would have been a huge hit, baby, with lots of hair in shooting stars?
Baldness is what sets me apart; however, it has also let me change into a different kind of person. A wig makes me look like another person; exchanging a wig means I’m now another being.’
From XXXL to Medium: Health, Solitude, and a Wake-Up Call
Matt also openly talked about his weight loss journey; he lost so much weight that he went from the size of XXXL to a medium size. In the last few months of this past year, Matt told how his family&medical worries were one of the triggers for him to make a change in his diet and start taking his weight seriously. Matt’s father, who died suddenly when Matt was just 22, was 52 at the time; Matt says now that, as he has aged, this was the wake-up call he desperately needed.
“I’m 48 years old; my dad suddenly left this world at 52, and his paternal line went the same way, as it was about to reach 56 for his father. Therefore, I was calculating the statistics. “It was just me, who was the biggest guy around, and actually, due to the pandemic, I was growing even more,” Matt said.
Matt Lucas: “I Couldn’t Fit On Screen”
Mostly just hanging around the house, not going out, not seeing friends, and only eating roast potatoes. Just imagine how many roast potatoes that were! Eating and eating and eating… it would have been impossible for me to keep track of how many roast potatoes I had eaten! After realizing this fact, the weight dropped from his body but the comedian revealed that he is still hungry to take part in more sports activities and get his fитнес level back in shape.
Addendum: “I was so fat I didn’t get myself in the shot anymore. It is only when you are fat, and to my defense, I do have an actual tummy; I am not skinny, by the very way; I’ve only slimmed down…” “I have dropped from maybe an XXL, sometimes even XXXL, to a medium now, I suppose. However, on me, the medium is quite often large, and sometimes it is small on me…
One thing is for sure: I need to work out more, because even that weight loss has to me a bit of a weight gain, and now that I have put on some kilos, I think I just have to start doing some sport. Maybe even turning it into a game when I go out for a run to make sure that I do not come across people. Since I have no lawn at home, I have to come up with a trick.”
