Andrew Scott said that coming out of the closet will not hurt other actors' careers, encouraging any of his colleagues who are uncertain on being honest about their sexuality to go public.
"I absolutely refute anybody thinking that it has a negative impact on your career," the 37-year-old actor told Metro as he prepared to take to the red carpet for the London premiere of his new British comedy film "Pride."
"It's more crazy than it ever was. I do feel a sort of peace that I can be authentic and people like that," explained the Irish actor of coming out, who is best known for his portrayal of Moriarty in the Emmy-winning BBC crime drama series "Sherlock."
"I struggle a little with the coming out publicly thing because that was something that I did a long time ago," he admitted. "I did an interview last year and I spoke about it but I've certainly never really been 'in'."
"I think it's very important to be authentic to yourself which I've always been," he added. "The most important thing is to be who you are. I don't like to talk about it too much because, frankly, I don't have much more to say about it."
In the September issue of the Attitude, Scott said that he is lucky enough to know his real sexuality before he became known as an actor.
"It's really important to find out who you are before you have success. It was really important for me, in the first ten years of my career just to get to know myself and work hard. Because when people start to look at you and scrutinize you in a way that they didn't before - it's important you know who they are looking at. You need to know and accept who you are," he told the British magazine, according to BuzzFeed.
Scott's Moriarty might be back in the upcoming Season 4 of "Sherlock," as hinted by his surprise reappearance at the end of the Season 3 finale. But when asked by Metro if he is indeed onboard for the show's next installment and if his character - who was seen committing suicide in the show's Season 2 finale -was really dead, the actor refused to answer.
"I can't answer any of those questions. I'm so sorry! It's part of the fun of it," he said.
Series' executive producer Steven Moffat claimed in two separate interviews last February that the villainous character was indeed dead.
"He was definitely dead! You can't fake shooting yourself in the face - part of his head came off," he told Digital Spy.
"We weren't going to see Moriarty again," he told Vulture.
The three-episode Season 4 of "Sherlock" is set to be aired in early 2016, following a full-length Christmas 2015 special, which will go into production in January 2015.