And even then, there wasn’t much gayness to his acting.
Care to elaborate?
What is there to elaborate? Other than a brief embrace shown on screen, he didn’t appear to play the role in any stereotypical gay manner. That’s all…
I didn’t say he was. That’s the entire point. They briefly showed some gay characteristics on screen, but otherwise he just played the character plainly.
Because usually when Hollywood includes a gay character they’re doing it to villainize them, make fun of them, or show them off to cynically virtue-signal diversity. Having a character that’s just a normal character who happens to be gay, without making a big deal about it or using it as a plot point, is rare.