AceShowbiz - Andrew Scott is keen to ban the phrase "openly gay." The 47-year-old actor - who can next be seen in LGBTQ romantic fantasy "All of Us Strangers" - thinks the wording has negative connotations and is rarely used in everyday conversation so believes it is time to "park" the expression.

"I'm going to make a pitch for getting rid of the expression openly gay. Hear me out, it's an expression that we actually only ever hear in the media. You're never at a party and you say, 'This is my openly gay friend,' " he told The Hollywood Reporter's Actors Roundtable.

"Why do we put openly in front of that adjective? We don't say, 'You're openly Irish.' You don't say, 'You're openly left handed.' There's something in it. That's a little near shamelessly. I'd nearly prefer shamelessly. Sometimes I just feel like if you've got to say it to understand it just say 'out' possibly or, you know what, sometimes don't say anything at all. I just think it's time to park it."

Andrew also revealed he turned down a "big" art scholarship to pursue an acting career. He said, "My mother was an art teacher. I got my first film when I was 17; it was a little Irish film. On exactly the same day, I won this bursary [scholarship] to educate myself as a painter for five years - a big bursary - and I chose showbusiness."

The "Fleabag" actor previously insisted he didn't want to "trade on" his own sexuality. He told The Independent newspaper, "Mercifully, these days people don't see being gay as a character flaw. But nor is it a virtue, like kindness. Or a talent, like playing the banjo. It's just a fact."

"Of course, it's part of my make-up, but I don't want to trade on it. I am a private person; I think that's important if you're an actor. But there's a difference between privacy and secrecy, and I'm not a secretive person. Really I just want to get on with my job, which is to pretend to be lots of different people. Simple as that."