Howards EndDirector James Ivory, 96, on Being a Gay Icon and Why He Didn't Come Out in the '90s (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

James Ivory and his ‘Howard’s End’ star Emma Thompson in 1992.Photo:Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty

Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection/Getty

Oscar-winning screenwriter and veteran directorJames Ivory, who is considered to be a gay icon, says that being out in Hollywood or a “gay filmmaker” is a modern concept. “It’s kind of a new idea,” he tells PEOPLE.

It’s especially true for him and his late romantic and producing partner, Ismail Merchant, who didn’t discuss their sexuality during the height of Merchant Ivory Productions' success in the early 1990s, which is chronicled in director Stephen Soucy’s new documentaryMerchant Ivory.

“When we were making all those films, and, you know, we made over 20 features together, that was not something that seemed all that important,” Ivory, 96, continues, referring to the popular and award-winning films on which he, Merchant and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala collaborated, includingA Room with a View,Howards EndandThe Remains of the Day.

From left: Vanessa Redgrave, Emma Thompson, James Ivory and Helena Bonham Carter at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival.GERARD JULIEN/AFP/Getty

GERARD JULIEN/AFP/Getty

Also, when Merchant Ivory Productions was in the midst of making some of its biggest movies with stars likeAnthony Hopkins,Emma Thompson,Helena Bonham Carter,Vanessa Redgraveand others, Ivory says their focus was on “what we were doing and how we were doing it, the kinds of stories that we chose to tell and the kinds of actors that we wanted to have.”

He adds, “That was what really seemed important.”

From Left: James Ivory and Ismail Merchant in May 1998.Mikki Ansin/Getty

Mikki Ansin/Getty

He also toldThe Guardianin 2018 that keeping quiet about their private lives was a way to protect his partner. “That is not something that an Indian Muslim would ever say publicly or in print. Ever! You have to remember that Ismail was an Indian citizen living in Bombay, with a deeply conservative Muslim family there. It’s not the sort of thing he was going to broadcast. Since we were so close and lived most of our lives together, I wasn’t about to undermine him," Ivory said of Merchant at the time.

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Since then, Ivory has been more open about his romance with Merchant, detailing their relationship in his 2021 autobiographySolid Ivory: Memoirs, and inMerchant Ivory, which opened in select theaters in Los Angeles and New York City on Friday, Aug. 30.

When asked about the moment in the documentary when he tells Soucy to move on after Soucy brings up the topic of Ivory being a gay man living in N.Y.C. during the ’60s, Ivory directs his response to Soucy, “[You] just should have read my book when it came out. It wouldn’t be a shock.”

Chiming in, Ivory clarifies, “There was nothing that one wanted to hide about it.”

From Left: Stephen Soucy and James Ivory for ‘Merchant Ivory’.Cohen Media Group

Cohen Media Group

Later, Soucy echoes Ivory’s sentiment about being “gay filmmakers” when reflecting on the impact Ivory and Merchant have had on the industry as two men from the LGBTQ community, telling PEOPLE that idea “is a more recent thing.”

James Ivory in 2023.Mikki Ansin/Getty

While Ivory doesn’t think of any of his other movies as “gay films,” he saysMaurice"totally" was. And Soucy goes even further, acknowledging the “tremendous impact” it had “on a lot of people, myself included,” while noting how “amazing” it is “the number of films that they made within the period that [Ivory and Merchant] worked together.”

If anything, with the documentary, Ivory wanted to make sure Merchant was also remembered as a director. “It was very important to Jim that I show Ismail Merchant as a director and the films that he directed [including 1993’sIn Custodyand 2001’sThe Mystic Masseur] because those films were so important to Ismail,” Soucy recalls of working with Ivory to make the documentary.

And for Ivory, the project was an opportunity to “bring out all kinds of memories. I mean, that was interesting in itself.” After watching it, he says, “I was pleased.”

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Merchant Ivoryis now in select theaters. Watch an exclusive clip from the documentary:

source: people.com