Jerome Flynn Reveals Why He Ditched Animal Products

In an interview with the Mail Online, the actor reveals he initially adopted a plant-based diet because he had a crush on a fellow student – who was vegan.

But the thespian found it difficult to stop eating goat’s cheese – until the founder of a leading animal rights charity opened his eyes.

Vegan crush

“[My crush] used to growl at me if I sat next to her with a sausage for lunch, and I was rather uneducated and naive about the process to get meat to our plate,” he said. “She would bring me educational leaflets from PETA and Viva.

“I went vegan, but I found it very hard to be vegan at that time – I didn’t really know myself how to look after myself in terms of plant protein and it started to drive me a bit mad, so I came off the vegan train and was vegetarian, but I was practically vegan.

“I stayed with goat’s cheese, thinking naively that there was less cruelty involved in the goat industry. But then, my friend, the wonderful Juliet Gellatley [founder and director of vegan charity Viva] came to stay and shared a campaign she was doing about the goat farming industry. It made it very explicit the kind of terrible cruelty that was going on, so I came off and I’ve been vegan since, that was about three years ago.”

Viva! says: “We are absolutely thrilled to have played such a pivotal role in Jerome’s journey towards veganism and are proud to have such an outspoken, passionate activist as our patron.”

by Maria Chiorando

Maria is the Editor of Plant Based News. A former magazine editor, newspaper reporter, and features writer, her work has been published by The Guardian, The Huffington Post, and various regional newspapers. She was previously the editor of Vegan Life magazine and Vegan Trade Journal. She has interviewed a huge range of people, from Prime Ministers to authors, activists, pop stars and actors, and enjoys the varied range of topics writing for PBN allows her to tackle. You can follow her on Twitter @MariaChiorando and Instagram @mariachiorando.

Article reprinted with permission from Plant Base News