Rory Kinnear: I was riled by suggestion some deaths are less worthy than others

Rory Kinnear has said he is angered by the “suggestion” that some people’s deaths in the pandemic are “less worthy than others”.

The Bond star’s sister Karina died from coronavirus last month, at the age of 48.

Kinnear revealed in May that Karina had severe brain damage and was paralysed from the waist down but said she had “defied predictions her entire life” and “it was coronavirus that killed her”.

He previously suggested that the language around the deaths of people from coronavirus, with  “underlying conditions”, had to change, writing in the Guardian that his sister “was no more disposable than anyone else”.

Now the actor has told Radio Times magazine: “I know the ‘underlying conditions’ thing was to do with calming a nation’s fears, but the suggestion that such people’s deaths were less worthy than others fired me up.”

He said lockdown was “a cushion” for the family “from the pain you know is ahead of you” over Karina’s death.

“When we all see each other again we’ll feel the absence more, like anyone who lost a loved one over the last months.”

And he added: “The grieving is there, but we’re all in a sort of bubble.”

– The full interview is in Radio Times magazine, out now.