The duo first got to know each other on the set of Jane Campion's 2009 film Bright Star, in which Whishaw played the poet John Keats in a story about the latter's love affair with neighbor Fanny Brawne (Abbie Cornish) and Bradshaw scored the music.

Whishaw pretty much opened up about his sexuality, though not explicitly, during a 2011 interview with Out while promoting the off-Broadway play The Pride, in which he played a gay man.

When asked at the time whether he thought it was important for young gay people to have positive role models, he told the magazine:

"I really agree with that, and I feel in my heart that it's important, but I don't quite know yet the way to go about that. Maybe that's the transitional thing I feel I'm in the middle of at the moment. It's something I think about, but it's important for me to do it at the time that's right for me. And I'm not there yet."