Stanley Tucci says he thks straight actors should be able to play gay characters | CNN

Contents:

• WHAT THE WORLD CAN LEARN FROM GAY-STRAIGHT FRIENDSHIPS
• ARE YOU GAY OR STRAIGHT?
• STANLEY TUCCI SAYS HE THKS STRAIGHT ACTORS SHOULD BE ABLE TO PLAY GAY CHARACTERS

WHAT THE WORLD CAN LEARN FROM GAY-STRAIGHT FRIENDSHIPS

As the only out young gay kid at my school, I took the advancement of my sexual experienc to my own hands and I did what we all do: I bought a fake ID and h the gay clubs. While I knew wouldn’t be like a gay llege eroti I’d read on (gay non, really), I rather naively wasn’t expectg the fall out. I realize I fell to that old gay adage of placg my feelgs on a person who, for whatever reason, was never gog to vt them back me.

Worst of all, though, the shame attached to the memori of those first tim marred how I would approach sex for was listeng to Years & Years’ new song “Sanctify, ” and seeg the band’s out gay sger Olly Alexanr talk about how the song was spired his sexual trysts wh straight men, that I realized that the feelgs are way more mon than people let on. Sure, I know all about gay guys havg sex wh straight guys, but felt reassurg to see him scribe the “sat and sner role” he embodied durg those experienc, and to hear the uncertaty and melancholy weaved to the than anythg though, was the repeated lyril mantra of “I won’t be ashamed.

I’m gay, and Stephen has been my bt iend for 10 bond has unique value to both of .

ARE YOU GAY OR STRAIGHT?

A 2022 study Psychology of Men & Masculi found that the iendships n help shift gay guys’ unrstandable prenceptns about straight men — that they’re all homophobic, for example.

But after years of iendship wh me — a gay man who don’t perform masculy a tradnal way — he feels more fortable dog thgs like wearg necklac and havg his bachelor party at a drag bar. Straight men may fd easier to be vulnerable wh their gay iends.

STANLEY TUCCI SAYS HE THKS STRAIGHT ACTORS SHOULD BE ABLE TO PLAY GAY CHARACTERS

It’s possible that exprsg vulnerabily has posive spillover effects: Heterosexual men who have close iendships wh gay guys may wd up havg ls fear about beg more open wh their straight guy iends, acrdg to the thors of the 2021 study. Michael Bronski, a profsor at Harvard Universy and the thor of “A Queer History of the Uned Stat, ” said the gay liberatn movement, which emerged after the Stonewall uprisg 1969, began dismantlg patriarchal systems that prsured all men to reprs their feelgs and engage toxic masculy, cludg homophobia. “Gay men have helped straight men feel ls imprisoned by the cultural scripts of tradnal masculy, ” Mr.

Bronski iendships may relieve gay guys om the prsure to nform to mascule genr norms out of fear of g across as stereotypilly gay. I did this for years before I me out, at age 16, bee I remember many of my guy iends school nstantly referrg to my behavr as “so gay. ” Even my dad would perform gay ritur an unsuccsful effort to make me lgh by flappg his wrists rogatorily and talkg a stereotypilly gay voice, which he told me he regrets eply today.

And for years, even after I me out, some of my guy iends ntued to refer to thgs they thought were stupid as “gay. One night at a bar New York, a group of guys were g an anti-gay slur repeatedly. I know another gay guy or female iend would have e to my fense this suatn, but the fact that was a straight guy showg such tense allyship was my iendship wh Stephen strengthened and I started buildg other relatnships wh people who would never image g homophobic slurs, I veloped a sense of eedom to be myself beyond queer spac: I’m now more fortable g out to straight male boss and owng my sexual orientatn my work, whether be through pchg L.