20 of our favore straight actors as gay characters | CNN

actors in gay roles

Jam Corn's performance as a gay man "The Prom" was lambasted, but Ewan McGregor's turn "Halston" has been acclaimed.

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SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS STILL PLAY GAY CHARACTERS? 'IT'S PLITED'

* actors in gay roles *

Thanks to the shownners drivg thentic stori, filmmakers buckg s-old heteronormative paradigms, actors embolned to live more hontly and platforms bankrollg so much of , beg gay, queer, transgenr or any other other has never been more wily embraced the entertament s gural Pri issue, The Hollywood Reporter homed on the talent and makers helpg boost visibily and creatg opportuni for members of the extend LGBTQ muny. After more than a of Watch What Happens Live Wh Andy Cohen, where he beme the first openly gay host Amerin late night, Bravo's exec turned talent tackl all kds of media (SiriXM show Rad Andy, multiple books), while upliftg and advotg for the LGBTQ muny. Puttg his stamp on The Ln Kg — he played Timon to great acclaim the billn-dollar-earng Disney reboot — the out-and-proud funnyman will next play Matt Ddge  Amerin Crime Story: Impeachment while his upg Judd Apatow-produced feature at Universal is set to be the first gay rom- om a major stud.

Creator of the NBC s One Big Happy and her own YouTube talk show This Jt Out, Feldman recently ma her Netflix edy outright queer, as Dead to Me's sophomore season revealed a lead character to be bisexual. Watchg Rickie Vasquez, a gay character played by an openly gay actor, Wilson Cz, certaly felt like the most hont and rpectful portrayal of a gay teen I had ever seen.

I'LL FEEL GOOD ABOUT HOLLYWOOD'S LGBTQ REPRESENTATION WHEN "When 'gay actor, ' 'gay director, ' 'gay wrer, ' 'gay story, ' et cetera, are no longer labels even worth mentng.

STANLEY TUCCI IS PRETTY FE WH STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS

We loved the straight actors playg gay! * actors in gay roles *

In addn to speakg, and sgg, publicly about his own gay relatnships, Platt plays bi on The Polician — acuntg for several of the seri' many entangled LGBTQ romanc. ' Yet, is still all too rare to fd — or produce Hollywood — stori where the humany of gay black men is not qutn, but is a given and is central to the story.

In 2019, the bisexual actor uld be seen as French New Wave in Jean Seberg Venice premiere tle Seberg, as a secret agent Sony's Charlie's Angels reboot and on a particularly gay episo of SNL. The queer Salvadoran edian translated the handful of breakout Saturday Night Live scen he wrote to multiple als at HBO — where he buted the edy special My Favore Shap  2019 and is readyg season two of Los Espookys, the half-Spanish, half-English, entirely absurd edy which he stars as the gay heir to a cholate fortune.

After 45 seasons, 's hard to believe there are any firsts left for Saturday Night Live — but Yang arrived at 30 Rock 2019 as the st's first Che Amerin stmember and only s third openly gay male. John Benjam Hickey — whose Col “In Treatment” is heterosexual — has been outspokenly gay for years, but Emmy-nomated Emma Corr was not yet publicly queer when she was st as Prcs Diana “The Crown. Knight, Emmy-nomated 2007 for playg hetero heartthrob Gee “Grey’s Anatomy” and who now — alongsi fellow out “The Flight Attendant” st member Griff Matthews — plays gay that Emmy-nomated seri.

STANLEY TUCCI SAYS IT’S ‘FE’ FOR STRAIGHT ACTORS TO PLAY GAY ROL: ‘YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO PLAY DIFFERENT PEOPLE. THAT’S THE WHOLE POT OF IT’

The bate over whether or not straight actors should play gay rol isn’t gog to die down any time soon. * actors in gay roles *

”“In the 22 years we’ve worked together, we’ve always brought gay and straight actors for straight and gay rol, ” says Emmy-nomated Sharon Bialy of Bialy/Thomas & Associat, speakg of herself, bs partner Sherry Thomas and associate Rsell Stt. His creds clu: Degrassi- The Next Generatn (Seri, 2002-2008), Make The Yuleti Gay (Feature, 2009), The Neverendg Story (Play, 2011) and The Next Star (Seri, 2008-2012). Allman has had leadg rol the Matt Riddlehoover's recent tl, Wt Hollywood Motel and Scen om a Gay Marriage -- both of which played to rave reviews on the film ftival circu.

20 GREAT ROL: OUR FAVORE STRAIGHT ACTORS WHO HAVE PLAYED GAY CHARACTERS

Stanely Tucci says 's the job of an actor to play different people, which is why straight performanc n take on gay rol. * actors in gay roles *

"Roger Ebert wrote: "He plays the role not as a man pretendg to be a woman, and not as a woman trapped a man's body, and not as a parody of a woman, and not as a gay man, but as a drag queen, perd: Lola, a tall, athletic performer thigh-high red boots who l the stage of a drag club as if she were born there, and is a pretty good sger, too. Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, both straight, were both Osr-nomated for their performanc (Ledger lead, Gyllenhaal supportg) this film about two men fallg love and ntug their affair for film sred 87% on Rotten Tomato, wh the se's cril nsens readg: "A betifully epic Wtern, 'Brokeback Mounta''s gay love story is imbued wh heartbreakg universaly, helped by the movg performanc of Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. We have some of the most pellg liv, so 's not surprisg that everyone wants to tell our s gotten better recent years, throughout history, most great gay rol have gone to straight actors, wh over a dozen wng Osrs for playg LGBTQ+ characters.

Sometim n be tirome seeg straight actors get all of this praise for brgg gay people to life, but other tim s tly are our ten favore performanc by straight actors playg queer characters movi and TV om 2022. While she spends most of her time at work yellg at men who flirt wh the sk clerk she's cshg on and ly tellg guts that she n't help them, Victoria is secretly holdg a ep secret: she's gay, but has never been wh a woman.

In early December, Netflix dropped s highly anticipated mil edy “The Prom, ” starrg Meryl Streep, Nile Kidman, Andrew Rannells and Jam Corn as fadg Broadway stars who set out to help a lbian teen take her girliend to the film, helmed by out director Ryan Murphy, got mixed reviews, but some lambasted as “homophobic” and “offensive” bee of the stg of Corn, a straight actor, what they saw as an “aggrsively flamboyant” riture of a gay character, Barry Glickman, is a narcissistic theater actor who dons sparklg tuxedo jackets, talks wh a stereotypil gay lisp while flailg his hands around and scrib himself as “gay as a bucket of wigs. "Melda Sue Gordon / NetflixErik Anrson, who ns the film se Awards Watch, lled “The Prom” a “geo and vibrant productn” but tweeted that Corn’s “performance is gross and offensive, the worst gayface a long, long time. ” It was the first time an openly gay actor played a gay character a leadg role a TV part “helped fluence a whole generatn of people who beme wrers and actors and ntent creators, who wanted to see more people like Ricky, more LGBTQ people of lor, and I thk we're seeg the benef of that today, ” said Cz, who served as executive producer of Apple TV’s "Visible: Out on Televisn, ” a 2020 doceri about the history of the LGBTQ movement through the lens of Amerin Cz ma his but “My So Called Life, ” televisn has been creasgly hirg LGBTQ actors to play LGBTQ characters.

STANLEY TUCCI: IT’S OK FOR STRAIGHT ACTORS TO PLAY GAY ROL IF DONE ‘THE RIGHT WAY’

In 2020 alone, queer actor Kristen Stewart played a lbian Hulu’s Christmas rom- “Happit Season, ” out actors Sarah Plson and Cynthia Nixon played love terts Ryan Murphy’s Netflix seri “Ratched, ” gay actor Dan Levy played a queer character the Emmy-wng Canadian show “Scht’s Creek"and several openly gay actors starred the Netflix adaptn of the Tony Award-wng queer play “The Boys the Band. Straight and cisgenr ‘privilege’While straight and cisgenr actors are given many opportuni to play rol outsi their own genr and sexualy, many gay and trans actors say they are given far ls leeway. He said the movie bs is “a very heterosexual bs” that’s “n mostly by heterosexual men” and lamented that straight actors takg gay rol has a stiflg effect on gay actors who, like him, are no longer nsired for heterosexual parts.

Most notably, perhaps, Tom Hanks, who won an Amy Award for his portrayal of a gay man dyg of AIDS the 1993 film “Philalphia, ” and Hilary Swank, who won the Osr for her performance as transgenr man Brandon Teena the 1999 film “Boys Don’t Cry. ” The amy also nomated actors Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal for their rol the 2005 gay wboy film “Brokeback Mounta, ” Jared Leto for his portrayal of a trans woman the 2013 film “Dallas Buyers Club, ” actor Cate Blanchett for her role the 2015 lbian romantic drama “Carol” and Eddie Redmayne for his portrayal of a trans woman the 2015 film “The Danish Girl.

*BEAR-MAGAZINE.COM* ACTORS IN GAY ROLES

5 Tim Spir-Man Actors Have Played Gay .

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