20 of our favore straight actors as gay characters | CNN

Contents:

• STRAIGHT ACTORS WHO HAVE PLAYED GAY CHARACTERS
• 20 GREAT ROL: OUR FAVORE STRAIGHT ACTORS WHO HAVE PLAYED GAY CHARACTERS
• STANLEY TUCCI IS PRETTY FE WH STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS
• 15 GAY ACTORS WHO PLAYED STRAIGHT ROL TO PERFECTN
• 8 GAY ACTORS WHO PLAYED STRAIGHT CHARACTERS
• SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS STILL PLAY GAY CHARACTERS? 'IT'S PLITED'
• NEIL PATRICK HARRIS SHAR HIS THOUGHTS ON STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS

STRAIGHT ACTORS WHO HAVE PLAYED GAY CHARACTERS

"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. In 2006, NPH me out sayg that he was “happy to dispel any mors or misnceptns, ” that he is “que proud to say that I am a very ntent gay man livg my life to the fullt and feel most fortunate to be workg wh wonrful people the bs I love.

Before g out as gay 2014, his heartwarmg speech livered at the Time to Thrive nference which aims to promote LGBT youth welfare, and later as a transgenr man 2020, Ellt Page was st as the tular role of the edy classic Juno. He believ that “livg a gay life whout publicly acknowledgg is simply not enough to make any signifint ntributn to the immense work that li ahead on the road to plete equaly.

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

In his acceptance speech, Jonathan Bailey prais the productn for beg “a lovely and celebratory snapshot of gay love” what he scribed as “a time where acknowledgg the very existence of LGBT people our schools is beg qutned.

And first of all, you look for actors who are gay or who are trans, pendg on the role, if you have that md and you go lookg for them but then you fd a straight actor or a cis actor that will play that part, who mak sense for that part, I thk 's okay. "I don't even thk about but, my films, lookg back, out of about 16 or 17 gay rol, I thk all but twice I st gay men, bee when they me to dn they were better, " Wtmoreland told Insir. "They brought wh them so much knowledge about what that character was experiencg and had a greater accs to the emotns of the story, so naturally my work, I have st gay people to play gay rol.

Penn won an Osr for his straight actors should be 'appld' for takg on queer rolSeveral of the people Insir spoke to, cludg Stt, also acknowledged that n be hard for straight actors — particularly men — to take on queer rol as uld lead to them damagg their reers, so they should be mend for dog such actors who are straight but played gay characters are Gordon Warnecke, who starred as Omar oppose Daniel Day-Lewis 1985's "My Betiful Lndrette, " and Jam Wilby, who starred as the tular Mrice oppose Hugh Grant Jam Ivory's 1985 were both well-reviewed movi ma Thatchere Bra, a time where beg gay or queer wasn't exactly popular. "Effectively 's a love story, I don't re whether 's gay or not gay, 's about a forbidn love story, so as long as you n unrstand that ncept, I don't see what the difference is. Both actors said that they would happily play another gay character, but both did say that they regnize the climate has changed enormoly recent years, which Wilby said uld be a negative thg.

STANLEY TUCCI IS PRETTY FE WH STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS

Dog rearch and unrstandg thgs our culture and thgs that are alive and well gay people — if you immerse yourself that and you rpect and honor what those thgs are, I'm okay wh .

Sean Penn won his send Osr for Bt Actor a Leadg Role 2009 after playg famo gay rights activist and California's first openly gay elected official Harvey Milk Milk.

15 GAY ACTORS WHO PLAYED STRAIGHT ROL TO PERFECTN

Darren Criss won a Primetime Emmy 2018 and a Goln Globe 2019 after playg gay, Filipo-Amerin serial killer Andrew Cunanan FX's The Assassatn of Gianni Versace: Amerin Crime Story. While we fely prefer that most gay rol go to gay actors, and we love the thenticy they brg to the rol and the projects they’re , we n’t help but have a special soft spot for a few straight stars, like Brendan Fraser, are great people and great at playg gay, but aren't really known for . We want a future where every talented queer actor n get whatever rol they want and where queer actors fally w awards for playg queer rol, but until then, the ten actors show that not every straight actor should be banned om playg gay on screen.

We loved when McGregor played a gay mate Phillip Morris the dark edy I Love You Phillip Morris, and aga when he played real-life legendary fashn signer Halston the Netflix miseri Halston. From smaller movi like The Daytrippers and Ltle Chaos, to his inic gay rol The Devil Wears Prada, Burlque, and Supernova (oppose fellow straight-actor-we-love Col Firth), he always do the gay muny right.

Chalamet hasn’t had as many gay rol as the rt of the people on this list (he’s only 27, after all), but he ma que the imprsn on the queer muny wh his touchg and realistic performance as a lovtck teen Lu Guadagno’s classic g-of-age romance Call Me by Your Name. In ‘Philalphia, ’ one of the first mastream Hollywood films to acknowledge issu like HIV/AIDS, homosexualy, and homophobia, Hanks played the role of Andrew Beckett, a gay lawyer. "Acrdg to GLAAD's annual Stud Rponsibily Inx, 22 of 118 films released by major movie studs 2019 clud characters who were lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and/or queer (18.

8 GAY ACTORS WHO PLAYED STRAIGHT CHARACTERS

Anrson not that a movie like "Love, Simon" avoid cricism for stg a straight lead actor bee was the first film by a major Hollywood stud to foc on a gay teenage romance.

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

"All of those issu are important to me at once, and I thk that we n advote for all of them at once bee ultimately we want our media to be an accurate reflectn of the world which we live, " they Billy Eichner, who is gay, told Deadle earlier this year that Hollywood was "so hypocril"  how treats LGBTQ actors, that many attend fundraisers for the muny but fail to tell LGBTQ stori wh LGBTQ actors. I thk we need to stop unrvalug that, the feelg that if a gay person plays a gay person ’s not actg but if a straight person plays a gay person, we give them an Osr. "I don't thk that a cis person uld ever tly unrstand the trans experience, or what means to be trans and the amount of opprsn that we go through on a daily basis, " Cassata qutn of thenticy appli to lbian, gay and bisexual people, too, though the letters of LGBTQ are more accepted inti, Cassata says.

In the se of gay actor Wentworth Miller of "Prison Break, " he said  an Instagram post earlier this month that he isn't terted playg straight characters anymore and has ntued to discs the need for better reprentatn. While there may not be a simple answer, Stanley Tucci—who has played gay rol The Devil Wears Prada and 2020's Supernova (not to mentn Emma Stone’s father who was inilly gay once Easy A)—recently weighed , sayg that he believ ’s perfectly acceptable as long as ’s done “the right way.

NEIL PATRICK HARRIS SHAR HIS THOUGHTS ON STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS

“I am always very flattered when gay men e up to me and talk to me about The Devil Wears Prada or they talk about Supernova, and they say that, ‘It was jt so betiful, ’ you know, ‘You did the right way. ”While Tucci didn’t elaborate on this particular form of bad-fah actg, ’s pretty easy to assume that he was referrg to the myriad of films which LGBTQ+ people have been rced to harmful, homophobic stereotyp over the years. ) Or perhaps he was referencg the super ol clatn of, erm, certa actors to fensively claim that the gay films they star are not jt “a gay story about the guys beg gay.

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.