Can Straight Actors Play Gay? There's a 'Spectm,' Says Jim Parsons

Contents:

• NEIL PATRICK HARRIS SHAR HIS THOUGHTS ON STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS
• LET’S SETTLE THIS: CAN STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAY GAY ROL?
• STANLEY TUCCI SAYS HE THKS STRAIGHT ACTORS SHOULD BE ABLE TO PLAY GAY CHARACTERS
• SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS STILL PLAY GAY CHARACTERS? 'IT'S PLITED'

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

Lucky for gay/bi men, there are que a number of who know exactly how that feels.

It seems like every gay guy out there is a bottom, and when you thk you've met someone who's fely a He too is a bottom. "There's fely this spectm: I thk the fight, as were, is not about havg only gay people play the gay parts but to ensure that all parts are open to all actors, " the Boys the Band star told the Los Angel Tim. "It's important that gay characters are portrayed as well-round and pletely human dividuals.

LET’S SETTLE THIS: CAN STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAY GAY ROL?

"And there are plenty of straight actors who have played gay characters brilliantly. I thk Brokeback Mounta is one of the most touchg gay movi and love stori I have ever seen, and those two straight actors [Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal] were the bt choic for those rol.

Jam Corn, particular, was slammed for his portrayal of a gay character The Prom, a flamboyant pictn that was cricized as "gayface. Tim, Parsons, who me out 2008, said his anxieti about beg a gay actor were assuaged when he portrayed a woman a Charl Bch play. "I was more ncerned that at a small level, I would always seem gay every role that I took.

"But when I performed drag the Bch play, I felt that there was this permissn that was granted and I didn't have to worry about appearg gay. The performance was so stereotypil that, to me, was borrle homophobic. In one scene, his character reveals he had to leave his childhood before g out as gay.

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

In 1993, Tom Hanks played a gay man dyg of AIDS "Philalphia, " and 1999, Hilary Swank gave a movg performance as a transgenr man "Boys Don't Cry. After watchg "The Prom, " I realized we should be at a place where we don't need Corn to play a gay man. There are plenty of gay actors who uld have done the job — probably better.

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

Kane said she has worked wh some patients who felt nfed bee they intified as gay but didn't act like the gay characters they saw on problem here, she said, is that some of the actors lean to stereotyp, perpetuatg them. She remembers when Matt Bomer – a cisgenr man who intifi as gay — was st the small budget film "Anythg" as a transgenr woman 2017, replacg a trans actrs who was origally st the role before the stud wanted a bigger name.

"It's almost rctive to say straight actors n't play gay characters bee that impli an 'otherg' of gay people, or that gay people are so fundamentally different than straight people that one uld never play the other. However, there needs to be a distctn between actors who put effort to takg the LGBTQ rol serly, and the actors — like Corn "The Prom" — who perhaps jt relied heavily on stereotyp to portray a gay character.