Are straight actors gay rol the new blackface? |

Contents:

• SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS STILL PLAY GAY CHARACTERS? 'IT'S PLITED'
• SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAY GAY ROL? A STAR TV WRER SAYS NO
• WHY SHOULDN’T STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAY GAY CHARACTERS?
• LET’S SETTLE THIS: CAN STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAY GAY ROL?
• BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH OPENS UP ABOUT STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS
• STANLEY TUCCI IS PRETTY FE WH STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS
• ARE STRAIGHT ACTORS GAY ROL THE NEW BLACKFACE?

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

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.

SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAY GAY ROL? A STAR TV WRER SAYS NO

” 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. 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. “To have quote-unquote ‘straight’ actors sayg now, ‘Hey, I won't take that part, bee 's gay, and you should give to a gay person, ’ feels like another way to stigmatize our stori, " Babb said. “What would do is would block all those actors om actg outsi of their lane and so, is that gog to stop my transgenr actors om playg nontransgenr rol or gay rol?

WHY SHOULDN’T STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAY GAY CHARACTERS?

“Hontly, a transgenr person playg a gay role would be a really good possibily, and we would unrstand really well, bee we've had to all grapple wh sexualy as an issue. AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTRsell T Davi, whose latt h seri is “It’s a S” on HBO Max, ma wav England by sayg only gay performers should play gay characters. “I’m gog to war, ” he Ben Blackall/HBO Max“It’s a S, ” about 20-somethgs nontg the AIDS crisis the 1980s, broke new ground for s creator, Rsell T Davi, bee he had never wrten about the epimic there was somethg else that ma this HBO Max seri different om the other gay-themed programs Davi had wrten, om the origal “Queer as Folk” to “A Very English Sndal”: “It’s a S” is the first show he has ma which nearly all the gay parts are played by gay the ever-eager pugilist is stirrg ntroversy by argug terviews that, om now on, only gay actors should be allowed gay rol.

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

”Firth and Stanley Tucci play a gay uple the new movie “Supernova, ” and Firth snagged his first Amy Award nomatn 2009 for playg a gay character “A Sgle Man.

There is also growg nsens that transgenr rol should be played only by transgenr before the mixed gay-straight stg of “The Inherance, ” an AIDS drama that premiered London 2018 and moved to Broadway the followg year, there hadn’t been very much public bate about the suabily of straight actors gay laid out his new posn a barrage of terviews before the January but of “It’s a S” on Bra’s Channel 4, provokg attacks om the lik of Piers Man — “Equaly means equaly, or don’t, ” he said on “Good Morng Bra” — and Peter Ash, a straight actor who plays a gay role on “Coronatn Street, ” the world’s longt nng soap opera. Davi is now advotg discrimatn agast heterosexual actors who want to dn for gay fact, the laws of Bra and the Uned Stat make Davi vulnerable to legal challeng if a straight person n prove that he wasn’t nsired for a part bee he isn’t gay. “That would not jtify a blanket policy but might be ed an argument for a particular play or film where thenticy is particularly important — and where the orientatn of the relevant actors is public knowledge, ” Kenyon ’s posn is ght and somewhat puzzlg for reasons that have ls to do wh fairns than wh his own past work: He has prevly ed straight actors very succsfully many gay rol.

“I’ve employed plenty of straight people straight parts, and their succs has paved the way for me to be here now, ” Davi he actually believe there is a gay actor who uld have given a more nvcg performance than Grant did? And sce there are so many more straight rol than gay on, he thks isn’t right to make gay actors pete agast their straight unterparts to play gay characters. ”Davi is askg people like Tucci and Firth to reject gay rol the future, though he said he would be willg to make an exceptn if a marquee name were the only way he uld get a productn fanced.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH OPENS UP ABOUT STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS

”I suggted to Davi that many 20-somethgs, who are scribg themselv growg numbers as sexually fluid, would be baffled by his sistence that gay rol mt be played by actors a tegory that some young people no longer even regnize. "In my md, part of the reason that men end up killg trans women out of fear that other men will thk that they are gay for havg been wh trans women is that their iends, the men whose judgment they fear, only know trans women om media and the people who are playg trans women are the men that they know, " the Out100 honoree explas. "I thk that's the goal, but out gay actors only recently are allowed to be romantic leads movi, even though they have a hband at home, " she explaed.

""I also knew that I was there to thentite the experience and ground that experience and was a choice that I ma as a gay person for the story, " he ntued. "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.

STANLEY TUCCI IS PRETTY FE WH STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS

Whout havg seen a send of the film, some seem to have cid that Whehall will be playg an offensive riture, and that would be far better for a gay man to play that offensive riture. Davi, the md behd Queer as Folk, the Doctor Who revival, and Years and Years, spoke recently about stg for gay rol and why he only wants to see gay actors fill them.

"Davi' latt project, It's a S, stars Olly Alexanr, Neil Patrick Harris, and Stephen Fry, among others, and follows a group of young gay men 1980's London as they learn firsthand about the AIDS creator hasn't always st out actors for his queer rol.

ARE STRAIGHT ACTORS GAY ROL THE NEW BLACKFACE?

While Queer as Folk featured some gay actors, most of the ma characters were played by straight actors like Ain Gillen, Charlie Hunnam, Jason Merrells, and Craig Kelly. Everyone is allowed the space to evolve though, and 2021 may prent a chance for a new way of issue of whether or not straight actors should play gay rol has been a hot topic lately wh everyone om Henry Goldg to Dan Levy and Billy Eichner offerg their opns on the issue.

It’s a topic on which Hollywood has yet to reach a nsens: whether or not ’s appropriate for straight actors to portray gay characters film and ’s also a topic that Benedict Cumberbatch is faiar wh, havg been nomated for an Amy Award for his performance as mathematician Alan Turg, a man both prosecuted and persecuted for his sexual orientatn, 2014’s “The Imatn Game. 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.