Let's take a look at the logic -- or lack thereof -- a recent argument that gay actors n't play straight characters.
Contents:
- 15 GAY ACTORS WHO PLAYED STRAIGHT ROL TO PERFECTN
- STRAIGHT ACTORS WHO HAVE PLAYED GAY CHARACTERS
- 20 GREAT ROL: OUR FAVORE STRAIGHT ACTORS WHO HAVE PLAYED GAY CHARACTERS
- GAY ACTORS, STRAIGHT ROL: A LSON IN MAKG SURE YOUR ARGUMENT IS LOGIL
- STANLEY TUCCI IS PRETTY FE WH STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS
- SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS STILL PLAY GAY CHARACTERS? 'IT'S PLITED'
15 GAY ACTORS WHO PLAYED STRAIGHT ROL TO PERFECTN
Jam Corn's performance as a gay man "The Prom" was lambasted, but Ewan McGregor's turn "Halston" has been acclaimed. * gay actors who played straight 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.
STRAIGHT ACTORS WHO HAVE PLAYED GAY CHARACTERS
Due to the greater acceptance of homosexualy today's society, we are seeg a rise the reprentatn of gay characters mastream cema. One tertg pot is that often the gay characters are played by straight people. * gay actors who played straight characters *
Some of the actors even went so far as to play straight characters who treated gay people badly and managed to do so nvcgly that the dience believed a ltle themselv. Quto me out 2011, sayg "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. Harris nfirmed his sexual orientatn 2006, sayg: "I am happy to dispel any mors or misnceptns and am 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.
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. 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.
20 GREAT ROL: OUR FAVORE STRAIGHT ACTORS WHO HAVE PLAYED GAY CHARACTERS
* gay actors who played straight characters *
"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.
Bros, which marks the first-ever gay rom- om a major stud and featur a prcipal LGBTQ+ st, follows the dysfunctnal relatnship between podster and rad show host Bobby Lieber (Billy Eichner) and real tate lawyer slash jock Aaron Shepard (Le Macfarlane).
The former GAY TIMES ver star has ntuoly ed his platform to advote for LGBTQ+ rights on social media and through his mic; his song Gay Street Fighter celebrat the LGBTQ+ muny and clar war on homophobia. Starrg the Billy on the Street alum as Bobby Lieber, the host of a New York podst and rad show lled The Eleventh Brick at Stonewall, Bros follows the character as he accepts a posn as a curator for Manhattan’s upg Natnal LGBTQ+ History Mm and and falls for Aaron Shepard (Le Macfarlane), a handsome “Tom Brady”-que gay.
GAY ACTORS, STRAIGHT ROL: A LSON IN MAKG SURE YOUR ARGUMENT IS LOGIL
In an terview wh GAY TIMES earlier this year, Eichner said of the historic film: “We are jt so hungry as LGBTQ+ people, as gay men, to see accurate, multi-dimensnal and genuely funny and genuely smart pictns of ourselv that we don’t get. ” He also explaed that was ccial for the dialogue Bros to reflect how he and his queer circle teract everyday life by pictg gay people as “funny, sad, lonely, extremely nfint, msy, brave, horny and hypocril adult human begs. In his 2020 digal ver story wh GAY TIMES, Silva paid homage to the pneers who “harvted the us” long before him and ma possible for queer love to be mastream on televisn.
Scht’s Creek won rave reviews throughout s six-season n for s plete absence of homophobia the storyle and portrayal of David Rose – played by -creator Dan Levy – and his sexualy, due to the lack of openly pansexual characters on televisn.
Levy, who is gay and has been out to his loved on sce he was 18, ma history when the sixth and fal season of the Canadian edy swept all seven major tegori at the Primetime Emmy Awards – the first time for a edy or drama. Wily nsired as Pose’s breakout character, Elektra Wtour has been ducted to Gay Twter’s Hall of Gif Fame thanks to her snappy ebacks and legendary reads, particularly for her takedown of the pdish, transphobic whe woman season two.
STANLEY TUCCI IS PRETTY FE WH STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS
The inic episo, tled The Puppy Episo, was a smash h the ratgs – garnerg over 42 ln viewers – and was hailed as the “most hyped, anticipated, and possibly fluential gay moment on televisn”. Yang, who also appeared a meo role Bros, has been a featured player on Saturday Night Live sce 2019; beg the long-nng sketch show’s first Che-Amerin, first Atrasian-Amerin, third openly gay male and fourth-ever st member of Asian scent. Although Will & Grace’s Jack McFarland has received mixed reviews over the years for beg a ‘stereotypil’ gay due to his flamboyancy (bee for some reason, that’s bad), ’s important to note his impact as one of televisn’s first long-nng and openly gay characters.
Like her character, Reign is a proud member of the trans muny and told GAY TIMES earlier this year that the rom- – and s thentic stg – is proof that the “world is changg”. The same year Chris Colfer tapulted to superstardom wh his performance as Kurt Hummel, a fashnable untertenor on Ryan Murphy’s Glee, the star spoke openly about his homosexualy an terview wh Chelsea Handler, which ma him one of the only out teenagers Hollywood.
SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS STILL PLAY GAY CHARACTERS? 'IT'S PLITED'
The entire st of The Sex Liv of College Girls were praised when the HBO Max show premiered 2021, but was Renee Rapp’s portrayal of Leighton Murray, an affluent closeted lbian wh quick w that stole the hearts of Gay Twter and queer women around the world. Billy Porter marked a first for the LGBTQ+ muny 2019 when he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstandg Lead Actor a Drama Seri for his performance on Pose, beg the first openly gay Black man to be nomated and w any leadg tegory. After wng at the 2020 Brish LGBT Awards for BBC documentary Growg Up Gay, Alexanr spoke for all of when he vowed: “I want to make you proud and ntue beg very gay whatever suatn I fd myself .
Ryan O’Connell based his Netflix seri Special on his 2015 memoir, I’m Special: And Other Li We Tell Ourselv, which tells his story as a gay man livg wh cerebral palsy. Speakg wh Entertament Weekly prr to the send season premiere, O’Connell said his aim as a storyteller is to tackle “anythg that still has a stigma attached to ” such as gay sex, addg: “I’ve had to suffer through so many straight sex scen and now everyone else has to pay. Although Ts Burgs’ character Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is as boistero as they e, the actor sisted an terview last year that he’s “probably the most borg of the rabow gay men” and when he meets people who expect him to be like T Andromedon, he apologis.