Should straight actors still play gay characters? 'It's plited'

Contents:

• SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS STILL PLAY GAY CHARACTERS? 'IT'S PLITED'
• STILL ACTG GAY: MALE HOMOSEXUALY MORN DRAMA
• HOLLYWOOD’S GAY DOUBLE STANDARD: WHY SO MANY ACTRS CAN COME OUT, BUT YOUNG ACTORS STAY THE CLOSET
• NEIL PATRICK HARRIS SHAR HIS THOUGHTS ON STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS

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

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. I'LL FEEL GOOD ABOUT HOLLYWOOD'S LGBTQ REPRESENTATION WHEN "As much reprentatn as there is, there are very few big gay love stori.

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. Broadst TV's first openly gay chief exec has ed his new post atop WarnerMedia's direct-to-nsumer bs to she a spotlight. Levy, who -created the show wh dad Eugene, earned legns of admirers fans and crics alike for craftg a same-sex love story a seri that was ee of homophobia.

STILL ACTG GAY: MALE HOMOSEXUALY MORN DRAMA

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. 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.

The Pose star beme the first openly gay black man to w the dramatic lead actor Emmy 2019, the year he turned heads for butg genr-ntral red rpet looks. The show will leave a legacy of thentic pictns of sexualy — cludg scen volvg gay character Lnel (DeRon Horton), moled after Simien himself. The 'gay black spir' driv so much popular culture, through slang, mic, fashn, meme culture, dance and all manners of 'the arts.

HOLLYWOOD’S GAY DOUBLE STANDARD: WHY SO MANY ACTRS CAN COME OUT, BUT YOUNG ACTORS STAY THE CLOSET

' 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.

LGBTQ STORY I'D LOVE TO SEE ONSCREEN "Would feature gay women of lor livg and lovg a three-dimensnal way, whout the imposn of polics. 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.

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

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. 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.

”The ntroversy threw fuel on an already simmerg bate: Should non-LGBTQ actors still be st lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and queer rol?

Hugh Culber on CBS All Accs' “Star Trek: Disvery, ” he ma history playg gay high school stunt Ricky the ‘90s show “My So Called Life. ” 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.