Benedict Cumberbatch on Playg a Gay Man: 'Wasn't Done Whout Thought'

Contents:

• BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH WEIGHS ON STRAIGHT ACTORS GAY ROL AHEAD OF ‘POWER OF THE DOG’ RELEASE
• BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH DEFENDS DECISN TO PLAY GAY CHARACTER: 'I FEEL SENSIVE' ABOUT 'DIVERSY'
• BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH EXPLAS WHY HE'S PLAYG GAY NEW WTERN FILM
• BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH OPENS UP ABOUT STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS
• BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH IS GAY?
• BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH PRAISED BY GAY RIGHTS GROUP FOR DISCSG SEXUAL EXPERIMENTATN
• BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH REFLECTS ON PLAYG A REPRSED GAY CHARACTER 'THE POWER OF THE DOG'
• BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH ON STRAIGHT ACTORS GAY ROL: ‘DO WE HAVE TO EXPLA ALL OUR PRIVATE MOMENTS OUR SEXUAL HISTORY?’
• BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH ON STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY ‘POWER OF THE DOG’: ‘IT WASN’T DONE WHOUT THOUGHT’
• BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH ADDRS SAM ELLTT'S 'ODD' RANT ABOUT POWER OF THE DOG'S GAY THEM

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH WEIGHS ON STRAIGHT ACTORS GAY ROL AHEAD OF ‘POWER OF THE DOG’ RELEASE

Benedict Cumberbatch plays a sexually reprsed wboy the 1920s – when homosexualy was wily stigmatized and many plac, crimalized – the upg Netflix film “The Power of the Dog. Hollywood has for s st actors heterosexual relatnships gay rol. Some of the creators volved those films, like director Todd Hayn of “Carol” and Lu Guadagno, who directed “Call Me By Your Name, ” which also starred straight actors, are gay themselv.

The film “Moonlight, ” which followed a gay Black man three stag of his life, was celebrated for sisteppg queer stereotyp, though starred some straight actors.

Whereas stg cisgenr actors transgenr rol has recently fallen out of popular practice – LGBTQ media advocy anizatn GLAAD says stg this way “perpetuat this belief that trans people aren’t real” – there is not a siar nsens when to actors playg gay characters. (The anizatn didn’t immediately rpond to CNN’s requt for ment regardg straight actors portrayg gay characters. Vany Fair cric Richard Lawson wrote a review of the 2020 film “The Prom” that there’s no “hard and fast le about who should play gay men on screen.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH DEFENDS DECISN TO PLAY GAY CHARACTER: 'I FEEL SENSIVE' ABOUT 'DIVERSY'

” Nuance, though, is necsary for any actor playg a gay character, he said. That’s part of why Jam Corn’s stg “The Prom” as a flamboyant fad Broadway star was wily cricized: Corn, who is married to a woman, played to stereotyp of gay men, acrdg to many crics, who said his performance was “sultg” and lled him “offensively misst. “In general, y, I wish more gay actors got the chance to tell our stori, embody our people, rather than straight men gettg aclas for beg brave – or cheers for beg sassy, ” Lawson wrote his review of the film.

But the ia that playg a gay role is a “brave” cisn for a straight actor is beg ls domant, cric Guy Lodge said an terview wh the Guardian, evinced by the lack of buzz for films such as “Ammone” and “Supernova, ” which both foced on queer love stori portrayed by straight actors.

“I thk the ia of beg ‘brave’ for playg gay is gog away, ” Lodge said. Benedict Cumberbatch is fendg his role as a gay man his latt movie. Cumberbatch, who is straight and has prevly played a gay character, spoke about his latt turn the upg The Power of the Dog.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH EXPLAS WHY HE'S PLAYG GAY NEW WTERN FILM

Still, Cumberbatch knows the nversatn that along wh a straight actor takg on a gay character. The actor prevly played mathematician Alan Turg, a gay man, 2014's The Imatn Game.

The nversatn surroundg whether heterosexual actors should play gay characters has been buildg recent years. In December 2018, Glee star Darren Criss said he would no longer play gay characters after his breakout role as Blae Anrson Ryan Murphy's h show. "But I want to make sure I won't be another straight boy takg a gay man's role.

Cumberbatch is already gettg Osr buzz for his role the upg wtern as a gay Montana ttle rancher the 1920s. But not everyone is keen on straight actors playg gay rol, and this is somethg Cumberbatch was aware of when he took the role, and he talked to IndieWire about why he ultimately cid the role was for him. While is important to provi real-life queer people wh jobs the dtry and nothg go as far as thenticy, there shouldn't be a mand for actors to publicly state their sexualy before they accept actg bate over whether straight actors should play gay has been ragg pecially hard over the last year or so.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH OPENS UP ABOUT STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS

"I'm not beg woke about this, but I feel strongly that if I st someone a story, I am stg them to act as a lover, or an emy, or someone on dgs or a crimal or a sat, " he told the Rad Tim, "They are not there to 'act gay' bee 'actg gay' is a bunch of s o a performance.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH IS GAY?

"Everyone om Neil Patrick Harris, to Jim Parsons, to Ben Platt has weighed on the issue, wh some sayg they're favor of straight actors playg gay, but many sayg they'd like to see that trend e to an isn't Cumberbatch's first time playg gay a big movie. In 2014, he played gay puter geni Alan Turg The Imatn Game, and was nomated for an Amy Award, a BAFTA, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Goln Globe for the role. ”Sexualy is at the foreont of Cumberbatch’s hotly anticipated film, The Imatn Game, which he plays Alan Turg, a gay man who was wily creded wh crackg the Enigma durg World War II.

Tragilly, Turg mted suici after the war when he was nvicted of “engagg homosexual relatns”.

”Cumberbatch, who officiated his iends’ Seth Cummgs and Rob Rr’s civil ceremony Ibiza last year, also spoke about how difficult is for gay actors Hollywood.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH PRAISED BY GAY RIGHTS GROUP FOR DISCSG SEXUAL EXPERIMENTATN

“I thk if you’re gog to sell yourself as a leadg man Hollywood to say ‘I’m gay’, sadly, is still a huge obstacle, ” he said. “We all know actors who are [gay] who don’t want to talk about or brg up, or who ny .

Human rights movements and sexual and gay rights movements have ma huge social progrs the last 40 years, whout a doubt, but there’s a lot more work to be done. While is important to provi real-life queer people wh jobs the dtry and nothg go as far as thenticy, there shouldn’t be a mand for actors to publicly state their sexualy before they accept actg bate over whether straight actors should play gay has been ragg pecially hard over the last year or so. “I’m not beg woke about this, but I feel strongly that if I st someone a story, I am stg them to act as a lover, or an emy, or someone on dgs or a crimal or a sat, ” he told the Rad Tim, “They are not there to ‘act gay’ bee ‘actg gay’ is a bunch of s o a performance.

”Everyone om Neil Patrick Harris, to Jim Parsons, to Ben Platt has weighed on the issue, wh some sayg they’re favor of straight actors playg gay, but many sayg they’d like to see that trend e to an isn’t Cumberbatch’s first time playg gay a big movie.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH REFLECTS ON PLAYG A REPRSED GAY CHARACTER 'THE POWER OF THE DOG'

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.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH ON STRAIGHT ACTORS GAY ROL: ‘DO WE HAVE TO EXPLA ALL OUR PRIVATE MOMENTS OUR SEXUAL HISTORY?’

At one time mors were very actively spread that actor Benedikt Cumberbatch was gay.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH ON STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY ‘POWER OF THE DOG’: ‘IT WASN’T DONE WHOUT THOUGHT’

To some extent, the gossip is also related to the fact that the actor played the part of Alan Turg the movie "The Game of Imatn", which cracked the of the German Enigma encryptn mache durg the Send World War, and was later prosecuted for his homosexualy. Turg, who was openly gay at a time when homosexualy was a crime Bra, talked his way to a job helpg the Brish crack the German lled Enigma. On the way the state punished Turg for beg gay It's disgtg to thk that wh ls than 100 years [that] this was gog on hundreds — thoands fact — of men were prosecuted and given the chance to choose simply between two years' imprisonment or two years' state-sanctned chemil stratn through weekly trogen jectns.

But the man was a marathon nner as well as a sexually active homosexual man, and not only did the dg ravage his body and affect his physily but also started slowly to impge on his faculty, on his md, on his abily to do that work. ”His admissn has nsequently been praised by gay rights group Stonewall for the impact will have on young men and women stgglg to e to terms wh their sexualy. “It don’t take a tective to work out that seeg someone the public eye – pecially somebody as fluential as Benedict – talkg posively around gay issu, is powerful for young lbian, gay and bisexual people, ” said Stonewall Head of Policy Jam Taylor.

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH ADDRS SAM ELLTT'S 'ODD' RANT ABOUT POWER OF THE DOG'S GAY THEM

“It is often difficult for those growg up to fd role mols who monstrate that is equally ok to be gay or straight. ”Cumberbatch ntued the terview to say that he would fight anti-gay extremists "to the ath".

”Cumberbatch has said before that he tried to change the homophobic views of his fellow stunts while he was at school at Harrow – an stutn which, he claims, had “a really low tolerance for homosexualy” July 2013, Cumberbatch officiated the gay marriage of his iends, Seth Cummgs and Rob Rr, Ibiza.