Neil Patrick Harris on straight actors playg gay characters

Contents:

• TOM HOLLAND’S GAY SEX SCENE 'THE CROWD ROOM' DEFEND BY FANS
• 8 GAY ACTORS WHO PLAYED STRAIGHT CHARACTERS
• STANLEY TUCCI IS PRETTY FE WH STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS
• SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS STILL PLAY GAY CHARACTERS? 'IT'S PLITED'
• STANLEY TUCCI: IT’S OK FOR STRAIGHT ACTORS TO PLAY GAY ROL IF DONE ‘THE RIGHT WAY’
• 20 GREAT ROL: OUR FAVORE STRAIGHT ACTORS WHO HAVE PLAYED GAY CHARACTERS
• NEIL PATRICK HARRIS SHAR HIS THOUGHTS ON STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS
• STANLEY TUCCI SAYS HE THKS STRAIGHT ACTORS SHOULD BE ABLE TO PLAY GAY CHARACTERS
• SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAY GAY ROL? A STAR TV WRER SAYS NO

TOM HOLLAND’S GAY SEX SCENE 'THE CROWD ROOM' DEFEND BY FANS

"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.

8 GAY ACTORS WHO PLAYED STRAIGHT CHARACTERS

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. Le Evans don't agree wh many proment gay actors and creators on one the last several years, the issue of whether or not gay characters should be played by gay actors has bee a hot topic Hollywood, and Bety and the Beast and Fast & Fur star Le Evans has now spoken out about his the Daily Telegraph asked if he agreed wh Rsell T Davi' view that gay characters should be played by gay actors, Evans didn't que agree. "Davi, and others who argue that gay rol should be filled wh gay actors, do not argue that only straight people should play straight rol, so feels like Evans has missed the argument a ltle b here.

STANLEY TUCCI IS PRETTY FE WH STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS

Instead, the argument is agast straight people puttg on a performance of what they thk a gay person acts like and nstantly wng awards om when there are many talented actors who uld liver a much more thentic performance. In 2006, NPH me out sayg that he was “happy to dispel any mors or misnceptns, ” that he is “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.

Before g out as gay 2014, his heartwarmg speech livered at the Time to Thrive nference which aims to promote LGBT youth welfare, and later as a transgenr man 2020, Ellt Page was st as the tular role of the edy classic Juno.

In his acceptance speech, Jonathan Bailey prais the productn for beg “a lovely and celebratory snapshot of gay love” what he scribed as “a time where acknowledgg the very existence of LGBT people our schools is beg qutned. Shows and movi that st queer actors queer rol have been celebrated by fans, cludg Jasm Savoy Brown’s stg as a queer teen on Yellowjackets and as the Scream anchise’s first openly gay character. This go to show that the issue is nuanced and plex: Jt bee a project do st some queer actors queer rol and has a queer person at the helm (Murphy is openly gay), that don’t mean ’s exempt om cricism or there to be staed and staable change, ’s sential to have LGBTQ+ people cisn-makg posns.

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

Bee of that, she utns speakg absolut about straight people not playg queer rol, which might give journalists license to ask actors if they’re gay and put prsure on someone to e out before they’re ready. Tom HollandFans of Brish actor Tom Holland have e to his fense after some social media ers were seemgly upset that the latt episo of his Apple TV+ seri The Crowd Room featured gay the scene, Holland’s character go to a club wh heavy black eyeler and all black. ”A lot of other ers, however, seemed very nfed over the backlash, pecially sce Spir-Man actors Toby Maguire and Andrew Garfield have also played gay person wrote, “Watchg agile cishet men have breakdowns over the reason Tom Holland is trendg is sweet we to me.

In fact, Holland is followg a long and proud tradn of Spir-Man actors playg are some prev tim that actors who have played Peter Parker have crossed over to the other si and played gay characters movi, TV, and on stage. She has been gay on Amerin Horror Story: Asylum and Carol however, one of the rol she has was Harriet Hay Stud 60 on The Sunset Strip, a character based on Amerin actrs and sger Krist Chenoweth. 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.

“I am always very flattered when gay men e up to me and talk to me about The Devil Wears Prada or they talk about Supernova, and they say that, ‘It was jt so betiful, ’ you know, ‘You did the right way. ”While Tucci didn’t elaborate on this particular form of bad-fah actg, ’s pretty easy to assume that he was referrg to the myriad of films which LGBTQ+ people have been rced to harmful, homophobic stereotyp over the years. Last week, Adam Lambert ma headl when he mented on an Instagram post om Out's sister publitn The Advote about The Whe Lot star Theo Jam eyeg the role of Gee Michael a mored bpic, sayg, "Yay another straight man playg a gay in" wh an eye roll Instagram (@theadvotemag)Now, the Grammy-nomated sger is clarifyg what he meant when he sat down wh Variety at this year's Sundance Film Ftival to promote his upg film Fairyland, sayg that would be "ridiculo" to be ser about such a claim.

STANLEY TUCCI: IT’S OK FOR STRAIGHT ACTORS TO PLAY GAY ROL IF DONE ‘THE RIGHT WAY’

While we fely prefer that most gay rol go to gay actors, and we love the thenticy they brg to the rol and the projects they’re , we n’t help but have a special soft spot for a few straight stars, like Brendan Fraser, are great people and great at playg gay, but aren't really known for .

We want a future where every talented queer actor n get whatever rol they want and where queer actors fally w awards for playg queer rol, but until then, the ten actors show that not every straight actor should be banned om playg gay on screen. From smaller movi like The Daytrippers and Ltle Chaos, to his inic gay rol The Devil Wears Prada, Burlque, and Supernova (oppose fellow straight-actor-we-love Col Firth), he always do the gay muny right. Chalamet hasn’t had as many gay rol as the rt of the people on this list (he’s only 27, after all), but he ma que the imprsn on the queer muny wh his touchg and realistic performance as a lovtck teen Lu Guadagno’s classic g-of-age romance Call Me by Your Name.

20 GREAT ROL: OUR FAVORE STRAIGHT ACTORS WHO HAVE PLAYED GAY CHARACTERS

Although he's bt known for playg Sheldon Cooper on "The Big Bang Theory, " Parsons also got touch wh LGBTQ history by playg a gay activist fightg to addrs the risg 1980s HIV-AIDs crisis the 2014 drama "The Normal Heart" (which is based on Larry Kramer's 1985 play of the same name). "I thk the thg that I feel very strongly about is that everybody that I've spoken to is really moved by ['Pri'], and for that reason I say 's not jt a gay film, " Stt told Entertament Weekly 2018.

"I thk 's been embraced by the gay muny bee I thk people are very celebratory about the fact that gay people are not jt seen story l that are related to sex or sexualy, that their attribut of kdns and bravery and passn are the thgs that are celebrated the movie.

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

Actrs and wrer-director DuVall has long played openly gay characters (recently on "The Handmaid's Tale" and her 2016 film "The Interventn") she me out, one of her most proment rol was playg rebell teenager Graham the 2000 satiril edy "But I'm a Cheerlear. His character, Gee, is close iends wh Julia Roberts' character, Julianne, who sets out to w over another old iend on the eve of his 2019, Everett told Entertament Weekly that, at the time, he thought his role the film was "gog to be the end, bee I was gay, and was a ty ltle gay role, and 'What was the pot? Acclaimed veteran actor McKellen has been open about his sexualy sce 1988, and got the chance to play another celebrated gay film figure when he portrayed real-life director Jam Whale the 1998 bgraphil drama "Gods and Monsters.

" One of his ls faiar rol was playg Patrick the HBO seri "Lookg, " which followed the liv and iendships of three gay men livg San show aired om 2014 to 2015, and a feature-length film wrapped up the story 2016. Js has a relatnship wh Kayla, a bright-eyed new Fox employee who is asslted by Ail and cis to speak Lnsgate's EPK soundb for the film, McKnon allud to her character beg spired by first-hand acunts after scribg her character as a "closet liberal and closet gay woman.

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

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. ” 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.

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

” 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. ” “It’s important that gay characters are portrayed as well-round and pletely human dividuals, ” add Parsons, who noted that “there are plenty of straight actors who have played gay characters brilliantly.