Stanley Tucci Says Straight Actors Can Play Gay Characters - Variety

Contents:

• GAY ACTORS, STRAIGHT ROL: A LSON IN MAKG SURE YOUR ARGUMENT IS LOGIL
• STANLEY TUCCI SAYS IT’S ‘FE’ FOR STRAIGHT ACTORS TO PLAY GAY ROL: ‘YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO PLAY DIFFERENT PEOPLE. THAT’S THE WHOLE POT OF IT’
• STANLEY TUCCI FENDS STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS: 'AN ACTOR IS AN ACTOR IS AN ACTOR'
• STANLEY TUCCI IS PRETTY FE WH STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS
• 8 GAY ACTORS WHO PLAYED STRAIGHT CHARACTERS
• 20 GREAT ROL: OUR FAVORE STRAIGHT ACTORS WHO HAVE PLAYED GAY CHARACTERS
• SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAY GAY ROL? A STAR TV WRER SAYS NO
• THE BATE ABOUT STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS MISS THE POT
• SHOULD STRAIGHT ACTORS STILL PLAY GAY CHARACTERS? 'IT'S PLITED'
• 15 GAY ACTORS WHO PLAYED STRAIGHT ROL TO PERFECTN

GAY ACTORS, STRAIGHT ROL: A LSON IN MAKG SURE YOUR ARGUMENT IS LOGIL

"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.

John Benjam Hickey — whose Col “In Treatment” is heterosexual — has been outspokenly gay for years, but Emmy-nomated Emma Corr was not yet publicly queer when she was st as Prcs Diana “The Crown.

STANLEY TUCCI SAYS IT’S ‘FE’ FOR STRAIGHT ACTORS TO PLAY GAY ROL: ‘YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO PLAY DIFFERENT PEOPLE. THAT’S THE WHOLE POT OF IT’

“Once they e out, lbian, gay and bisexual actors have rarely been nsired for straight leadg rol, ” says GLAAD director of entertament media Jeremy Blacklow. Knight, Emmy-nomated 2007 for playg hetero heartthrob Gee “Grey’s Anatomy” and who now — alongsi fellow out “The Flight Attendant” st member Griff Matthews — plays gay that Emmy-nomated seri. ”“In the 22 years we’ve worked together, we’ve always brought gay and straight actors for straight and gay rol, ” says Emmy-nomated Sharon Bialy of Bialy/Thomas & Associat, speakg of herself, bs partner Sherry Thomas and associate Rsell Stt.

STANLEY TUCCI FENDS STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS: 'AN ACTOR IS AN ACTOR IS AN ACTOR'

Look, I'm not here to argue the motiv of Ram Satooh, who recently wrote the lightng-rod lumn that started wh a crique of Sean Hay Promis, Promis and somehow arrived at the ia that never really works when out gay actors try to play straight romantic leads. It would also be a feat to expla why this would only work one directn -- why dienc wh prenceptns about sexualy would be more likely to enjoy and accept Tom Hanks or Sean Penn as a gay person than they would be to accept Hypothetilly Gay Gee Clooney Guy as a straight person?

I am assumg, however, that a lot of men who have played oppose Krist Chenoweth -- the gay on and the straight on both -- have not actually been love wh her, and have not need to be.

STANLEY TUCCI IS PRETTY FE WH STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS

He has spent the last 10 years beg Sean Hay, and Sean Hay was on televisn for many years playg a very particular, very broadly drawn gay character, and not dog a whole lot of other high-profile work. In other words: To turn Sean Hay to a nvcg tt of a possible HGGCG, you have to image that addn to beg known to be Hypothetilly Gay when not on the clock, Gee Clooney Guy spent eight seasons on work televisn playg a very famo gay character. If an actor projects beefy bravado on-screen, but you n't al wh him takg a bubble bath bee your bra is settg off some kd of WHOOP-WHOOP-WHOOP gay-person alarm that is specifilly stimulated by bubbl -- and if the only reason that alarm go off is that you're wag for to go off bee you already know he's gay -- then I would venture to say that is not Rock Hudson's problem.

And if you uld watch the same scene five mut before you found out Rock Hudson was Not Hypothetilly Gay and see entirely different subtext -- a subversn of and a tweak of machismo through the takg of a bubble bath, for stance, rather than GAY GAY GAY -- then there's absolutely no reason you n't ntue to see that way five mut later. Setooh's efforts to disunt existg gay actors who currently play straight characters -- actors whose succs would seem to knock every possible leg out om this already rickety hypothis -- clu wrg off Neil Patrick Harris, bee the womanizer he plays on How I Met Your Mother is a riture.

I watch this show, I watch Jonathan Groff on this show, and I had no ia he was gay, and I thought he was sexy, and I still thk he's sexy, so perhaps he only "seems more like your average theater queen" if you're lookg for . Do this suggt that would make the character seem ls distractgly maybe-gay if the character were sgg "Like A Virg" and wrhg around on a bed, but Groff hadn't e out? The Osr nomee, whose been married to Ey Blunt’s sister sce 2012, played gay rol “The Devil Wears Prada” (2006) and “Supernova” (2020) and received cril acclaim for both performanc.

8 GAY ACTORS WHO PLAYED STRAIGHT CHARACTERS

“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. Tucci’s thoughts differ om that of Tom Hanks, who told The New York Tim Magaze last year that a straight actor uld not take on a gay role like the one he played Jonathan Demme’s 1993 legal drama “Philalphia. 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. He believ 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. 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.

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.

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

We loved when McGregor played a gay mate Phillip Morris the dark edy I Love You Phillip Morris, and aga when he played real-life legendary fashn signer Halston the Netflix miseri Halston. 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. We have some of the most pellg liv, so 's not surprisg that everyone wants to tell our s gotten better recent years, throughout history, most great gay rol have gone to straight actors, wh over a dozen wng Osrs for playg LGBTQ+ characters. Sometim n be tirome seeg straight actors get all of this praise for brgg gay people to life, but other tim s tly are our ten favore performanc by straight actors playg queer characters movi and TV om 2022.

While she spends most of her time at work yellg at men who flirt wh the sk clerk she's cshg on and ly tellg guts that she n't help them, Victoria is secretly holdg a ep secret: she's gay, but has never been wh a woman. "The Devil Wears Prada" actor Stanley Tucci fend straight actors takg on gay rol while referencg his reer durg a rad show on appearg on BBC Rad 4’s "Dert Island Discs" show, Tucci discsed his life and his many famo movi cludg "The Devil Wears Prada" and "Supernova, " both of which he portrayed a gay man spe beg asked to weigh on the bate over whether a heterosexual actor should play someone who is gay, Tucci fend the practice if ’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.

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

In an terview wh The New York Tim Magaze 2022, Tom Hanks admted that he would not have taken his Osr-wng role as Andrew Beckett "Philalphia" due to the character beg gay. ""Star Trek" actor Zachary Quto remarked a 2018 Siri XM terview that is often rare to see openly out gay actors playg straight rol pared to the reverse.

(Mariana Nelcu/SOPA Imag/LightRocket via Getty Imag)CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP"You look at how many straight actors play gay rol, and how that door don’t swg the other way as much, " Quto said. 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.

THE BATE ABOUT STRAIGHT ACTORS PLAYG GAY CHARACTERS MISS THE POT

”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. ) Or perhaps he was referencg the super ol clatn of, erm, certa actors to fensively claim that the gay films they star are not jt “a gay story about the guys beg gay. "Acrdg to GLAAD's annual Stud Rponsibily Inx, 22 of 118 films released by major movie studs 2019 clud characters who were lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr and/or queer (18.

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

Anrson not that a movie like "Love, Simon" avoid cricism for stg a straight lead actor bee was the first film by a major Hollywood stud to foc on a gay teenage romance.

"All of those issu are important to me at once, and I thk that we n advote for all of them at once bee ultimately we want our media to be an accurate reflectn of the world which we live, " they Billy Eichner, who is gay, told Deadle earlier this year that Hollywood was "so hypocril"  how treats LGBTQ actors, that many attend fundraisers for the muny but fail to tell LGBTQ stori wh LGBTQ actors. I thk we need to stop unrvalug that, the feelg that if a gay person plays a gay person ’s not actg but if a straight person plays a gay person, we give them an Osr. "I don't thk that a cis person uld ever tly unrstand the trans experience, or what means to be trans and the amount of opprsn that we go through on a daily basis, " Cassata qutn of thenticy appli to lbian, gay and bisexual people, too, though the letters of LGBTQ are more accepted inti, Cassata says.

In the se of gay actor Wentworth Miller of "Prison Break, " he said  an Instagram post earlier this month that he isn't terted playg straight characters anymore and has ntued to discs the need for better reprentatn. 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.

15 GAY ACTORS WHO PLAYED STRAIGHT ROL TO PERFECTN

”The aforementned 2020 holiday rom- Happit Season, for example, was directed by openly gay multi-hyphenate Clea DuVall and also featured out actrs Kristen Stewart one of the leadg rol. 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.

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.