Richard E. Grant says giving gay roles to straight actors is “unjustifiable”

I've been saying this for ages now. Give gay actors work, so they can win some fucking awards already!

I disagree.

I agree with him. And for the gays who want to be anti-PC just look at the reality. Straight/closeted actors are more likely to get ALL roles. Openly gay actors are chopped liver because of this.

Movies are getting so PC they barely exist.

It began here in England when they began to make all movies and TV shows with lower class people with regional accents (unless they're set in the long ago past). Now you never even see "posh" people who live in a nice part of modern London in ANY movie.

so are we not going to give straight roles to gay actors?

Being gay doesn't necessarily make you a great actor. The number of high caliber gay actors is proportionally much smaller than the number of high caliber straight actors. Also being gay is not one personality type so does being gay mean you are right for every gay role? Is being gay the central focus of the character and the plot or is it just part of the character's story arc? What about gay actors playing straight roles.

Acting is just that - acting. It isn't about playing yourself. Actors become all kinds of characters that are completely different from themselves. I think sometimes too close of a connection to a character is actually a bad thing - it becomes hard to separate yourself from the role or character. When I go to movies, I don't care at all if the person playing the role actually has the role's characteristics in real life. what next - you have to be married to play a married character? It kind of stops being acting if it is more playing yourself.

Ideally what would be best would be for gay and straight actors to be up for any role and for the role to go to the best actor - with sexual orientation not being a factor at all.

Isn’t acting all about playing your part well enough to convince the audience?

Now we will have blind people played by blind people, gay people played by gay people, etc.? Are we taking about actors or reality TV personalities?

I think that what we really need is to break down barriers so that gay people don’t have to hide in the Hollywood closet. Cast a blind woman in a wheel chair as the leading lady, and cast an openly gay man as the leading man in a heterosexual movie.

R4 Most of the Hollywood actors from England still have an extremely posh background no?

Isn’t it called ACTING? he’s just trying to pander to the Twitter verse and the “trans acceptance” crowd. Most normal people don’t give a shit.

r4 another problem with British film/television is the dictate that productions MUST have a multicultural cast, even if it doesn't make historical sense and undermines the artistic point -- example: The Aeronauts, where the script swaps out the real male pilot of the flight depicted with a woman* who is portrayed in the now trite cliché of being a kickass woman defying stereotypes and the oppression of the time (she's told "women shouldn't be piloting balloons" and is reprimanded for entering a male-only organization)...but then, because of the rules placed on British productions, the movie has minority "people of color" characters interacting without comment in upper-class balls and in the aformentioned male-only professional organizations, thus undermining the whole effort.

Sorry, meant to add:

* The female pilot portrayed in The Aeronauts really did exist, she just didn't participate in the flight depicted.

Gay actors don’t want gay roles. They want to be able to play straight ones.

r6

That excuse is getting openly gay actors cast out of Hollywood completely. They don't have the "marketability" to snag straight roles so they're immediately denied. When it comes to gay roles, straight actors are almost always considered over them. So how are they supposed to thrive? This is why so many gay actors are closeted.

He’s British - PC central where thought crimes are prosecuted.

David Suchet won't like this. He feels that straight white males should be able to play anything because they're actors.

R6 thinks the casting in Brokeback Mountain was perfect!

Straight actors don't want to give up those plumb gay roles because they know they're award bait. They'll step on the neck of an out gay actor to get the role and gladly tell us how brave they are for playing gay.

What scrounging horseshit. People pretending to be other people can pretend to be whatever people they can pull off pretending to be. Sad for you if you can't compete.

I wish someone would answer R5's question, which sums up the whole problem.

People in the future will laugh at us about this sort of thing.

Frankly, I'd rather watch a movie with a good actor, irrespective of his sexual orientation.

R18 is Tom Hanks

R19 here's your answer--gay actors are already not getting straight roles.

When was the last time you saw an out gay actor get an award specifically for playing straight?

The only people who defend this shit are hets who believe they deserve everything under the sun.

Het directors and producers don't want to work with gay actors simply because they know gay actors won't put up with straight washing gay characters.

I stopped watching movies straight straight actors on gay roles decades ago.

For a long time I gave up watching films made by gay directors because they had a fetish for hiring straight actors.

Hollywood is as homophobic and anti-gay as any red state in America.

He's saying that now, after he was nominated for Can You Ever Forgive Me, arguably his best role since Withnail and I? A gay role?

I love Richard E but don't bite the hand that feeds, sweetie.

Where will it end? Are we to condemn Saoirse Ronan for playing the American Jo March in Little Women when she's actually Irish? Is Matt Damon to be cancelled because he's a Boston native playing the Texan Carroll Shelby in Ford v Ferrari?

I get it that gay actors need more opportunity, but that opportunity should be to play any type of character their skill allows, just as it is with any actor.

r24

Well when are those opportunities coming bitch, because nothing seems to be changing.

The same trolls batting for Pete Buttigieg because he's openly gay aren't stepping up for gay actors. Why am I not surprised?

r25, it's gonna take out gay actors fighting for those opportunities and those who are closeted coming out. Luke Evans has managed to be cast in straight roles in big budget movies (most recently in Midway, a movie that skewed to straight older male audiences). We need more of that. If Richard Madden truly is gay, he needs to come out in advance of The Eternals being released. The hypocrisy needs to end -- those big name closeted actors are part of the problem when they should be part of the solution.

Studios and production companies want to make profit. They want to sell movies and movie tickets and to make money. They want to cast names that bring some recognition (in most cases), and they want performances that get people watching and press buzz. Casting wants the people that they feel best suit the role and have the best chemistry with the other principal actors they will interact with on set.

Look at Brokeback Mountain or Call Me By Your Name. Both did really well at the box office and made a lot of money. That is the end goal.

I am curious as to what gay actors you think should have been cast that would have fit the characters, brought the same acting chops and level of name recognition, and likely would have led to similar success if cast? The pool is small.

My friend is a gay actor and he has no issue with a straight person playing gay if they're good, do it with empathy, and make you believe they're gay. He's played straight roles more than gay roles in his career and is very believable in both. If some queeny guy comes in to read for the all American jock and starts limping their wrists and lisping everywhere, should he get the role? He's totally unqualified for it. If you can't tone down the queeny shit, you're not getting cast in straight roles. It's as simple as that. That's not some grand homophobic scheme, it's just smart casting. Now, when straight men are given those more flamboyant, minstrel show characters, I personally draw the line. Give the queeny gay actors a shot for crying out loud. For most of them, it's the only role they can play.

I remember that big to-do when Sean Hayes played straight in Promises, Promises and people were saying he was going to be super femme because of how he played Jack on Will and Grace, but I found him completely believable in the role and very un-Jack like.

Thank God R28 showed up to explain how Hollywood works. I never knew!

[quote]I am curious as to what gay actors you think should have been cast that would have fit the characters, brought the same acting chops and level of name recognition, and likely would have led to similar success if cast? The pool is small.

Exposure does not equal talent. Lots of talented gay actors get no work simply because they get no exposure.

[quote]My friend is a gay actor and he has no issue with a straight person playing gay if they're good, do it with empathy, and make you believe they're gay. He's played straight roles more than gay roles in his career and is very believable in both.

Your "friend" can play straight because he knows what it's like to be straight because he lives in both worlds--the world of gay people and the world of straight people.

Straight people have no fucking idea what it's like to be gay because they've never lived our lives or lived in our world.

They've never grown up listing to anti-straight slurs, never heard religious leaders telling them they're evil and sinning, never watched politicians try to legislate them out of existence, never worried about being straight bashed, never had to hide their sexuality from family and friends.

Too many hets confuse sympathy with empathy.

The problem with this is not only “it’s called acting who cares about someone’s personal life if they can play the role believably and appealing” but also, many “straight”actors playing gay parts are in fact gay, bi or sexually flexible. So what he’s really saying is actors that are “out and proud” should be rewarded for just that -not for acting ability or appeal. HARD PASS.

[quote]So what he’s really saying is actors that are “out and proud” should be rewarded for just that

And what's wrong with that? I'm fed up with glass closet cases.

And it only took 26 replies for Pete to be brought up.

I'm no connoisseur on contemporary movies or TV shows, but sometimes str8 guys really hit the nail on the head playing gay. I saw this over and over on Six Feet Under. Who was that actor who played the dance teacher who dated David for a while? He's a perfect example.

[quote]Your "friend" can play straight because he knows what it's like to be straight because he lives in both worlds--the world of gay people and the world of straight people. Straight people have no fucking idea what it's like to be gay because they've never lived our lives or lived in our world.

So the only people who can play tragedy have to have experienced tragedy? How about concentration camp survivors for example?

I'm glad that as a straight man he's speaking for gay people everywhere and telling the world what we all want. That's so progressive.

He's one of those very gay str8 guys. I've met QUEENS who are butcher than him.

[quote]How about concentration camp survivors for example?

Why don't you ask concentration amp survivors what they think? I don't speak for them.

We both endorse this postion

His position is so problematic it's just stupid. For one, actors who are gay but not out of the closet wouldn't be able to get gay roles. You shouldn't have to declare your sexuality to get work.

[quote]You shouldn't have to declare your sexuality to get work.

Tell that to every straight actor who won't shut up about being a straight actor playing a gay role.

Everyone's supposedly sexually fluid now. Can they play gay? Can you ask if an actor is gay before they audition for a gay role? Get the fuck outta here.

Hollywood is a business not a charity, they'll always going to go for the better actor over the gayer one.

[quote]Hollywood is...always going to go for the better actor over the gayer one.

No, they're go for the straight actor over the gay one even if the gay one is better.

[quote]Can you ask if an actor is gay before they audition for a gay role?

No but apparently you can make it clear you want a certain type and use that as a excuse to pass on gay actors.

Idiots defending the homophobic Hollywood norms. Fuck you

Greg Berlanti, the director behind the hit film Love, Simon, has said that gay studio executives often won’t let him cast gay actors in straight roles.

But while the film didn’t overly focus on Damian’s sexuality, Franzese says playing a gay character was a double-edged sword.

“As soon as the movie was over, I kept meeting the gay glass ceiling,” he says. “They wouldn’t let me audition for straight roles. I wasn’t getting called for things I was normally auditioning for. I had been getting called for The Sopranos, and it seemed like I was circling getting on the show at some point, because I’m Italian and from New York. But after Mean Girls, The Sopranos auditions dried up. I had become famous for playing one thing, but Hollywood, a very What-Have-You-Done-For-Me-Lately town, just didn’t think my talent could go beyond that.”

R21

[quote] When was the last time you saw an out gay actor get an award specifically for playing straight?

^^^?

[quote]Greg Berlanti, the director behind the hit film Love, Simon, has said that gay studio executives often won’t let him cast gay actors in straight roles.

Like I wrote above, Hollywood is more homophobic than most people are willing to believe.

R49 an out gay actor getting an award (such as it is) specifically for playing straight?

[quote]^^^?

He's on some little TV show in England.

The Truth of Garrett Clayton

The "King Cobra" star was an aspiring gay actor when he arrived in L.A., until Hollywood forced him back into the closet

“I was totally, completely fine with who I was. It wasn’t until I came to Hollywood that I was told it was bad. People who were going to represent me wouldn’t help me accomplish my dream unless I went back in the closet.“

Funnily enough, Richard E. Grant may be the gayest-seeming straight actor ever.

[quote]an out gay actor getting an award (such as it is) specifically for playing straight?

Where in that speech was it acknowledged that he was specifically cast because he was gay and he was going to play a straight character and he won an award for doing that?

r27

You don’t seem to get it. If they come out, Hollywood will drop them and count them out for being gay. They will lose support and sponsors. They have no say, no power. They are easily replaceable with the next straight/closeted actor.

And he said that after taking gay roles.

Acting is pretending to be someone you are not.

This new politics of being the closest to your character is ridiculous, but given the fact that hw prefers to cast actors who are clearly uncomfortable playing gay roles and take all their interviews saying how straight they are maybe it'll be solved if they cast gay actors for gay roles at least from time to time

r57

There is a lot more to a character than sexuality. A gay actor can play a gay character who is very different from them.

Why are we letting straight men have this stronghold on us, without getting anything in return? We should be uplifting gay actors who set a good example for gay people.

R58:_ That's not the point.

And we will have a problem, because almost nobody is going to come out at 15 or 16, so you don't have nobody to play gay teenage roles.

I find incredible that actors who play gay characters are questioned about their sexual orientation. If you want to talk about it fine, but it's not an obligation.

The best actor should be the one taking the role, no matter if he is gay or not.

Saying that, it's ridiculous that last nominees were full of gay characters and none of the actors and actress were gay. But the problem is not HW casting straight actor for gay roles, the problem is not casting gay actors for prominent gay roles.

It's curious that there's no such problem in Broadway, the three first actors playing Evan Hansen were gay, and the character was straight. But in Broadway it's the quality of the acting what it matters.

In Hollywood there are more closet cases bearding right now than openly gay actors.

R55 he makes good points throughout

[quote]It’s clear that Scott has been burned before by journalists who have made his sexuality into a political statement when he doesn’t see it as such. “Sexuality isn’t something you can cultivate, particularly. It isn’t a talent.” Instead, he says, he’s taken work – including Fleabag – to set an example for how a gay actor can still nail the chemistry when acting a straight relationship. “You believe the relationship,” he concludes. “That’s my job.”

"The best actor should be the one taking the role, no matter if he is gay or not."

And that's not happening when openly gay actors aren't even given a chance.

It's bullshit and the anti-PC crowd is vile. You are cheering on Hollywood shutting out openly gay actors.

R61: No, what i say it's nobody should be rejected for a role just because he doesn't share the sexual orientation of the character.

Nobody denies that HW doesn't treat fairly openly gay actors

So then openly gays actors shouldn't play straight characters. What stupid self sabotaging logic he has.

Gays can't act.

R60 Somebody please let the Fleabag priest know it was obvious the actor wasnt into women. It was so bad I was sure the twist was going to be that he's a creep that fucks alter boys.

R63 we've gone over this already. Read the thread before posting moron.

Yawn.

Who ???

What?

If it makes the show better to have authentic actors, then they should be chosen. If it doesn’t matter, it just doesn’t. It’s hard to distinguish the difference. Choices are made in movies and tv shows all the time that are obviously not authentic. Sometimes that matters and sometimes it just doesn’t. Ultimately, it is all dependent on the willingness to suspend disbelief.

R65 well apparently it was not so obvious to some since he just got GG and SAG nominations.

He's worried about typecasting or making people think he himself is gay, rather than "taking another gay man's role."