{"id":118830,"date":"2024-08-16T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-08-16T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/16\/playing-it-straight-for-queer-roles-should-an-actors-sexuality-matter\/"},"modified":"2024-08-16T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T12:00:00","slug":"playing-it-straight-for-queer-roles-should-an-actors-sexuality-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/16\/playing-it-straight-for-queer-roles-should-an-actors-sexuality-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing It Straight: For Queer Roles, Should an Actor\u2019s Sexuality Matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"


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After his sexy<\/strong> period drama Mary & George<\/em> premiered in the spring, Nicholas Galitzine decided to finally speak his truth. The London native had made a name taking on risqu\u00e9 queer material, playing a closeted bisexual teenager in 2020\u2019s The Craft: Legacy<\/em> before breaking out in the gay romance Red, White & Royal Blue<\/em> last year. In Mary & George<\/em> he advanced up the monarchy and seduced an actual king. Now Galitzine was entering his internet heartthrob era\u2014he\u2019d be wooing Anne Hathaway in The Idea of You<\/em> shortly after Mary & George<\/em>\u2014and the time had come for him to come out, 2024-style. \u201cI identify as a straight man, but I have been a part of some incredible queer stories,\u201d he told British GQ.<\/em>\u201cI felt a sense of uncertainty sometimes about whether I\u2019m taking up someone\u2019s space, and perhaps guilt.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question of who gets to play what role gets trickier with every viral headline. Before social media, the topic wasn\u2019t nearly as controversial, but over the past decade there\u2019s been pressure on Hollywood to reckon with its dismal track record of embracing LGBTQ+ actors. In 2018 Darren Criss won an Emmy for playing a gay serial killer in The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story,<\/em> then vowed to stop playing queer characters: \u201cI want to make sure I won\u2019t be another straight boy taking a gay man\u2019s role.\u201d This past June, Sean Penn took issue with the changing climate, telling The New York Times<\/em> that he wouldn\u2019t be allowed to play gay trailblazer Harvey Milk today, despite winning an Oscar for 2008\u2019s Milk:<\/em> \u201cIt\u2019s a time of tremendous overreach. It\u2019s a timid and artless policy toward the human imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a bit inflammatory, maybe, for a matter that\u2019s hardly settled, even within the queer community. Neil Patrick Harris, best known for playing a straight bachelor on How I Met Your Mother,<\/em> recently said, \u201cI think there\u2019s something sexy about casting a straight actor to play a gay role, if they\u2019re willing to invest a lot into it.\u201d But Billy Eichner has argued LGBTQ+ actors haven\u2019t had the same opportunities as straight actors and urged the industry to \u201ccorrect that imbalance.\u201d And while the (relatively) elder statesmen have talked nuances, dynamic straight actors like Galitzine have broken out playing LGBTQ+ men. Even if you don\u2019t love the idea of straight performers making their queer counterparts\u2019 careers even more challenging, you also<\/em> might not love the idea of never seeing Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name,<\/em> Barry Keoghan in Saltburn,<\/em> Paul Mescal in All of Us Strangers,<\/em> or Josh O\u2019Connor in God\u2019s Own Country<\/em> and Challengers.<\/em><\/p>\n

Male movie stardom has evolved because younger audiences are more accustomed to fluidity\u2014and because the actors themselves are more comfortable in the liminal space between labels. It\u2019s quite a jump after a century of utterly hetero Hollywood heroes, when coming out as gay was a career ender. Rock Hudson emerged as a matinee idol while leading a secret gay life and was only outed in the press just before he died of AIDS in 1985. Not long ago the veteran TV star Richard Chamberlain said, \u201cI thought\u2026being gay would be a disaster for me careerwise,\u201d so he didn\u2019t publicly come out until 2003, when he was 70. Matt Bomer recently claimed he was the top choice to play Superman in a blockbuster some 20 years ago and that he lost the gig after being outed.<\/p>\n

The ugly truth, of course, is that straight actors found great success playing gay roles the whole time. Since 2002 more than 40 performers have been nominated for Oscars for portraying queer people\u2014yet this year, Colman Domingo (Rustin<\/em>) became the first out gay man ever to receive a nod for acting in that same period. That\u2019s the imbalance Eichner was referring to. With a few exceptions proving the rule, Hollywood hasn\u2019t made meaningful space for LGBTQ+ artists. Actors who came out long ago, like Domingo and Andrew Scott, are only now soaring after decades in the business.<\/p>\n

For years now,<\/strong> I\u2019ve been speaking with actors and activists navigating the murky territory of authentic casting, which most of them acknowledge is still a minefield. If you\u2019re looking for a hard-and-fast rule, there\u2019s really only one: The folks at GLAAD and other LGBTQ+ organizations have told me that cisgender actors playing transgender characters is akin to blackface and essentially forbidden. Scarlett Johansson discovered this in 2018 when she was cast as a trans man in the film Rub & Tug<\/em> and had to drop out following backlash. Cis men who have played trans people, including Bomer and Eddie Redmayne, have since apologized: Now that they\u2019re better educated on the subject, they say they wouldn\u2019t take those roles again.<\/p>\n