AIBU to be completely on the fence? Straight men playing 'gay' roles

[Wheresmykimchi]

Article here - www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/showbiz-news/corrie-star-hits-back-after-19618647

Russell T Davies has decided to cast only gay men in roles for an AIDS drama.

Peter Ash , who is a straight man playing a gay man in Coronation Street , disagrees.

I'm usually a dog with a bone , irritating poster on topics I feel passionately about and LGBT is one but on this I just can't decide.

I can see Russell's point given the nature of the drama , and I'm never sure I agree with people playing 'gay' , in theory

But then I look at the gay characters in soaps in recent years , Peter's character being am excellent example along with Aaron Lindsay in Emmerdale , Kate Connor and Sophie Webster in Coronation Street , and see Peters point that the whole idea is that there is no such thing as acting 'gay', they are playing people.

I'm so on the fence I've got splinters. AIBU?

It's acting. Plenty of gay men have played straight men for years and years.

There are some actors who have had rumours / people have seen them dating men but they never confirm either way.

Indeed, and why should they?

@DarkDarkNight

I think it’s a bit silly. I don’t think being gay stops you playing a straight character and vice versa.

Charlie Hunnam and Aidan Gillen managed it in Queer As Folk so he obviously wasn’t against casting straight men then. I suppose it’s possible he wanted gay actors in the roles then but didn’t have the power to get it made the way he wanted.

It’s not really equality if only gay people can play gay roles but straight roles are available to everybody.

Aiden Gillen is so good in Queer as Folk. I do love that show (with all its flaws).

I wonder, though, if he'd cast a gay man back then - was it late 90s or early 2000s? - maybe it would have got a nastier reaction? Because it was quite 'out there' for the time, wasn't it? Quite graphic. And I suppose in a funny way having a straight man play that role would allow a little bit of distance for homophobic easily shocked people watching?

Things like sexuality and personal feelings of identity should have no bearing on any roles

Exactly. An actor's ability to play outside of themselves is surely the way to a successful career. Why typecast yourself.

How do you feel about gay actors playing straight parts?

Presumably fine?

Personally I think actors can act, they play parts, they don’t have to be a particular element of their character

They are actors, pretending to be different t people.... ffs...

Oh, right. So, only those who have experienced childbirth should play the role of a mother and only terminally ill people can be cast in a role where the character dies. Shot by a convicted murderer?

 Thiis "authenticity"  thang  is going to severely limit any further episodes of The Crown.

Also so much discussion of actors involves household names. But the vast vast majority of working actors (incl me) are people that pop up on your screen that look vaguely familiar, ‘wasn’t he in that episode of Endeavour we saw or was that that actor that looks a bit like him’ etc. Most people don’t know the names of these actors let alone have any idea of their sexuality. So how would you know whether gay actors are underrepresented in the business? The casting of all gay men in this particular programme is all part of the pr of it and it’s worked - people are talking about it.

@BillMasen

How do you feel about gay actors playing straight parts?

Presumably fine?

Personally I think actors can act, they play parts, they don’t have to be a particular element of their character

Of course its fine, straight people are not an oppressed minority.

If the tables were turned and it was straight people who were the oppressed minority I would prefer straight roles to go to straight actors.

I don’t have a problem with this, as long as it works both ways, so only straight people play straight parts.

oppressed minority Gay actors? Are you serious?

@Jaypreen

oppressed minority Gay actors? Are you serious?

Ah, I must have imagined section 28 and those pesky laws making gay punishable by death.

@Jaypreen

oppressed minority Gay actors? Are you serious?

I know - made me laugh too. Tell that to McKellen and Jacobi!

I can't think of many gay men on a soap playing a straight man...welcome to suggestions from others

Maybe not soaps but plenty of gay men have played straight men in TV series and films. If they were limited to gay only roles they would lose a lot of work.

They are not straight anyway, even acting kissing is still kissing, if they were truly straight they wouldn't do it - so it's a non-issue!

Have I missed something here? No mention of "Philadelphia"(sp?) with Tom Hanks and Antonio Banderas. One of the first films to bring the reality of AIDS and HIV to the "big screen". Formidable acting by both of them.
Acting is acting - the talent lies in being able to make the character you are playing believable for the audience.
Should Jack Nicolson never been allowed to act in ""One Flew over the Cuckoos Nest" because he had never been insane?

Ah, I must have imagined section 28 and those pesky laws making gay punishable by death.

In the past, in other counties. And many of us campaigned against section 28. It was dreadful.

But here and now, in the UK and US in 2021, gay men are the backbone of the arts. Including film. And especially theatre.

@LonnyVonnyWilsonFrickett

I've said this on another thread, but if I ever went for a job interview (audition) and someone asked me my sexuality to decide if I could get the job (part) then fire and brimstone does not even begin to describe the pain I would bring down on that organisation.

Acting is just a job like any other. You cannot ignore equalities law because you are favouring a minority. Russell T should really think about things like this before he opens his mouth.

I understand your point, but there are instances when a person with a protected characteristic CAN be selected over someone else. Your job analogy doesn’t really fully explore this. Would you be happy with Daniel Radcliffe playing Barack Obama instead of Blair Wood just because he may be a better, more well known actor?

@MrsTerryPratchett

Sorry but gay men are not underrepresented in theatre and film. Black people, people with disabilities, neurodiverse people, women over 25, there's an argument to be made. But gay men? There wouldn't be an industry without them. Thinking about my teenage swoons, half of them were.

Representation is important. But gay men have been playing many roles successfully for decades. In the olden days it was shit and they had to pretend but it isn't like that now.

I don't disagree with Russel in this case, but generally, it's quite the nonsense that gay men aren't in acting.

This. I'm always confused by this assertion. It's definitely true that in times past sexuality had to remain hidden or gay men wouldn't get leading roles but that just isn't the case now.

As an afterthought why are we never having these kinds of discussions about lesbians and how brushed aside they are? It just never seems to be be an issue 🤔

It has been growing in the US that actors match the roles, there is a growing backlash against black British actors playing African American roles. Only lgbt playing lgbt roles and I understand the logic but it does seem to stifle the art of acting.

Your'e reaching back a bit there aren't you?

The battles for acceptance are won. There's nothing 'special' about being gay - there never was - prejudice has largely vanished - hurrah! Time to move on. To continue to think, speak and act as though (British) homosexuals are beleaguered and victimised, [as though sexuality is even all that important] is damaging - but also strangely reactionary of you!

@Jaypreen

Your'e reaching back a bit there aren't you?

The battles for acceptance are won. There's nothing 'special' about being gay - there never was - prejudice has largely vanished - hurrah! Time to move on. To continue to think, speak and act as though (British) homosexuals are beleaguered and victimised, [as though sexuality is even all that important] is damaging - but also strangely reactionary of you!

This is just as stupid as someone claiming sexism is a thing of the past.

@Boulshired

It has been growing in the US that actors match the roles, there is a growing backlash against black British actors playing African American roles. Only lgbt playing lgbt roles and I understand the logic but it does seem to stifle the art of acting.

That’s going to play well for American actors wishing to be cast in British roles and gay actors cast in straight roles, isn’t it? I suppose at least we won’t have the likes of Zellweger and Van Dyke inflicted on us any more.

As an afterthought why are we never having these kinds of discussions about lesbians and how brushed aside they are?

Because lesbians are women. Same as older women, women in comedy, larger women, ugly women, women with disabilities, black women. No one gives a shit.

And we have our own laws that kill us. And our own history of oppression.

SimonJT

You are attempting to divert the discussion.

I honestly didn't even know this Russell T Davies bloke is gay, but also it had never crossed my mind to give his sexuality a second's consideration.

I just knew him simply as the bloke who wrote Doctor Who scripts. How many other writers of Dr Who scripts can people name?

So how does the fact that he's famous square with him being a member of an "oppressed minority"?