It's Called "Acting"

[Joe Guy]

I just saw this discussed on TV. Apparently, there are a lot of people who are upset that Brandon Fraser, who is not gay, played the part of a gay person in a movie called "The Whale". (the person he plays is also very obese but Brandon is not) I haven't seen or even heard of the movie until today.

Can someone explain what is wrong with a non-gay person playing the part in a movie of someone who is gay? These are, after all, people acting in movies. I guess eventually if this thought process continues and Hollywood complies, only mass murderers will be allowed to play mass murderers.

Makes sense....

[Bicycle Bill]

I agree with you, Joe.   After all, it's not like they complain when a gay guy or gal plays a straight character.

Although it's Hollywood.   There's something in the water out there, I think, that eventually turns any actor or actress gay as well.

-"BB"-

[liberty]

Do homosexuals have a specific appearance? Why would an actor have to be homosexual to portray one convincingly? I don't like the word gay; it's not very descriptive; gay means happy. The few homosexual individuals I've known, including my brother-in-law, didn't strike me as very happy. So, I don't use the word. I see no reason that a homosexual could not play a heterosexual, or a heterosexual play a homosexual. However, when playing a historical character, the actor should be faithful to the individual.

People don't seem to have a problem with the black actress Jodie Turner-Smith playing the historical white character Anne Boleyn King Henry, the eighth's second wife. I would have no problem with a black woman playing Anne Boleyn if she would go to the trouble to look like Anne Boleyn. In other words, wearing white makeup to look like a white woman. Anne was a real person that deserves to be treated with respect and shown as she was. John Wayne played Genghis Khan, but Wayne wore makeup to look like a Mongolian; he respected Genghis Khan's heritage; don't white characters in history deserve the same respect?

[Gob]

Is it ever OK for non-disabled actors to play disabled roles?
Bryan Cranston’s defence of playing a wheelchair user only strengthens a cycle that shuts out disabled actors.

[Scooter]

it's not like they complain when a gay guy or gal plays a straight character.

The point is that that would almost never happen. It's apparently a given that straight actors can believably play gay roles, but the opposite is not seen to be true. So we start from a place where gay actors are excluded from consideration for 99+% of leading roles. Then a role like this comes along, and no gay actor is seriously considered because, if we're to believe Darren Aronovsky, there wasn't a gay actor to be found "who could pull off the emotions of this role". (He also said he needed to put a non-fat actor in a fat suit rather than cast a fat actor, who would have apparently been too much of an insurance risk, but that deserves its own discussion.)

I think Hollywood, whether true or not, sees its target audience as essentially homophobic, and as a consequence won't cast gay actors in gay roles because that would make it too real and would repulse its viewership. So straight actors get cast because they are reassuringly seen as "only acting", and then they get lauded as being "brave" for doing so.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's great for Brendan Fraser to get this chance to re-launch his career, and it would be great if it wins him an Oscar. But how many talented gay actors will never get that chance because the deck is stacked against them?

[ex-khobar Andy]

Derek Jacobi. Ian McKellar. Two actors I would cross the street or the town to see; and whose presence in the cast list normally indicates something worth watching.

Weirdly I heartily disliked that Vicious TV sit com they starred in together as an older gay couple.

[Burning Petard]

Go to the movie 'Rainman' for a clear example of a 'normal' playing the role of a handicapped character.

I saw a live performance by a repertoire theater company doing a series of Shakespeare historical plays, with particular roles shuffled among the members. It was a bit startling to see a female from Viet Nam playing the role of Richard III in one of the plays. There was not even a make=up job to conceal her non-typical English appearance. In less than ten minutes into the performance I was watching the English King and had no thoughts of the persona of the actor doing the role.

Othello has a long history of blackface performances. The usual point is: are people that are known to be part of a socially denigrated group shut out of work as entertainers because of that social group rejection? The reverse is generally accepted. I recently listened to a discussion of this particular problem and there is even a label for some of it -- Milton Berle style cross dressing camp. The play and movie "Children of a Lesser God" confronted this directly. I saw it live on a road-show tour before broadway. It was an absolutely electrifying moment when the deaf female lead began to speak, in a form of verbalization that was clearly very difficult and society generally would prefer to never witness,.

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