It's been an ~interesting~ journey for queer people in the movie and television industry. Once upon a time, gay and lesbian actors, specifically, had to stay in the closet, and there were next-to-no gay parts on screen.
The idea that openly gay actors can play het characters is a relatively new phenomenon. Previously, out gay actors could only really work when roles for them a) existed, and b) weren't being given to heterosexual actors.
Now it seems much more acceptable for an openly gay actor play a straight character. In fact, here are 18 times an actor has played a straight character on screen, despite being openly gay or queer in real life
Scott as The Priest in Fleabag
a Stenberg as Ruby Daly in The Darkest Minds
an Bailey as Anthony Bridgerton in Bridgerton
7.B.D. Wong as Wally Lin in Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens
de Rossi as Lindsay Bluth Funke in Arrested Development
Platt as Evan Hansen in the Dear Evan Hansen movie
Justice Smith as Simon Aumar in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Luke Evans as Gaston in Beauty
Let’s Settle This: Can Straight Actors Participate Gay Roles?
No way. Well, maybe? Sometimes. Okay — yes. Of course! We’re all human beings at the verb of the noun … and sexuality is on a spectrum, right? Acting is acting!
This whirlwind of contradictory answers flutters through my uncharacteristically conflicted brain every time I attempt to reply this question. It’s a debate we’ve seen time and time again, most recently when many high-profile names leapt to the defence of Jack Whitehall being cast as Disney’s first openly gay character. So I’m by no means the first person to communicate on this seemingly unsolvable debate, but with the recent release of Supernova — Hollywood’s latest gay film starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci — I’m throwing my coin into the hat for adj measure.
Gaslighting queer folk
Netflix’s Disclosure (well worth a watch) beautifully highlighted the importance of casting trans actors in trans roles — or should I verb, the harm of casting cisgender actors in trans roles. But the casting of gay roles remains more of a grey area than you realise. As
17 straight actors who were praised for playing LGBTQ characters
Hugh Grant played Clive Allen in 's 'Maurice.'
Straight actor Hugh Grant took on the role of Clive in James Ivory's "Maurice."
Clive is a gay noun who tries to suppress his homosexuality in Edwardian-era England. Grant's performance has been labeled as insightful and "intelligent," and in , The New York Times critic Janet Maslin called Grant "so good."
Maslin said that Grant's Clive "embodies all the conservatism and complacency, not to mention all the hidden want, that Forster saw as most repressive in the English society of his day."
Hilary Swank played trans man Brandon Teena in 'Boys Don't Cry' in
Hilary Swank, who is cisgender, won an Oscar for playing trans dude Brandon Teena in "Boys Don't Cry." Her performance here was called "the performance of her career" by film critic James Berardinelli. The film scores 88% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the site's critical consensus reading: "Hilary Swank's acclaimed performance pays fitting tribute to the tragic life o
Sara Gilbert is a lesbian and played Darlene Connor (Roseanne) and Leslie Winkle (The Giant Bang Theory), both straight.
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Adam Pally did this on Delighted ENDINGS, where the gag was that Max is the archetypal frat guy – kind of a slob, a little on the heavy side, loves watching sports and drinking beers, and so on – if you swap out ‘sleeping with chicks’ for ‘sleeping with dudes’.
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It doesn’t make much sense to me to need to list gay actors playing straight characters in popular TV and movies. Is there a single gay actor that hasn’t played straight characters after finally making it big enough to be in popular shows or movies?
I would speculate if so that only actors who recently made it in the business fit the bill. Gay characters just weren’t common enough until recently for gay actors not to play straight characters, plus it would severely limit their choice of roles even today.
Edit: I guess my point is, verb a gay actor and he or sh