Link Roundup
Monday, November 9, 2020 at 8:25PM • Advocate straight actors still not feeling any hesistancy about taking on gay roles that could be played by underemployed actually gay actors. Viggo Mortensen is the latest, he even wrote it for himself
• Coming Soon I don't know quite why I expectd Jordan Peele, who got famous in comedy, to transition out of horror films but he's sticking with the genre. After Get Out and Us his third horror feature lands in 2022 (no plot, title, or cast details yet)
• My New Plaid Pants ohmy. There's a pretty gay rumor about the long delayed Dev Patel picture The Green Knight which co-stars Joel Edgerton
More after the jump including Andrew Scott, The Queen's Gambit, A Quiet Place sequels, new film projects and new TV series...
• Boy Culture Congratulations on 15 years of Matthew's fun blog
• The Guardian interviews Marielle Heller on her latest project The Queen's Gambit
• /Film We don't even have A Quiet Place part 2 yet but A Quiet Place 3 is already announced. Guess they aren't defeating those monsters with great hearing yet
• Playbill Oooh, this is exciting news. Two very fine actors, Andrew Scott and Ruth Wilson will star in a film version of the acclaimed play Oslo (it's not about Norway but Middle East peace talks that occurred there in 1993)
• /Film trailer for the reboot of TV youth detective series The Hardy Boys
• Cartoon Brew new Canadian legislation would force streaming companies to subsidize more Canadian content if they want to stream in Canada. Makes sense. In fact countries that have pre-streaming legislation to promote homegrown cinema are the ones that tend to have much more enduring cinemas that didn't give the whole playing field to Hollywood.
• Coming Soon Adrien Brody and Vera Farmiga will co-star in a new mystery thriller The Salamander Lives Twice
• Playbill Acting legends Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Derek Jacobi, and Ian McKellen doing a live zoom event for charity late this month
• Cartoon Brew releases for movies in 2020 have been confusing given theater closures and VOD and streaming options but few film rollouts have been as terribly confusing as Spongebob Movie: Sponge on the Run. Which will now be going to Netflix EXCEPT in Canada and the US.
• Towleroad tributes pouring out for Jeopardy icon Alex Trebek who passed away on Sunday at the age of 80
• Variety Olivia Cooke getting a supporting actress campaign for Sound of Metal. I can confirm she's lovely in it
(last week's unshared links - they might be new to you!)
• Theater Mania Kristen Bell and Jonathan Groff to headline a new movie musical called Molly and the Moon
• Broadway Buzz somehow we completely missed that the 2020 Olivier Awards were held in late October - Dear Evan Hansen took New Musical and Leopolstadt took New Play. Andrew Scott ❤️ took Best Actor.
• IndieWire Theater owners are hoping Wonder Woman 1984 saves them at Christmas time but doubts are rising that it will be delayed
• People Belated congratulations to Scarlett Johansson and SNL's Colin Jost who tied the knot last week. This is Scarlett's third marriage and Colin's first
• The Mary Sue looked back at a Buffy episode that resonates all too strongly in 2020...
• Pop Sugar Forever adorable Paul Rudd handed out cookies to people waiting in line to vote on Election Day.
• Letterboxd in addition to our charts here we're also tracking the International Feature Film Oscar submissions over there if you need a handy "to watch" list. We're up to 38 pictures now though there's another month plus left in the submitting process (which usually ends around September 30th... but the final date is pushed back this year (like evrything else) due to COVID-19.
Reader Comments (36)
Are we cancelling Viggo now?
It’s called Acting! Let actors act
About the recent angle of the "straight actors shouldn't play gay characters, cause gay actors are unemployed" is put in the wrong angle imo. This is like the recent measures of the AMPAS in part of the diversity, which can be good in intentions, can't solve the deeper systemic issues. The principal fight should be precisely for the studios, who made the stories and took the decisions; also for the broader audience and the ramifications (Press). Changing the power dynamics and trends can fill a more perenne transformation.
If the recent studies showed something, this campaign instead of helping to expand the LGBT stories and productions, had been reduced or sidelined for not taking these risks. So if this trend is true, instead to solve a solution for the actors, there's also an erasure of the stories. That's why this requires a better systemic fight.
Kenny -- no (i've never been into cancelling). just stating a fact that gay actors are underemployed and there's still no traction with convincing straight actors that maybe gay actors should get a shot at these parts?
Gay Actor -- i agree. but I would add "also let gay actors act!" because the problem is Hollywood still isn't letting them (outside of the work of Ryan Murphy) even when the roles are gay! It's hugely uncool that even very well liked very well respected and very handsome and very audience friendly out gay actors like ANDREW SCOTT don't even get these roles in high profile productions.
leon -- i'm actually not sure what you're trying to say in that last paragraph.
i'm joining the group in supporting all things Viggo. I don't want to live in a world where actors can't play characters different from themselves.
Great news about the movie version of OSLO. The play was fantastic. I'm assuming Andrew Scott is playing the role that (deservedly) won Michael Aronov the Tony? Great news for Andrew Scott! (And, likely, us.)
This debate feels a lot like issues of blackface and disabilities. Is Luise Rainer less deserving of her second Best Actress Oscar for The Good Earth because noted make up artist Jack Dawn made the white actress appear Asian? Is Jane Wyman less deserving of her Best Actress Oscar because she wore sound canceling ear plugs to play the deaf title character in Johnny Belinda? Is Tom Hanks less deserving of his first Oscar for playing a homosexual dying of AIDS in Philadelphia when he is a heterosexual?
I say yes. Rainer, Wyman and Hanks are strong actors who can prompt empathy for these characters. Yet, when watch these performances part of the appeal is the extent to which they fool us. I want to see truth. Why have these performers create what actors who live this truth can bring the next level to the project?
I love Andrew Scott a WHOLE lot, but this year's Olivier award for Best Actor in a Play should've gone to James McAvoy for his brilliant work in Cyrano. What does he have to do to win awards!
Someone's sexual orientation should not qualify or disqualify a person for any type of role, either straight, gay, bi... Personal lives really shouldn't come into decisions about casting, except under major circumstances.
Wow- all the pushback to Nathaniel's "Let gay actors act" shows how defensive people are when this issue is raised. As a gay actor myself who experienced horrible homophobia in the industry, it's a big problem. I want to see more gay actors in film. Period.
The problem of "straight actors shouldn't play gay characters" in my opinion is problematic and even hypocritical because it implies that only gay actors should play gay characters but then if we follow that then gay actors SHOULD NOT play heterosexual characters. It would be like saying that talented actors like Andrew Scott and Ben Whishaw shouldn't play straight characters.
And to say this would be to limit something called performance, which is to interpret something that is not equal to oneself.
And Nathaniel R to say this would also be to limit even nationalities, if an actor is not American then he should not play American characters, it means that Vivien Leigh could never have been Scarlett O Hara or Blanche DuBois.
harmodio, ericb, kc -- i think you're all missing the part of this story that's the problem: i also believe that actors should be able to play characters outside of their own experience. It's called acting. (I'm a huge Viggo fan in general) BUT they are not letting gay actors do this. We can see this is another gay drama about to come out SUPERNOVA with two straight actors Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci. They're both very good actors but why are these kinds of parts never offered to gay actors?
This is an enormous issue and we are all suffering for it because there are a ton of brilliant gay actors we aren't getting the opportunity to see and who might bring greater depth to these roles since they have a lived experience. It doesn't always work that way of course -- acting is a mysterious magical craft -- but sometimes it does and we are being denied seeing that happen.
i'm totally happy to see straight actors playing gay as long as I'm also getting to see gay actors get the same opportunities for high profile gay and straight parts.
Nathaniel, I know that you love Andrew Scott (we all do) so forgive his solo name-check for the Olivier Awards.
However, I’d like to highlight the massive achievement of Sharon D. Clarke who took Best Actress In A Play to add to her Best Actress In A Musical and Best Supporting Actress In A Play awards. The only one she’s missing to make UK history is the one she’s been nominated for 3 times - Supporting Actress In A Musical. Not even Imelda or Judi have nominations in all 4 acting categories. Anyone outside the UK who wonders who she is (an early 90s popstar who transitioned almost exclusively to musical theatre aside from the odd tiny role in a UK drama and a soap opera residency) can currently see her in the great 2020 Netflix film Rocks...
I get stricting casting when it comes to race, even THAT is being disregarded now.
But, stricting casting based on sexuality? LMAO You people can't be real.
Let’s promote more role for gay actors but NEVER put limits/rules to art
There are still a lof of in the closet actors,so maybe some would play a gay role yet not be out to the public.
When I saw Some People with Jesse Plemons I thought he was a new gay actor until I researched him,It didn't bother me but I sometimes wonder whether if we knew a person was gay from the start whether we'd find them more believable in a role as they know about the gay experience which is different for everybody.
I know some who don't believe when gay actors play tough or straight roles,friends tend to take the mick and belittle the actor for daring to tread outside his remit.
If I see Matt Bomer or Luke Evans in a straight role my investment is in them and how they are playing a role it's not if they sleep with a man and vice versa for straight men.
I agree with Nathaniel, he is just saying lets give more roles to gay actors. I don't understand the pushback or all of this restricting art crap. IMO that's part of the problem.
The pushback towards Nathaniel's point is frankly absurd. On principle, yes, it's all "acting and people should be able to play a wide variety of roles regardless of sexuality. The PROBLEM is that gay people have a hard time even getting good gay roles, let alone straight ones. And it's 2020. Their sexuality almost exclusively and automatically defaults them to character actor status and rarely even good character roles. Ryan Murphy seems to be the exception and frankly most of those actors rarely get to do anything other than Murphy roles once they've joined that team.
So the comment above bitching about casting being restricted to sexuality is way off the mark. The only actors not given any restrictions are straight ones. So yes, in ideal world actors wouldn't be restricted by their sexuality. But they are and the only people adversely affected are gay. So these false equivalencies with Vivien Leigh are bullshit.
As a gay actor who values his privacy, why should I have to tell everyone my personal business so that I can 'pass the test' to get the part? A straight person doesn't have to do this so why should a gay person have to minimise themselves so that they fit a mold. Does this also preclude me from playing straight parts?
I'm so glad Dev Patel has wound up a real presence in Hollywood. I worried that he'd wind up just wind up known as "that kid from SLUMDOG. Whatever happened to him"--a footnote in film history due to racism in casting, but damn. he's really hear to stay, isn't he?
Dan Humphrey: Though it was, tragically, kinda touch and go for eight years afterward. I mean, his first post Best Picture winner movie was The Last Airbender. YEAH.
Luke -- i've heard this privacy thing a lot and i dont mean to be argumentative but i think it's kind of misguidd. Straight people are NOT private about their sexuality. It is all over their lives. They get married. they have kids. They bring their spouses to events and talk about them and their kids a lot. Which is beautiful. I dont object to it. Everyone should be free to live their lives.Living your life freely is not "minimizing"
So gay people valuing privacy is just them being uncomfortable on some level with people knowing they're gay which is... it's a problem. whether it's safety concerns or fear of pushback or internalized issues... it all comes back to living in a homophobic society. And we don't get to not live in a homophobic society. Especially if we dont push back against the push back.
everyone - please note that i said multiple times i dont have a problem with straight people taking gay roles --and I love Viggo as the history of this site will bear out time and again - MY ONLY OBJECTION IS THAT GAY PEOPLE AREN'T GETTING SIMILAR OPPORTUNITIES. This is wrong. Being upset about discrimination should not be a controversial position.
I agree Nat. But them you should maybe change the description of the link which implies that straight actors should decline opportunities to work and make art. They should not hesitate, it’s acting. For me, that’s what felt controversial. And yes gay actors should have more opportunities, absolutely. But there are different things in my view.
Acting is not about living one's own truth. It's about stepping into another pair of shoes and walking the path of the characters they are portraying, finding the grace notes, finding the nuance, finding the heart. Is Timmy Chalamet, a "straight" actor, lying when playing a gay character? Yes. That is what acting is. And he gives one of the best performances in recent memory.
No offense, but I just don't get the debate. In "A Chorus Line," there a beautiful song called "Nothing." The actress is trying to connect in acting class, but feels nothing. I think folks need to really listen to that song because it nails what being an actor is--connection.
In various plays, I have played an aristocrat, Sherlock Holmes, Charlie Brown, and a variety of other characters. Am I any of them? No, I'm a gay white guy from Missouri. I'm not rich or a detective or a bumbling kid who sucks at baseball. It's called acting.
All the "it's acting" arguments are totally besides the point. Maybe Viggo isn't the best example because he wrote the film. But Gay actors rarely get to "act" in any roles, gay or straight, of substance on film. It's funny to me that the "it's acting" argument only ever seems to be applied when it's a straight actors. Again, it's totally ignoring the simple reality that gay actors don't even get to play gay people in substantial roles. Those roles are reserved for straight people.
People are making this some sort of debate about identity politics in art. It isn't and I'm not sure why that needs to be spelled out or frankly why people are being so transparently disingenuous. At this point the arguments are going in circles but until a gay actor is given a great role of either sexuality, the simple fact is that they aren't even even being allowed to play roles of merit. So frankly it is offensive that they aren't even allowed to play gay roles when straight actors are given a free pass to have a go and pretty much anything. . And that's a problem.
Nathaniel - I lead by Miranda Richardson's example - check out her amazing personal life section on Wikipedia. Gay? Straight? Who cares? Literally nobody's business except her friends and family. Should she be excluded from playing a gay role because she values her own privacy?
Being gay is not THE defining characteristic for me, but at the same time I never hide it if people ask. Everybody I worked with in the industry knew that I was gay, and all my friends and family too.
I definitely respect your viewpoint, but to suggest private people who happen to be gay are all inwardly homophobic is also misguided I think.
BTW love you and your site Nathaniel :)
@Volvagia Well, he had to sit out that long dry stretch most adolescent actors face, when they're still under 18 (and are thus beholden to the restrictions of "child labor laws") but only really suitable for rolls that could *also* be played by really young 18 year olds (who are not under any restrictions). You see it almost every time a well known child actor hits fifteen, give or take. They vanish, at least for a while.
Nathaniel's claim isn't one on performance theory, it's one on equal access to labor. Straight actors shouldn't take precedence in casting decisions regardless of the character's orientation, and yet they do.
If acting is about "becoming another" then we should be seeing as many gay people playing straight leads as we see straight people playing queer leads.
There is clearly a discrepancy in casting and pointing out a straight actor playing queer is just a way of pointing out the discrepancy. Should we turn our critiques to production and casting? Probably.
But discrediting the argument by saying that actors have a right to perform different identities ignores that performance isn't only an art, it's a job. And an actor's right to perform anything shouldn't weigh more than a person's right to employment.
Some heart emojis just because 💕💕
Luke -- I hear you. But please, respectfully, show me an example of a "straight" famous actor being private about their sexuality. I can't think of a single one. Even the ones people are like "but they're private" like Michelle Pfeiffer (which i've heard this about a hundred thousand times) talk about or acknowledge their spouses all the time. This is not being private about your sexuality. It's just right there in everybody's faces... but because it's hetero its' the default so no one cares or thinks of it as 'public.'
Queer people shouldn't be tricked into thinking they need to live by different rules (including privacy) than straight people.
What Nathaniel says. The most "private" straight actor in the world isn't going to have a secret significant other/life partner/spouse who's never acknowledged. I think the "I just value my privacy" line is something of a dodge.
Ken -- thanks for clarifying. when i get passionate it's hard to speak clearly but what you're saying about equal access to labor is just it :)
Luke -- thank you for kindness even in disagreement. We should all be this way and though i mess up occassionally i try to.
Dan & Volvagia -- the smartest thing Dev Patel did was the "glow up" with packing on muscle and growing out his hair to look like a romance novel cover. It almost instantly changed perceptions about him -- which sometimes (but doesn't always) happen with makeovers -- and placed him in more traditional leading man territory. I'm so happy about this because i think he's also become a better actor at the same time (which is a neat hat trick of a double makeover) -- surely getting more variety and challenge in the roles helped unlock a new level to his craft which of course we wish on any capable still evolving actor.
Can we just cancel cancel culture altogether? It's just made by a bunch of whiny and sensitive people with no sense of humor and no humility.
The idea that only gay actors should play gay roles is dumb and limiting- so we also say that only straight roles should be play by straight actors- it's called acting people - it's about pretending and convincing an audience you are somebody else- Heath Ledger who was straight gave one of the best performances a conflicted gay man in "Brokeback Mountain" . Remember all those projects in which straight stars dropped out because off social media pressure- did any of those films ever got made- and even if they did would they even get notices with out star name in the lead? I would like to see more gay actors play all types of parts and more mainstream gay movies.
thevoid99: Cancel culture is an easy out. It's easier to point at a person, call them bad and say they're cancelled rather than look at all the underlying issues, be they within the person or the system that allowed a person like that to become the way they are or be in the position they are. It's always easier to punish the effect rather than dig for the cause. Which is why I sadly feel cancel culture won't be going away any time soon.
I also believe all actors, gay or straight, should have a chance to play whatever role they want, but I see Nathaniel's point about opportunities. I think this will remain a problem as long as we live in a society in which "everyone's straight, except those who are not". No one has to say they're straight because we all assume people are straight until someone tells us they're not.
Regarding Viggo's film, I understand that he took on the lead role in order to secure funding for the film which otherwise had few high-profile stars (and I love Lance Henrikssen - very underrated). I do not know about the actor who plays his partner and whether he may be gay or not. I will be watching the film later this week so I will be able to form more of an opinion on how it plays out but I do hope that with more films being about queer characters where their sexuality or gender identity is not all-encompassing and not what the main plot of the narrative is about, more queer will be able to get jobs to show their multifaceted talents and the breath of their experience as human beings.
I'm gonna have to push back against Ken's comments regarding labor on two fronts:
Firstly your statement that you should see the same number of gay actors in roles as straight actors only works if there is an equal percentage of gay and straight actors which there isn't. Many of us in the LGBTQ community seem to underestimate how much of a minority we are, the most generous stats puts us at around 8% of the total population. Even if you double that you'd be looking at one gay actor for every four straight ones.
And secondly, as a matter of labor practices you can't inquire to an potential employee's sexual orientation. That's illegal in fact. And you certainly cannot make their hiring dependent on it. The counterargument I hear to this is because they would use the information for good they should be not be beholden to such regulation. But I must say I strongly disagree with that on principle.
P.S.
Sorry if this post is hard to read, overlong or comes off as aggressive, I'm a bit overtired tonight and as such forewent a full measure of proofreading before posting.