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How retro is this? Just as entertainers are starting to kick open the closet door, here comes the advice of Todd Holland. Here’s Patrick Range McDonald of LA Weekly.
At Outfest on Sunday afternoon, three-time Emmy winning and openly gay director Todd Holland told a small audience that he advises young, gay male actors to “stay in the closet.” The remark came during a panel at the Directors Guild of America titled, “Taking It to the Streets: LGBT Directors Get Political.” Outfest, which pushes the slogan “protecting our past, showcasing our present, nurturing our future,” is one of the premiere gay and lesbian film festivals in the United States.Holland, who was talking as one of the featured panelists, and who once worked as a director on the critically acclaimed HBO sit-com The Larry Sanders Show, explained that it’s a necessary career choice if a gay actor wants to succeed in Hollywood.
Fellow panelist and gay filmmaker Kirby Dick, director of Outrage, a 2009 documentary about gay politicians who stay in the closet to further their political careers, told Holland: “I know where you’re coming from, but it’s a regressive argument.”
…Holland’s comments underscore a decades old problem in Hollywood, where gay and straight studio executives, agents, and other major players often advise up-and-coming gay, male actors to live in the closet. Rarely, though, has someone like Holland been so public with that advice.
Is it really true that audiences cannot be convinced that an openly gay actor or actress can play straight and be believable? That’s the crux of the question. This seems ridiculous advice in this day and age, but maybe I’m wrong — Hollywood is still, at its core, homophobic because they believe the perception, not the reality, might affect the almighty dollar at the box office.
I think a telling quote comes at the end of the article when person who didn’t want to be identified (!) said: “What kind of message is that for an older gay filmmaker to send to young gay filmmakers? It’s the kind of thing that will keep people in the closet.”
What do you all think?
69 Comments
Hollywood SuccessUnfortunately, if one wants to succeed in any kind of business at the highest levels, one must conceal one’s sexual identity, if it’s not straight. That’s just the way society operates. Until straight society can get over itself and its sexual hangups, we have to play the game by their rules (DOMA, DADT, etc.). Once we have rights (ENDA), we can sue for the right to be at the highest levels of business.
You ARE the problem, Holland.Todd wants to pretend he’s only reflecting a Hollywood bias rather than helping to create and maintain it.
So he advises people to create and live a life of mental illness.
If you care more about maximizing your potential for money and fame THAN ANYTHING ELSE IN THE WORLD, there are hundreds of ways you can lie, cheat, and mistreat those around you. Being closeted is just one of them.
self defeating argumentwithout gays who are out and proud, we cannot succeed. Waiting until we have ENDA or DOMA is a ridiculous argument.
It’s because people have come out that we have the freedoms we have today.
Playing the game by their rules gets us nowhere. If African Americans played by their rules we’d still be segregated. If we’d played by “their rules” we wouldn’t have this country to begin with. Your stance is counter-intuitive, counterproductive, and unAmerican.
TrueThat is very true. The problem for many in the trans community is that public records, credit bureaus, and the amount of items available online out them even when they choose to not disclose (assuming some passing priviledge).
uh, names?
The biggest one:
Neil Patrick Harris
People find him rather believable as a straight man.
He’s out, he’s proud, and it seems to not slow him down.
He’s just being honest…Openly gay actors rarely have the same success as their straight counterparts. Typically they end up being type cast and only able to find work in the gay film/tv industry.
There are the occasional exceptions….but they are just that, exceptions.
To have a real career in Hollywood you have to be able to find work playing a straight character. How many actors that are out do you see playing straight characters?
People love Ellen, but you can bet that she would never be given the role of a man’s love interest.
Neil Patric Harris…is an exception right now. He was playing a straight character BEFORE he came out to the public. The question is, will he still be given those roles afterward?
Name another gay actor that is regularly picked to play a straight character.
Add Ian McKellen, Jodie Fosterand any number of others. And on Broadway the numbers are way higher. If theatergoers can accept Cheyenne Jackson as a leading man in a straight role, or the divine Cherry Jones in The Heiress, there’s no reason why filmgoers can’t. (And don’t tell me Broadway is different from Hollywood. Sure it is, in some ways. But that doesn’t really address the issue, does it?)
It sounds like Rahm Emmanuel isn’t the only one who’s still hobbled by experiences in decades past.
Kirby Dick…Last time I checked, Kirby Dick was straight.
It’s the qualifiers that are my personal favorite.No openly LGBT person has ever succeeded in any kind of business — except that they have and they do all the time. Okay, then: they can’t succeed at “the highest levels”. That’s more than a little vague, but let’s assume we’re now talking about CEOs, a tiny, elite fraction of the business world. You’re not a success if you fall even a little bit short of running the entire corporation? Mom, is that you?
Holland wants us to believe there are no successful openly LGBT actors in Hollywood — except that there are plenty of them, because this isn’t the 20th Century anymore. Everyone can name Wilson Cruz, TR Knight, Neil Patrick Harris right off the top of their heads. So then we say Neil Patrick Harris doesn’t count because 1) he was outed or 2) he’ll never find work once his current show is cancelled (except perhaps as a wildly popular and successful TV host, but that doesn’t count, either) or 3) he’s not A-List. Wilson Cruz’s career isn’t good enough (as if Hollywood is overflowing with parts for Latino men) and TR Knight’s off that hit show now, so that retroactively doesn’t count.
Ian McKellen? Too old — we need a leading man. The fact that Ian McKellen played a straight romantic lead shortly after coming out decades ago, of course, doesn’t count because he 1) wasn’t cute enough at the time or 2) he’s not American or 3) that film wasn’t a box office blockbuster.
Ellen may be on her to being a billionaire, but her sitcom was cancelled (and no other sitcom has ever been cancelled in the history of television after being on the air for years), so she doesn’t count, either.
What I don’t get is why everybody isn’t thrilled that openly LGBT people are a success in every field (except the US military and some religions) instead of trying to rationalize why that’s really not true. Nor do I understand how Todd Holland, who is living the very life that he wants to deny to every actor, should be listened to when he is proof that he is wrong. And I really don’t get how things are going to get even better if anyone follows his ridiculously hypocritical and absurd advice.
Hmmm…. let’s look at the #1 daytime soap opera.(and my fave soap) “The Young and the Restless”, previous home to Chris Engen, boasts 2, count ‘em, 2, out gay actors in front-burner stories right now:
1. Clementine Ford, daughter of Cybill Shepard. She’s playing a straight character.
2. Thom Bierdz.
What’s interesting is that Bierdz left Y&R 20 years ago and his character at the time killed off- recently, the character came back and revealed that he faked his death (in a drunken car crash/ suicide attempt), in large part because of the stress of being a married teen father- and that he’s gay.
Kirby Dick isn’t gayYou are correct. Dick is a really really cool straight guy, so he “reads” as gay in a lot of regressive circles. But he digs girls.
How about one of my all-time favorite actorsthe incomparable Nathan Lane?
Yeah- being gay has REALLY hurt HIS career!!
As opposed to all the other fifty year-old offbeat-looking comediennes who are cast as a man’s love interest?Michelle Pfeiffer can’t get that job, but Ellen’s proof that gay don’t pay because she couldn’t, either?
She was given such a role when she was younger and not out and it was a disaster. Since she was closeted, shouldn’t that have been a success? No, becuase she’s not Meryl Streep, nor is she a flim star. She has managed to do pretty good for herself in TV, though, hasn’t she?
Not that there aren’t plenty of LGBT actors playing straight characters in Hollywood (hi, Cherry Jones as President Taylor in “24″), but why is your career less “real” — even if you work a lot — if you only play gay characters? That strikes me as self-loathing. A job’s a job and there’s nothing wrong with playing gay.
I keep hearing about how you can’t be out and work as an actor, but I’ll be damned if I can come up with a list of out actors who aren’t working.
It feels like an older gay man giving too cautious advice.What was true for him,and his generation, isn’t necessarily true for these younger actors and film makers.
Before someone jumps on me or this advice, we all lived through Ellen losing a sitcom, for no other reason than she was lesbian. She has recovered well, but it took time, and notice she rarely brings up the subject on air. We also all know closeted gay men who have BLOCKBUSTER movies they wouldn’t be allowed to make if they were openly gay.
So the exceptional careers of openly LGBT actors we can name on two hands, and directors we can name on one hand…doesn’t change the reality for many young actors just trying to get their first paying job.
Gay can’t play Straight?Although it may be true that casting directors still have the biases Holland notes, it is, from a technical acting perspective, idiotic to argue that gay actors cannot play straight. Every gay person, I don’t care how “obvious” they are, has had to play straight at some point in their lives in order simply to survive. Of course we can play straight.
But Holland is right in describing the vicious circle that will only end when a) people realize straight guys have no problem seeing Mrs. Degeneres, or Ms. de Rossi more accurately, as a straight female character, no matter what her role and b) some A-list actor has the balls to risk that career and come out. Without the latter, we will have to wait, as we likely will in sports, for the young, hot actor/actress who is already out to make a big splash in some indie film.
Ellen’s wife is on TV tooPortia de Rossi is currently playing a (so-far) straight character in a newish ABC sit-com called Better Off Ted.
Jodie Fosteris NOT out. She is in the same category as Anderson Cooper…they don’t discuss it. That’s her choice, but that does not make her out.
Allan GilmourAllan Gilmour was the CFO of Ford Motor Company until 1995, and after he retired, he came out.
In 2002 when Ford finally shit-canned the useless hack for a CEO known as Jacques Nassar and Bill Ford took over, one of the first things Bill and the Board of Directors did was to rehire/retain/promote competent people. Allan Gilmore, retired and openly gay, was at the top of the list and returned to Ford as CFO and an Executive something-or-other for three years.
Apparently being openly gay didn’t hurt him there.
she came outwhen she thanked her partner at some awards thing several years ago. true she’s not a public activist, but that doesn’t mean she didn;t come out, just that she’s private.
Jodie Foster is out.When you thank your wife of many, many years from a podium, you’re out. As if giving their children her wife’s name wasn’t clue enough.
Cooper’s never denied being gay or claimed to be straight. Not a lot of (as in zero) straight men would decline to acknowledge being straight. Everyone in the world knows that he’s gay. That means Cooper’s out.
Just because someone isn’t advertising their sexual orientation doesn’t mean it’s not obvious. If it’s obvious, they’re out. Nobody gets to cast a magic stupidity spell on the general public to make them forget that gay people exist and that they’re obviously one of them.
Ellen’s constant references to her wife, along with her wife’s frequent appearance in the audience of her show…… have distracted me from Ellen rarely bringing up her sexual orientation or LGBT issues on the air. Since she does it constantly.
And didn’t everybody agree that Ellen’s tepid first (and second (only two sitcoms, including the one after she was out — what a loser!)) was just no longer funny? Just like most sitcoms after years on the air?
Again, if the many out actors who are working are the occassional exception, where is the long list of out actors who aren’t working? It should take mere seconds to compile. Anyone?
Established actors/directors have different positions, than someone breaking into the businessThe established people are known quanities, there are box office records and audience demographics they can use to further their careers after coming out/being outed.
The amount of sheer LUCK needed for the first break, to the hundreds of thousands of youths who expect they’ll be the next oscar winning actor, the next grammy winning singer…but in reality they are waiting tables and carrying luggage to hotel rooms.
It’s the investorsThey won’t invest in an action hero or romantic lead that is an OUT gay activist stalking the Mormons. Take the recent male lead in “Proposal” with Sandra Bullock. Soooo cute, and kind of acts metrosexual. I want him so much to be gay in private life, but he is in love with his wife, Scarlett Johansen. Alot of money is a stake and investors don’t want to take chances.
I’m gay and I don’t buy openly gay actors in straight roles …Internalized homophobia? Or profound cognitive dissonance when I see someone playing a role utterly at odds with their own identity? But people play such roles all the time—it’s called acting. Am I confusing/ projecting personal issues when I see gay folk trying to be/act heterosexual IRL (my own struggle with inauthenticity; and BTW, hello, Dad?) A little of all?
The point of acting, really great acting, is to transcend the limitations of the medium and compel the audience to believe that your character is absolutely real. In essence, the acting is supposed to disappear, and we are supposed to believe the actor is not acting, and is authentic through and through. So for me, the knowledge that an actor is gay, but is playing straight, completely foils that attempt. I can’t suspend my disbelief around this particular core identity. I know I’m confusing reality with acting … which ironically is exactly the actor’s goal.
The reverse is true too; watching Eric McCormack and Patrick Dempsey (among others) flirt on Will & Grace was just creepy. It only works for me if I don’t know the actor’s sexual orientation, or if their orientation and their character’s are the same.
No answers here, just personal observations that may or may not apply at large.
This is something I know aboutI’ve written before that I was in a relationship with a TV actor who was and still is in the closet. (I won’t out him, so please don’t ask me to.)
It was a horrible way to live. Being in the closet certainly helped his career, but at the expense of everyone he cares about. It is a huge burdon to ask your friends, family and coworkers to live in the closet with you.
We broke up because I was tired of living in the shadows. The fact that he got married to a female actress didn’t help either. It was a totally fake marriage that the woman agreed to because she believed it would improve her status and help her career — and it probably did.
When Holland says “stay in the closet” he is asking these young men and women to complicate their lives and hurt the people they love.
I will never again be in a relationship a man who is in the closet. Imagine not being able to talk openly about the person you love. It has been 25 years and I still can’t talk about it because the last thing I want in my life is publicity and the pain of dragging all that history back up.
If you’re a young actor or know someone who is, my advice is to be out and proud. Otherwise, you force everyone you care about to live your lie.
What about Kelly McGillis?I’d believe her as a love interest.
There are lots of openly gay actorsI knew many of them during my years in L.A.
The issue is about making it to the top. In reality, very few actors actually do become big stars.
An actor can be openly gay and work and make a decent living. There’s nothing wrong with that.
So, that’s another problem with Holland’s advice. He needs to tell these young people that the odds of them becoming a star is pretty slim. They shouldn’t live their lives in the closet for a 100,000 to 1 chance of getting a big break.
That’s like being in the closet because it improves your chance of winning the lottery.
Isn’t that why they call it acting?
not an exceptionhe didn’t get fired for coming out, did he? He certainly hasn’t lost and roles over it. In fact, his IMDB.com profile shows he has two movies in development, and let’s not forget that he hosted the Tony’s as well.
you can’t just dismiss someone who is obviously working, and obviously hasn’t been hurt by his coming out.
that’s your barometer?
that’s your barometersomeone has to play straight roles, and what the hell is so unsuccessful about being in gay film/tv?
I wonder if Whoopi Goldberg knows she’s been typcast because she keeps playing black and female.
Ya know, that Tyler Perry only makes black shows and black movies, he must not be very successful, either. Go over to his house and tell him that. Go ahead.
Is it really that hard…for you to keep your private life…private. I’m being honest here, I’ve never understood why people have such difficulty with this.
Now for actors, I can see the issue since they have virtually no privacy. For everyone else though, it hardly seems like this massive hurdle that must be overcome.
You know quite well…that black actors have long complained about being typecast and limited to the roles that they are allowed to play. Black actors that only appear in “black” film or TV do not have anywhere near the success of thier white counterparts. That’s an established fact.
private life?sex is private, dating is public — that’s why they call it “going out”.
that’s not what I saidmy issue is that there’s nothing “unsucessful” about doing gay film or TV.
My point is that you’re placing the bar impossibly high, apparently everyone except Brangelina is a loser.
how much more out does she have to beDoes she have to call you up and tell you she’s a lesbian?
Two sidesYes being in the closet may help you personally but in the long run who else will it help. People have to stop being selfish and risk it all.
It will either have to be someone with nothing to lose or someone who is that dead set on setting things right. Ellen did it in the past and it may have been too early. Now she’s too scared (most of the time) to get “political”. I think it is the perfect time for someone of status to come out and make a sucessful career out of it.
There will always need to be the first men down so to speak. A first wave who may or may not sacrifice themselves for the good of others. This requires courage, conviction, and some luck. So until anyone has that kind of internal power we’ll never see it. Most people either accept what they’re given or are too cowardly to do otherwise. It’s high time that someone thinks otherwise.
isn’t it thoughDon’t they realize how few working actors in Hollywood are at “the top” and how few of them actually stay there?
You’re right about Ian though, sad to say, apparently playing Gandalf & Magneto in multiple successful action movies isn’t successful enough — and you know why: ageism. Or because Magneto was sort of a villian, or because Gandalf isn’t Frodo, ya know, because if you’re not the star of the movie (every movie) you’re not a success.
for realI don’t see people saying “Brad, you’re just not a success because you’ve been typecast as straight your whole life”
How is it typecasting if every character is different? not only self-loathing, but unimaginative — what, are there only 1 type of gay person?
How private would you suggest?- playing the pronoun game?
- going stag to every work-related function, ever?
- making excuses for choosing to remain childless, or for adoption, etc.
- hiding pictures, inhibiting natural gestures typical of couples (I mean like tapping a shoulder, holding a hand, fixing a shirt tag, not extensive PDAs)
Yeah – not easy, and not healthy either.
Also played himself, as straightIn both the Harold and Kumar movies. Even though he came out (okay, was actually outed) in between the first and second films, the producers still asked him back to recreate his ficticious version of himself – as a coked-out womanizer IIRC.
the closet hurts other peopleStraight Man: So, how do you know Steven?
Gay Man: Oh we met at this gay bar…. I mean club… hunting club. Yes, a hunting club. For men. AND women.
It’s a big of a joke, but it illustrates a point. When you’re dating or friends with a closet case, you are put upon to protect their secret — you have to lie about them, but sometimes (like in my example) you have to lie about YOURSELF, too. A closeted person for a friend or partner means you get shoved in that closet, too — and how is that fair?
There was an American Dad episode that illustrated this perfectly. One half the the gay neighbors had a visit from his father and dear old Dad didn’t know he was gay. So he shoved his partner out the door over to Stan’s house (labeling them the fags across the street), and cozied up to Francine labeling her his “girlfriend” and his daughter as their “out of wedlock child”. This charade went on for several days until Stan got mad and outed him. And the characters got mad at Stan for outing him, but not at the cowardly closet case for putting his neighbors, partner, and daughter in such an awkward and unfair position.
This post was my best laugh of the day so far!Exactly.
straight men seem to love NPH charactersfrom both Kumar movies, from Dr Horrible, and from How I Met Your Mother. I know a few straight guys who practically idolize Barney. He’s like the male Ellen in some ways in that he’s able to take his sexuality “off the table” as something that even matters.
And if that isn’t success while being Out, I don’t know what is.
I wish I were as unsuccessful as Tyler Perry… … or any of the actors who have ever appeared in his films, for that matter. And, while we’re at it, I wish I was as ugly as Morris Chestnut or Gabrielle Union.
(crosses fingers, closes eyes and wishes REALLY hard)
Todd Holland is a fucking disgraceJust because his boyfriend Scotch Ellis Loring can’t get a job is no reason to shit all over everybody else!
Just today Neil Patrick Harris, who by Holland’s lights should b unemployable, was hired to host the Emmys.
And I don’t see Ian McKellan walking around with a begging cup.
You have no idea what it is likeunless you’ve lived though being in a relationship with public figure who is in the closet.
I actually had to keep a separate apartment that I didn’t live in.
We had to travel separately.
Imagine traveling back in coach while your boyfriend sits in first class. Then, you travel in a cab while he goes to the hotel in a limo. You have a separate room that you don’t use unless your boyfriend has business guests in his suite.
You can’t be seen having dinner in a restaurant together — unless it is with a group.
Everyone who doesn’t know you personally thinks that you’re an employee or at the most a good friend. There’s no touching. No personal conversation.
Once, I spent a month in New Zealand virtually by myself. I was miserable and lonely. After that, I took my a friend along on our trips to keep me company. That meant there was always three of us. We were never a couple.
I know people who have gotten used to living like this. No thanks.
Yeah she “thanked” her partneronly to dump her the next day for Melanie Mayron’s girfriend.
Way-To-Go Classy, Jodie!
High Time to OUT Tyler PerryNearly all the men he’s tried to make stars have been outed as gay.
The “casting couch” comes in black!
Yep — Internalized HomophobiaAren’t ypu ashamed of yourself?
Of course you’re not. Todd Holland has given you absolution.
John Barrowman?John Barrowman is out, and yes, he plays Captain Jack Harkness in Torchwood and canonically will have sex with…well…anyone! He tells the story of how he didn’t get the part of Will in Will and Grace because he was too straight! (see the wikipedia article)
I think he is pretty successful, and has worked regularly in theater and in television, including children’s shows and reality competition shows.
He’s played straight and gay, and though maybe not a household name, he does very well for himself.
PRfunny, i always thought it was about who your PUBLICIST was sleeping with, not the actors themselves!
Cherry Jones’ partner Sarah Paulson works constantly only playing straight love interests.As does Ellen’s wife, Portia de Rossi.
And it’s not in spite of the fact that they’re openly gay, it’s because of the fact that they’re both talented, marketable, beautiful blondes who are under forty.
Apparently, they, too, have escaped the pinklist that has doomed all the other openly gay, talented, marketable, beautiful blonde actresses under forty.
I literally cried when I saw a documentarythat featured Barrowman and his partner Scott. They are just like any other couple. It makes me wonder why I couldn’t have this…
considering how believeable he is as a lotharioyes, he’ll still be able to play straight characters.
From what I understand, Holland Taylor (one of the funniest women in the industry) has always been out and she’s played a boatload of maneaters over the years.
It might be somewhere in-between“exceptions exist” and “things are changing, if slowly”. I hope it’s the latter — and that sort of change may only happen as more already-established actors come out, which is still depressing.
And never mind just playing straight…I’m not an actor, but I can only imagine that playing a straight character would be easier than playing a British-imagined version of an Italian aristocrat. Or the prince of Denmark. Or a fairy. (OK, well, for that last one…) But people still do Shakespeare.
Wedding photo of John and Scott… from Jan 19,2007.They married intentionally to show that it was the proper thing to do in England. Hubby is an architect, they had been together years.
This one not in closet….So Todd Holland may not get another Emmy.
I take it you don’t enjoy classic films, then?Large numbers of the great film actors are now known to have been gay, lesbian or bi. Granted, they weren’t out when they were alive, but they are are certainly “out’ now.
So: Cary Grant, Greta Garbo, Randolph Scott, Barbara Stanwyck, Errol Flynn, Tyrone Power, Marlene Dietrich, Robert Taylor, Myrna Loy, Lizabeth Scott, Tab Hunter, Tallulah Bankhead, Rudolph Valentino, Farley Granger, Rock Hudson, Burt Lancaster, and even gay-for-pay Clark Gable, and scores of others–you can’t buy any of them in straight roles, either, right?
About Lizabeth ScottI haven’t had the pleasure of meeting her personally, but I do know two of her closest friends, both of whom are gay. They assure me that Miss Scott is not and never was gay. I’m told she did always have gay male and female friends and thought nothing of joining them in gay and lesbian bars, which led to the tabloids saying she was gay. They say that she has no reason to lie to them and that they’re familiar with her heterosexual romantic history.
If this is true, then the only Hollywood actress ever to lose her career to rumors of lesbianism wasn’t even a lesbian.
First time I’ve heard this.I had a vague notion she had come out at some later point (maybe I saw it in some documentary–memory fails–or maybe I’m confusing her with George Nader, who was outed in the tabloids at roughly the same time). I’m fairly certain she never publicly denied the rumors, and never tried to fight back against the tabloid and the studio blacklist.
If it’s true, it’s terribly interesting and doubly sad. She was a good actress.
Hmmm …
Your choice based on our long friendship and your intimate knowledge of my psyche? I had to list/consider internalized homophobia because that is the reflexive response to an observation like the one I made. But when I look at my psychological/emotional response to gay actors in straight roles, and vice-versa, it just doesn’t feel like that’s the source (recognizing the limits of self-examination). The cognitive dissonance thing feels more true. My insides are saying, “But ya aren’t straight, Blanche, ya aren’t!”
For sharing an honest examination of my reaction to gay actors in straight roles? Ahh … nope. Feeling shame didn’t even occur to me. Not when post after posturing post purported how eeevil Todd Holland clearly is and how it’s 2009 for God’s sake and it just isn’t fair and people seem to buy “X” in straight roles and there are 25 out actors working now that I can name who are moderately successful so that must mean there are no consequences to being out (when we know there are consequences, and we have no way to measure what these actors might have achieved had they been actively closeted, or to count the number of careers that have been killed when someone was outed/came out).
I had hoped to hear Blenders honestly say what we think/feel when we see gays play straight. That was Pam’s original question, and to me, the most interesting part of the post. Do we buy it? Do you David? There’s no right or wrong answer; no good or bad. It’s just the sum of our experience and emotions and perceptions. And for actors, that’s the crux of the issue. Will the public buy me (literally) in a straight role if they know I’m queer? But as I’m writing this, only one other person so far has commented along those lines (that he/she would believe Kelly McGillis in a straight role). And you want to shame me, of all things? Seriously?
I have been out in the workplace for 25 years. I hit a glass ceiling at one workplace, and I can only surmise it was the result of being blackballed, and I can only think of one reason why. I didn’t have a lick of proof. Just one person had the power to do this, even where an LGBT non-discrimination statement was codified policy. I can only imagine what job security must be like in an industry where image is all, often trumping even performance, and millions of people pass judgment.
Of course I would like accomplished people in all fields to come out, because the walls would tumble in a moment, and selfishly, my life would be exponentially freer. Am I going to presume to judge some starving waiter/actor with no safety net who is trying to get his/her next legit gig? Or an old-timer who lived through more homophobic times and wants to see today’s new professionals start to carve out careers for themselves before they risk being open about their sexuality, about which millions of people are only too ready to condemn them? Politically, yes, I want every queer to come out. Now. But in practice, as a human being who wants other human beings to survive and thrive, I would much rather that a struggling actor built the beginnings of a stable career for him/herself, creating a foundation and some security and connections before being out—if that is his/her choice.
to expound/clarifyI enjoy a well-crafted film, a great performance, superb direction, fantastic writing. But if a character’s love life is of import, and the actor is playing a role contrary to his/her core true being, then I enjoy that aspect of the character that much less. For me, even the movie itself suffers to a degree. I can still enjoy the film, just not as much. How about you? Does knowing an actor’s sexual orientation affect how you experience/ feel about their role when playing straight though gay, or gay though straight? Or are you able to stay blind to it and maintain suspension of disbelief? If it does affect your experience, in what ways?
Makes me wonder about playing against other core identities in film, like Tilda Swinton in Orlando (haven’t seen it), Robert Downey Jr. in Tropic Thunder (haven’t seen it). Jaye Davidson in Crying Game also comes to mind, but I don’t know his gender identity or sexual orientation. I think he played Dil flawlessly, though I’d be especially interested in the opinions of T Blenders.
Knowing that Cary Grant was gaydoes not diminish my enjoyment of his romantic performances in the least. His love scenes opposite Grace Kelly, Eva Marie Saint, Myrna Loy and a lot of others are among the best ever filmed–as are his romantic comedies in general. And he’s just the most outstanding example.
BTW, I forgot to put Gary Cooper in my list above. The unavoidable fact is that most (not all, by any means) of the screen’s great lovers were portrayed by gay or bisexual men and women. The chemistry between Gable and Colbert (another sad omission–sorry) in It Happened One Night couldn’t be better if they were both 100% straight.
Your internalized homophobia and your inability to separate the actor from the role are depriving you of enormous amounts of joy in film. Too bad.
hmph.
As I replied to David, this is based on our long friendship and your intimate knowledge of my psyche? Why get all ugly about it when there are other factors that could (and I believe do) inform my experience? And when getting ugly on me contributes to an atmosphere that may silence others and keep them from joining what could be a really interesting & intelligent conversation, as you regularly show you are eminently capable of? G’night.
Your beliefs about your past experience outside the entertainment industry are not indicative of the current state of Hollywood.The director making this ridiculous claim is a successful openly gay man who is partnered with an unsuccessful openly gay actor. Could it be that his experiences are coloring his perceptions, too? I think so.
Sorry, still not buying that openly gay actors who appear in the most successful film franchises of all time or who have a personal income greater than most countries are “moderately successful”. Still not buying that working all the time — the goal all actors dream of achieving — makes you “moderately successful”. Still not buying that we’ll never know whose career was killed because they were out, when more than 90% of SAG members don’t make enough money from acting to live on. Are they all openly gay?
The one thing that all successful openly gay actors show us is that marketability wins out. If you have the talent, the look, and the connections, you’re in. If you don’t, you’re — you should pardon the expression — out. Otherwise, why would anyone hire any queer actor at all if being queer was a guaranteed career-killer?
For some people, it will never matter how many openly gay performers there are, how often they work or how much money they make. The more actors who are open and successful, the more qualifiers — or outright fantasies — are woven about how it’s still not really true. Ellen can put a billion dollars in the bank, but America and Hollywood still hates queers. Sorry, not buying it.
And, to answer the question, OF COURSE I can accept gay actors in roles that aren’t who they are in real life, just like I accept any actor playing any character. When I tune ito ”Law & Order” or “House”, I don’t really believe I’m watching cops or doctors on the TV. I don’t need the sexual orientations of actor and character to match up, either.
The one exception, of course, is Tom Cruise, but he’s just creepy.
No, it’s based on your posted comments, which make things pretty clear.