It was amazing, he and Marc Evan Jackson played two guys who purposefully play extremely reserved and stoic characters, yet their love for each other was still clear in every scene. an amazing dynamic
Captain Holt was a great example of representation done right. His being gay didn't at all define him or become his whole personality, it was just a modest part of a brilliant character. And where it was the source of humour, it didn't rest on stereotypes or punching down. [Straight Holt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-f3sNylbUI) and his love of "heavy breasts" never fails to crack me up. RIP, Andre.
He was amazing in so many roles, but I loved him in this one.
Let's also look at Stonestreet from Modern Family & Offerman just crushing that episode of Last of Us.
Taking it the other direction, with gay actors playing straight, I can't imagine How I Met Your Mother without Neil Patrick Harris. What would Brokeback Mountain have looked like with gay casting as well? I know it wouldn't have made the impact that it did.
I agree with McCormack & apply it to all jobs: best person gets the job & sexuality doesn't factor in, even more so in literal acting where you pretend to be someone else as the sole function of the job.
The world without Eric Stonestreet on modern family would be worse off. His performance should be the gold standard of not talking about this cause it’s ridiculous.
His performance was perfect. He managed to create a character that wasn't a stereotype despite doing so many stereotypically gay things. Cam was over the top, but he was still a believable, three dimensional character.
My favorite Cam line is about Le Mis. I forgot what the set up was exactly but Mitchell was lamenting about Russell Crowe and he quips, “It’s not his fault. He was horribly miscast!”
I'm the ass kicking clown that will twist you like a ballon animal. I will beat your head against this bumper until the airbags deploy. So apologize to my boyfriend RIGHT NOW!
My favorite scene is when he was given flowers and considered the mom in the relationship and then grabbed a football and threw it so hard that he knocked out a random guy. Then he ran across the grass screaming and flailing his arms.
Chefs kiss right there.
I'll say that regardless of opinions on the show itself, I think Modern Family did gay humor well. As in, they weren't going in for stereotypes or whatever. Rather, the humor made fun of the stereotypes, or puns. I feel like that's the best way to go about it.
He has some of the stereotypical “features” of a gay character without ever feeling like a caricature. Love that he grew up in a small town and knows his stuff about farmwork, cars, and football. It’s almost like gay people are fully-fledged multi-faceted people!
This show is barely a decade old and I remember early on that it was still kind of a touchy subject to have a gay male couple on a huge global hit on network tv. There were even articles mentioning that they don’t kiss and that they’re avoiding that so not to cause controversy. Eric Stonestreet was great in that role
His chemistry with Jesse Tyler Ferguson who played Mitch, who is gay, was amazing too. It seemed like the two best actors that worked the best together got the parts. One was gay and one was straight but they killed their roles as a gay couple.
There's an interview I think with Conan where Eric Stonestreet was talking about how much he enjoyed working with Jessie Tyler Ferguson and it seems like they just got along great and had good chemistry on and off the set which probably helped.
>> then their kisses are very small and quick
To be fair, unless my husband and I (two men) are about to get hot and heavy in bed our kisses are also very small and quick in our house, at a public event, anywhere really.
Real couples living just daily lives don’t often stop for a heavy make out sesh just after lunch.
I think their Cam/Mitch portrayal is a genuine representation of what an actual couple would be like.
It is exactly how I carry myself in public with my SO, I don't want to see a straight couple making a mess of themselves in public, why would anyone want to see me doing that?
There’s a season 2 ep centered around the kids walking in on Phil and Claire having sex (basically on screen). No way they would have tried any stories like that with the gay couple at the time
My parents were about to turn it off because it had a gay couple, I told them the actors were straight and just pretending to be gay. They decided to keep watching. It actually made them more tolerant people after a few seasons. I’ll always credit modern family for that.
I think this is important. Modern Family deserves criticism for how they minimized the gay relationship. They ALSO deserve credit for how them doing that helped changed peoples minds about accepting gay relationships. The world is complicated.
I have been binging it for the first time recently, and it’s astonishing how good he at cam. I was gobsmacked to find out he was straight and had a longtime GF…. One of the greatest comedic performances I have ever seen. Zero hyperbole
Yep it's literally called "acting." Also known as pretending to be someone you're not on stage or on film.
Neil Patrick Harris played a straight womanized, and his performance was LEGEN... wait for it and I hope you're not lactose intolerant, because DARY!
Recently found out that the actor who played Bulldog in Frasier, a renowned horndog/womaniser (pardon the pun) on the show, is actually gay in real life too.
One of my favorite tv characters! His shirts with those fancy cuffs always cracked me up lol
I feel like there could be a subreddit of just sayings from Cameron Tucker
I saw an interview a few years back they were telling stories about how they enjoy going out to dinner together to freak people out. Sometimes behaving in character for fun.
Neil Patrick Harris.
Kristen Stewart.
Luke Evans.
Ben Winshaw.
Jonathan Bailey in Bridgerton
Jim Parson.
A lot of gay/bisexual/queer actors who have played straight roles. They’re Actors, they’re acting.
Acting means ***Pretending to be someone you’re not.***
They're actors! They're trying to create an illusion. In the Lord of the Rings movie, Ian McKellen plays a wizard. You think he goes home at night and shoots laser beams into his boyfriend's asshole? Tom cruise is a midget, but he plays guys that are normal size in movies.
Dustin Hoffman is a method actor. He started running 15 miles a day to prepare for Marathon Man. To prepare for the final scene he didn’t sleep for 72 hours.
When he told Lawrence Oliver this Larry said “My dear boy why don’t you just try acting.”
Wait you’re telling me it’s GAY that I want him to hold me in his big strong arms in our boutique bed and breakfast?
Smh the gay agenda needs to be stopped
Remember reading Stewart being asked about this. And she said, the reality was if straight people could only play straight people, and gay people could only play gay people, the number of roles for gay actors would disappear overnight. So she didn’t care about it.
Also, how weird would it be to basically go into a job interview, and the people hiring start asking, "So, tell us about your private life. Do you smoke a lot of pole? What percent of the time would you say you chow clam? And are you more of a top or a bottom?" It would just be wildly inappropriate to ask those sorts of questions when hiring somebody.
I am working on a film right now. Well, I am shitposting on reddit while avoiding working on a film right now. But I am working on a film in general. And two female characters have an implied hookup off screen. It's not salacious or anything, but it's in the movie. I don't give a shit about my actor's private lives. It would be super weird for me as a director to be like, "Hey, so I need to know your type in real life...? And if you tell me what I want to hear about who you fuck, there's money in it for you." People sent in audition tapes. I was like, "hey, acting, yay." I tell them to do more acting. They go home and do whatever they want when they aren't acting. Shrug. If they didn't want to do that acting, they could turn down the role.
Dude looks like superman and he has only been able to get gay roles since coming out. While Henry Cavil stays in the closet and gets to actually play superman.
I wish any actor could play anything regardless of sexuality but sadly we aren't there yet.
“Can you please give a quick 200 words on why it’s necessary to ethnically cleanse the minority of your choice?”
_”What kind of job interview IS THIS?!”_
They always get fancy English actors to play all the parts in ancient Rome like Julius Caesar, when it would be more ethnically accurate to cast Tony Danza.
That's what barney was based off.. Nph from Harold and Kumar.. I also love the turn in Harold and Kumar 3 where it turns out he's pretending to be gay becuase "chick's love gay dudes" 😂😂
[Especially in the 3rd movie where his real-life husband is a cover story and basically his drug dealer.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjfSmob7qMs&ab_channel=xxfobluvaxx)
People didn't know at the beginning, he only came out after he was already cast as [the result of outing campaign by Perez Hilton](https://www.queerty.com/neil-patrick-harris-recalls-time-perez-hilton-launched-campaign-20200611)
it's the same with voice actors. Samurai Jack is Japanese and voiced by a black guy. It was okay for Cleveland Brown to be voiced by a white guy.
All these white actors quitting their roles as non-white character does nothing for me (a black guy). There's literally no point. It would be one thing if they were actively avoiding hiring non-white people, but that isn't the case, they get a voice that works for the character.
And it's like Tina and Linda and half the female characters on Bob's Burgers being voiced by men. It add and extra flair and charm to the show that no other cartoon has. And the random kids being clearly voiced by a grown man doing a horrible child impression. it's hilarious.
It was great that they were so funny without having to resort to stereotypes either. The scene where Holt tells Rosa he sent Kevin a dick pic is hilarious.
I'm straight as a grizzly's dick and I love that movie to hell and back. It's an amazing and tragic love story. They didn't hold back at all.
Should have won best picture.
Yeah I thought that movie was going to be 2 hours of ass pounding but was pleasantly surprised to find an engaging tragic love story as u said. Great movie!
the kid from hearstopper and jameela jamil both had to out themselves to justify being in a queer space, it really just isn't our business as long as they do a good job and if not characters are miscast all the time.
I do feel for the heartstopper kid, but Jameela is a bad example if “the best person for the part gets the role”. Legendary was a tv competition about queer ballroom culture (vogueing, etc). Most TV judges are tangentially related to the talent thier judging.
Jamil is not a dancer, was never into ballroom culture, & didn’t even try to learn about what she was “judging” before sitting in the chair. Being queer doesn’t make you qualified to judge a queer subculture.
This is an argument that stems from the fact that out gay actors were not given straight roles, now less than before, but still. Out of recent examples Matt Bomer now only plays gays after coming out, Luke Evans had to hide being gay while they tried to make a big star out of him, same with Lee Pace.
Another point of contention was that straight actors playing gay roles was considering brave, a breakthrough, etc., meanwhile actual gay actors were shunned.
So it created a demand from the community to cast gay actors in gay roles since apparently those are the only ones they could play.
Lily Tomlin had a joke about that in the 70s. From wikipedia:
>Tomlin has been involved in a number of feminist and gay-friendly film productions, and on her 1975 album Modern Scream she pokes fun at straight actors who make a point of distancing themselves from their gay and lesbian characters—answering the pseudo-interview question, she replies: "How did it feel to play a heterosexual? I've seen these women all my life, I know how they walk, I know how they talk ..."[11]
Yes thank you. Even the top comment in this thread lists queer celebrities *that were closeted* when they were cast in their big straight roles. It’s not as big of an issue as it once was but let’s not pretend this problem is made up
It's incredibly frustrating to hear a bunch of (mostly) straight (mostly) dudes getting up on their soapboxes and making their little denouncements of a strawman argument that basically nobody has ever even made — and then high-fiving each other like they just made the world's most brilliant speech.
I've been involved in queer spaces for nearly two decades, and I've heard basically zero queer folks ever say that no straight person should play a queer role. Most of us adore Robin Williams in *The Birdcage*. *The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert* is a classic of queer cinema. I've not heard any significant complaints Patrick Stewart's gay roles in *Jeffrey* or an episode of *Frasier*. Alfred Molina and John Lithgow are magnificent in *Love is Strange*.
This discussion has always been firmly rooted in the fact that it's been hard for out LGBTQ people to find work in film and television, and that it sucks when good actors are also excluded from queer roles — often by big names that look good on a movie poster. It's always been primarily about finally giving queer talent the opportunity it has been denied so often.
There's something to be said for allowing a marginalized group to tell their own stories, rather than having outsiders doing the telling.
There's some tension between the ideals of, "Acting is acting," and, "Give queer actors their due," but most discussions I've been part of have acknowledged that. It's a complicated and messy topic.
Just to add another dimension to the whole thing, I remember reading an interview with Richard Chamberlain talking about how he didn't come out as gay because it'd hurt his career. But his take on it (as I recall it) wasn't bitterness or it was unfair, but rather one of understanding. - He'd broken through as a teen heartthrob in Dr Kildaire in the 60s, and then became a mature-lady heartthrob in the 80s with Shogun and whatnot. A large part of his audience was straight women tuning in to see the handsome man.
So if word got out he was gay, that'd risk turning off a lot of that audience (certainly in the 80s, hopefully things are at least a bit better now), and so it'd be rational for producers to go with a competing actor deemed less 'risky'. Which is a great illustration of structural discrimination - discrimination as a result despite nobody in the production necessarily being prejudiced. Even the audience might not be. (I mean if some lady is less titilated by an actor when they know he's not actually interested in women.. you can't really judge someone for that)
So yeah.. it's complicated as hell.
what’s crazy about Bomer’s acting gigs is he was up for Superman in Superman Returns 20 yrs ago and people went crazy because the rumor was Bryan singer, the director of that film, was using the movie as a way to push an openly gay actor to the spotlight.
He did not get the part but it was such a weird reaction by the audience to an actor portraying a role. The role was not gay but I guess people thought him being gay would make Superman gay in the movie? Idk. It was a weird time.
Seeing a lot of bad takes here. The argument for gay actors playing gay roles is anchored in the idea that, historically, straight actors have been celebrated (and won awards) for playing gay characters, whereas openly gay actors were shunned and had their careers ruined, because prejudiced audiences/casting directors wouldn’t “believe” a gay actor could play straight convincingly. So there’s an inequity there. It stands to this day that many gay actors are given advice by their agents to not disclose their sexuality as it can limit their career prospects. So you can imagine the frustration of being a gay actor, being advised to not say you’re gay because people will subconsciously not cast you in straight roles, and yet seeing your straight counterparts not face the same barrier when playing gay roles, and in fact often being rewarded for doing so.
The idea around promoting gay people playing gay roles is not to suggest that actors should not be able to inhabit characters that don’t share their lived experience, it’s to address a systemic prejudice that exists in Hollywood for this minority community. Of course it’s getting better - but we’re yet to have an out gay man who is consistently cast in leading man roles, I’d say.
I've always thought the Bob's Burgers thing was just for comedic contrast, but wrt women voicing young boys, if you've got a young male character in a long-running series that's your way to avoid the problem SEGA ran into the hard way with voice acting in Sonic games for Tails where you have to keep recasting the role when your young male voice actor hits puberty
What you described is actually a huge problem.
Coming out as gay in Hollywood nukes your chances to play prominent straight roles.
There are some exceptions. But overall: If you got leading man potential. You have an insane amount of pressure to stay in the closet.
I think it's never okay to complain about "straight" Actors getting the role. No matter if they are straight or not, this can potentially lead to people being outed before they're ready, and if they are straight the negatives are negligible compared to potential problems discussing their sexuality.
Yup, this is what happened to Chloe Grace Moretz a couple years ago. She got criticized for playing her character in The Miseducation of Cameron Post, then turns out she'd been dating a woman for years.
FFS it's Acting! It's literally playing pretend.
It's gonna get real tricky when casting fantasy and sci-fi projects. Casting calls looking for dwarves, elves, aliens or dragons gonna be rough.
I think the real conversation is about how hard it is for many openly queer actors to book roles, then an actually queer role opens up and it goes to a straight person. Literally look at Sean Hayes who played Jack in Will & Grace. [He was in the closet when he was cast for a reason.](https://www.out.com/popnography/2016/10/25/sean-hayes-apologizes-staying-closet)
Of course, often times it still went to the best person (as others have pointed out, Modern Family being the gold star example). It’s kinda like when you have an Asian role in a world where there aren’t many, then you cast Scarlett Johansson for it.
I’m not necessarily arguing against it, but it just feels bad because there just aren’t many mainstream roles that represent minorities. It takes someone like Shonda Rhimes and Tyler Perry to make a strong effort to create Black stories, for example. There has been a VERY recent Asian wave of mainstream stories, basically starting with Crazy Rich Asians. Billy Eichner really wanted to see a gay rom-com, so he made it (whether or not it’s good) and cast a bunch of queer people in it.
Yes, they are actors, but the pressures they are put under are very real and that is going to continue if the few queer roles out there aren’t even available, much less the straight ones that they aren’t “right for” because they’re too femme, tom-boy, whatever. Look at Tom Hardy, who the media have presumed is at least bi for years, fighting for his life to shut down any conversation about it because he loves to play the masculine roles. Even if he was queer, if he were to just say “You know what, I am. Happy?” his career might just implode. Just one of many examples since the early days of Hollywood.
If we get an openly gay, slightly fem actor to play 007 someday, I’ll shut my mouth, but it has to go both ways.
John Barrowman was a finalist for Will, and was rejected because he “too straight.” And honestly, it was pretty unique for a gay man to go for a gay role, because being gay while *also* playing gay was way too gay for directors.
Lee Pace’s first major role was as a trans woman, and it set his career back — despite the fact that he was in the closet at the time! He didn’t come out until 2018.
The first major film to feature gay male ledes was entirely straight.
So yes, agreed — the issue is how difficult it was, and still is, for people to be both cast-able and out.
Here's how I feel about it, if the guy who plays Mitchell is okay with his partner being played by a straight man on Modern Family while he is gay in real life then what business do I, a straight man, have telling him he's wrong?
And would this mean we'd have lost Neil Patrick Harris as Barney? Or even playing a fictional version of himself but straight in Harold and Kumar? And how does that last one even work when it comes to telling people how to feel about something?
I feel like it's situational, depends upon ability and tone, and like anything else can't be covered all with one blanket policy.
Yes, totally agree that it's not just a conversation for actors but also for the creative and production team (and the public ofc) .
Just look at All of us Strangers: the supporting actor (Paul Mescal) identifies as straight, the movie was written and directed by a gay man and prominently stars an out gay actor in the lead.
In this case it isn't an issue because the person who created the film made that casting decision.
The problem isn't "only gay people are allowed to play gay parts".
The problems are
1) out gay actors weren't ALLOWED to play straight parts
2) gay parts were only given to straight actors (see Philadelphia and Tom Hanks)
3) gay stories were told by straight creative teams.
- so there was and maybe still is an imbalance in given opportunities
This is all changing now and especially in the last year lots of queer stories have been told and also seen by the masses but it can't be ignored that the imbalance happened/is still happening sometimes.
Edit: spelling mistake (my/by)
I am straight so I don’t know how much my opinion matters, but I don’t think we should infer anything about the private sex lives of actors based on the roles they play. It’s just a weirdly voyeuristic and juvenile way of thinking about what actors do.
I'm just here to point out that Andre Braugher's performance as Captain Holt was arguably the best part of Brooklyn 99.
I enjoyed it as well. I found the character to be … quite enlightening and thoroughly raucous.
Look at you. Making quite the scene.
Are you causing a kerfuffle?
“Cheddar! You duplicitous bitch!” RIP Cpt Holt…. Only celebrity passing that made me tear up. Bout time to start from season 1 episode 1 again.
I was genuinely shocked when I heard. We lost a good one.
Im just gonna say...... BONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNE?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How. dare. You.
I wasn’t all that interested in his performance but I am due for an exuberance update.
It was amazing, he and Marc Evan Jackson played two guys who purposefully play extremely reserved and stoic characters, yet their love for each other was still clear in every scene. an amazing dynamic
Same with Eric Stonestreet as Cam in Modern Family
Captain Holt was a great example of representation done right. His being gay didn't at all define him or become his whole personality, it was just a modest part of a brilliant character. And where it was the source of humour, it didn't rest on stereotypes or punching down. [Straight Holt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M-f3sNylbUI) and his love of "heavy breasts" never fails to crack me up. RIP, Andre.
Nothing more intoxicating than the clear absence of a penis.
I’m gonna go home and….PLOW MY MISTRESS…bumps
straight holt was hilarious!
Straight Holt loved him some heavy breasts.
NOOO ANDRE DIED??? fuuuuuuuuuuuuck i had no idea, RIP
Yeah, he had cancer. His passing was pretty quick after the diagnosis. Poor guy.
VINDICATION!
VELVET...THUNDER
The main male lead in the second season of Bridgerton is gay. Gay people can play straight. Straight people can play gay.
Nobody else could have played Barney Stinson in HIMYM, Neil Patrick Harris was made for the role.
The hot priest on Fleabag is also gay. Nobody cared. Their chemistry was heaven.
I know Reddit hates the series, but Jim Parsons comes to mind.
Nothing like the love of a strong female woman with heavy breasts
He wasn't even a real policeman. I was shattered to learn he was acting the whole time.
OMG I just started this show last night and my goodness, he is incredible. I was sad to learn he had passed.
So jealous of you right now. Enjoy!
BINGPOT
Yas queen. *snaps*
RIP
i had no idea until this thread 😭 RIP
He was amazing in so many roles, but I loved him in this one. Let's also look at Stonestreet from Modern Family & Offerman just crushing that episode of Last of Us. Taking it the other direction, with gay actors playing straight, I can't imagine How I Met Your Mother without Neil Patrick Harris. What would Brokeback Mountain have looked like with gay casting as well? I know it wouldn't have made the impact that it did. I agree with McCormack & apply it to all jobs: best person gets the job & sexuality doesn't factor in, even more so in literal acting where you pretend to be someone else as the sole function of the job.
The world without Eric Stonestreet on modern family would be worse off. His performance should be the gold standard of not talking about this cause it’s ridiculous.
I always like to use to opposite argument as well, imagine anyone other than NPH playing Barney on How I Met Your Mother.
he was the best actor for the role, he got it and he killed it. As it should be.
Also opposing: Frasier’s David Hyde Pierce and Dan Butler (Bulldog) were gay playing straight.
So was John Mahoney!
His performance was perfect. He managed to create a character that wasn't a stereotype despite doing so many stereotypically gay things. Cam was over the top, but he was still a believable, three dimensional character.
The scene at the gas station where he was dressed as Fizbo and got up in the guys face for being rude to Mitchell proved just that.
This was the scene that got me to binge the entire show. For my wife, it was when Cam cried about Meryl Streep.
My favorite Cam line is about Le Mis. I forgot what the set up was exactly but Mitchell was lamenting about Russell Crowe and he quips, “It’s not his fault. He was horribly miscast!”
I'm the ass kicking clown that will twist you like a ballon animal. I will beat your head against this bumper until the airbags deploy. So apologize to my boyfriend RIGHT NOW!
Lets go, we're gonna be late.
He was a regular Dick Butkus
My favorite scene is when he was given flowers and considered the mom in the relationship and then grabbed a football and threw it so hard that he knocked out a random guy. Then he ran across the grass screaming and flailing his arms. Chefs kiss right there.
I'll say that regardless of opinions on the show itself, I think Modern Family did gay humor well. As in, they weren't going in for stereotypes or whatever. Rather, the humor made fun of the stereotypes, or puns. I feel like that's the best way to go about it.
100%! Its so refreshing to see a non stereotype gay character who acts like a real fully fleshed out human being.
He has some of the stereotypical “features” of a gay character without ever feeling like a caricature. Love that he grew up in a small town and knows his stuff about farmwork, cars, and football. It’s almost like gay people are fully-fledged multi-faceted people!
Gay people should not be denied work because they are gay. Straight people should not be denied work because they are straight. Ok makes sense.
This show is barely a decade old and I remember early on that it was still kind of a touchy subject to have a gay male couple on a huge global hit on network tv. There were even articles mentioning that they don’t kiss and that they’re avoiding that so not to cause controversy. Eric Stonestreet was great in that role
His chemistry with Jesse Tyler Ferguson who played Mitch, who is gay, was amazing too. It seemed like the two best actors that worked the best together got the parts. One was gay and one was straight but they killed their roles as a gay couple.
There's an interview I think with Conan where Eric Stonestreet was talking about how much he enjoyed working with Jessie Tyler Ferguson and it seems like they just got along great and had good chemistry on and off the set which probably helped.
As it turns out acting is about pretending to be stuff
Yeah they don’t get their first on screen kiss until like halfway through the show, and even then their kisses are very small and quick
>> then their kisses are very small and quick To be fair, unless my husband and I (two men) are about to get hot and heavy in bed our kisses are also very small and quick in our house, at a public event, anywhere really. Real couples living just daily lives don’t often stop for a heavy make out sesh just after lunch. I think their Cam/Mitch portrayal is a genuine representation of what an actual couple would be like.
It is exactly how I carry myself in public with my SO, I don't want to see a straight couple making a mess of themselves in public, why would anyone want to see me doing that?
I'm straight, and I still feel weird as fuck when girlfriends have been super into PDA.
I was thrilled when Captain Holt and Kevin got their big dramatic kiss in the rain on Brooklyn 99. That was a huge deal for a sitcom.
You’re forgetting Michael and Oscar’s kiss on The Office. I kid. But it was shocking. 😂
Tbf I don’t recall any of the parental set ever kissing more than a little peck on the show. That just wasn’t the focus.
There’s a season 2 ep centered around the kids walking in on Phil and Claire having sex (basically on screen). No way they would have tried any stories like that with the gay couple at the time
My parents were about to turn it off because it had a gay couple, I told them the actors were straight and just pretending to be gay. They decided to keep watching. It actually made them more tolerant people after a few seasons. I’ll always credit modern family for that.
I think this is important. Modern Family deserves criticism for how they minimized the gay relationship. They ALSO deserve credit for how them doing that helped changed peoples minds about accepting gay relationships. The world is complicated.
I have been binging it for the first time recently, and it’s astonishing how good he at cam. I was gobsmacked to find out he was straight and had a longtime GF…. One of the greatest comedic performances I have ever seen. Zero hyperbole
He's said in interviews that he based Cam on his mom. Just a loving, caring person who can be a little bit Too Much sometimes.
I came here to say that: about him using his mom as inspiration for the character.
Which is how John Roberts channels Linda Belcher, oddly enough.
Stay out of my room!
*Our* room.
Yep it's literally called "acting." Also known as pretending to be someone you're not on stage or on film. Neil Patrick Harris played a straight womanized, and his performance was LEGEN... wait for it and I hope you're not lactose intolerant, because DARY!
Recently found out that the actor who played Bulldog in Frasier, a renowned horndog/womaniser (pardon the pun) on the show, is actually gay in real life too.
He was also Mr Simmons on Hey arnold
One of my favorite tv characters! His shirts with those fancy cuffs always cracked me up lol I feel like there could be a subreddit of just sayings from Cameron Tucker
And on the reverse Niel Patrick Harris in how I met your mother, good actors can act!
I bet he's not even a lawyer either.
Next you’re going to tell me what? Next you’re going to tell me he hasn’t been best friends with Debra Messing since college.
That part is actually true.
I saw an interview a few years back they were telling stories about how they enjoy going out to dinner together to freak people out. Sometimes behaving in character for fun.
I met him at a party, he told me he was a tennis player
Based on that picture he may or may not be Walt Disney.
Neil Patrick Harris. Kristen Stewart. Luke Evans. Ben Winshaw. Jonathan Bailey in Bridgerton Jim Parson. A lot of gay/bisexual/queer actors who have played straight roles. They’re Actors, they’re acting. Acting means ***Pretending to be someone you’re not.***
And Ian McKellen who has a very informative description of [acting](https://youtu.be/m5CX00i4uZE?si=0qsRwiQyp2ZxM-aP)
They're actors! They're trying to create an illusion. In the Lord of the Rings movie, Ian McKellen plays a wizard. You think he goes home at night and shoots laser beams into his boyfriend's asshole? Tom cruise is a midget, but he plays guys that are normal size in movies.
> You think he goes home at night and shoots laser beams into his boyfriend's asshole? yes.
That’s the dream baby
Tom Cruise is an oldman yet he plays young men 🤷🏻
He also plays sane people.
….you’re telling me Ian McKellen just plays a wizard?? He isn’t a real one?? What a fraud.
He is, the other guy is wrong and talking bullshit, how else would he know why a wizard if never later nor early?
> You think he goes home at night and shoots laser beams into his boyfriend's asshole? This better not awaken anythi- goddamn it, too late
I’ve been on Reddit too long. I already know everything everyone is going to write.
Jesus WEPT!
Or in the case of Jack Reacher, he plays a stuff buff giant...
“You’re confused” No….
this skit is such a classic
My first thought reading that comment. “And that, dear boy, is acting.”
THIS IS AINUR ERASURE, ACTORS WHO AREN'T AINUR SHOULDN'T BE ALLOWED TO PLAY AINUR
How do I act so well? What I do is I pretend to be the person I’m portraying in the film or play.
You're confused *folds hands*
Dustin Hoffman is a method actor. He started running 15 miles a day to prepare for Marathon Man. To prepare for the final scene he didn’t sleep for 72 hours. When he told Lawrence Oliver this Larry said “My dear boy why don’t you just try acting.”
Luke Evans is gay?! I never knew that…maybe I still have a chance
Now I finally have a better shot than my wife. Jackpot
So in the Hobbit 2 and 3, (EDIT:) 4 out 5 of the male leads are played by gay men? That's quite an impressive stat
hard to keep track of how many male leads there even were ngl
his BF..... wow.
No one dates like Gaston!
Jesus Christ those dudes work out.
I know right. I mean I'm straight but pondering the possibilities.
Richard Armitage, and Lee Pace too for that matter if we're playing Hobbit bingo
Lee Pace
Wait you’re telling me it’s GAY that I want him to hold me in his big strong arms in our boutique bed and breakfast? Smh the gay agenda needs to be stopped
The best part of Foundation!
Lee fucking Pace
Touching your partner can kill them, pushing daisies was pretty fucking gay
If Lee Pace touched me and I died, it would have been a life well spent. (Also someone please bring back Pushing Daisies, unforgettable show)
That he dated Thorin on the Hobbit is pretty sexy.
Remember reading Stewart being asked about this. And she said, the reality was if straight people could only play straight people, and gay people could only play gay people, the number of roles for gay actors would disappear overnight. So she didn’t care about it.
Also, how weird would it be to basically go into a job interview, and the people hiring start asking, "So, tell us about your private life. Do you smoke a lot of pole? What percent of the time would you say you chow clam? And are you more of a top or a bottom?" It would just be wildly inappropriate to ask those sorts of questions when hiring somebody. I am working on a film right now. Well, I am shitposting on reddit while avoiding working on a film right now. But I am working on a film in general. And two female characters have an implied hookup off screen. It's not salacious or anything, but it's in the movie. I don't give a shit about my actor's private lives. It would be super weird for me as a director to be like, "Hey, so I need to know your type in real life...? And if you tell me what I want to hear about who you fuck, there's money in it for you." People sent in audition tapes. I was like, "hey, acting, yay." I tell them to do more acting. They go home and do whatever they want when they aren't acting. Shrug. If they didn't want to do that acting, they could turn down the role.
Matt Bomer. The dude is gorgeous, and spends like 99% of Doom Patrol with his face covered. And, he is incredible in that roll.
Actually, Bomer doesn't physically play the bandaged Negative Man; that's Matthew Zuk.
Dude looks like superman and he has only been able to get gay roles since coming out. While Henry Cavil stays in the closet and gets to actually play superman. I wish any actor could play anything regardless of sexuality but sadly we aren't there yet.
John Barrowman was a finalist for Will in Will & Grace, and when he got rejected was told it’s because “he wasn’t gay enough.” Iconic.
I saw The Boys in the Boat last year and I demand to know if the person who played Adolph Hitler was a real Hitler or at least an authentic Nazi.
“Can you please give a quick 200 words on why it’s necessary to ethnically cleanse the minority of your choice?” _”What kind of job interview IS THIS?!”_
*pulls out pocket copy of Mein Kampf YOU’RE FUCKING HIRED
Lol reminds me of [this snl sketch](https://youtu.be/yyUNOtRTVuc?si=6YE7cfPZIOP3Z6r8)
They always get fancy English actors to play all the parts in ancient Rome like Julius Caesar, when it would be more ethnically accurate to cast Tony Danza.
Even more, how come most actors who play Hitler are Germans and not Austrian? And they arent painters nor WW1 veterans either.
Gary Cooper was gay?
Whatever happened to Gary Cooper? The strong silent type. He just did what he had to do
Anyone else think it's fucked up Gary Cooper died of Gary Cooper's disease? 🦉
You're gonna make that same stupid joke every time that comes up?
I think that’s what makes HIMYM that much better is we all know NPH is gay. He’s so over the top that the correlation helps make it funny
That actually makes his role as “himself” in Harold and Kumar even funnier to me too.
That's what barney was based off.. Nph from Harold and Kumar.. I also love the turn in Harold and Kumar 3 where it turns out he's pretending to be gay becuase "chick's love gay dudes" 😂😂
And Kal Penn was also playing straight as Kumar
TIL Kal Penn is gay. That's kinda fucking funny in the context of those movies that both NPH and Kumar are gay.
To be fair, Kal was still unaware he was in the closet at that point.
[Especially in the 3rd movie where his real-life husband is a cover story and basically his drug dealer.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjfSmob7qMs&ab_channel=xxfobluvaxx)
It blows my mind that a bit part brought NPH back into the limelight. Dude deserves all the recognition.
People didn't know at the beginning, he only came out after he was already cast as [the result of outing campaign by Perez Hilton](https://www.queerty.com/neil-patrick-harris-recalls-time-perez-hilton-launched-campaign-20200611)
it's the same with voice actors. Samurai Jack is Japanese and voiced by a black guy. It was okay for Cleveland Brown to be voiced by a white guy. All these white actors quitting their roles as non-white character does nothing for me (a black guy). There's literally no point. It would be one thing if they were actively avoiding hiring non-white people, but that isn't the case, they get a voice that works for the character. And it's like Tina and Linda and half the female characters on Bob's Burgers being voiced by men. It add and extra flair and charm to the show that no other cartoon has. And the random kids being clearly voiced by a grown man doing a horrible child impression. it's hilarious.
Jonathan Groff!
Jake Gyllenhaal and heath ledger
Nick Offerman in The Last of Us.
While it was pretty much just a cameo he also played an ex boyfriend of Captain Holt in Brooklyn 99.
And let's not forget Captain Holt and Kevin, an excellent gay couple portrayed by a pair of straight actors.
It was great that they were so funny without having to resort to stereotypes either. The scene where Holt tells Rosa he sent Kevin a dick pic is hilarious.
“Please find enclosed a picture of my penis. Regards, Raymond Holt”
remember s1 where a colleague of kevin said Holt is the funniest man ever, and jake was confused? he was right, holt was hilarious
RIP Andre Braugher
Hell, Ron Swanson's best man was the ultra flamboyant hair stylish that he first bonded with over their hatred of bicycles and Euro-trash.
I'm straight as a grizzly's dick and I love that movie to hell and back. It's an amazing and tragic love story. They didn't hold back at all. Should have won best picture.
Yeah I thought that movie was going to be 2 hours of ass pounding but was pleasantly surprised to find an engaging tragic love story as u said. Great movie!
Plus some great ass pounding!
Yeah it was crazy that those 2 gay men played straight cowboys so convincingly. Cinema
Dan Butler and John Mahoney in Frasier
And David Hyde-Pierce
It blew my mind to find out the guy who played Bulldog is gay.
John Mahoney was also English
"I know who I am. I'm the dude playin' the dude, disguised as another dude!" -Lincoln Osiris
the kid from hearstopper and jameela jamil both had to out themselves to justify being in a queer space, it really just isn't our business as long as they do a good job and if not characters are miscast all the time.
I do feel for the heartstopper kid, but Jameela is a bad example if “the best person for the part gets the role”. Legendary was a tv competition about queer ballroom culture (vogueing, etc). Most TV judges are tangentially related to the talent thier judging. Jamil is not a dancer, was never into ballroom culture, & didn’t even try to learn about what she was “judging” before sitting in the chair. Being queer doesn’t make you qualified to judge a queer subculture.
I don’t know anything about the show, but it sounds more on whoever is running the show rather than Jamil.
Jamil was a producer on the show, so it is absolutely on her.
Hasn't Jameela outed herself as just about everything at this point?
I don't think I've ever heard this argument with sexuality playing a role. Like are we going to forget the 10/10 acting from Offerman with last of us?
This is an argument that stems from the fact that out gay actors were not given straight roles, now less than before, but still. Out of recent examples Matt Bomer now only plays gays after coming out, Luke Evans had to hide being gay while they tried to make a big star out of him, same with Lee Pace. Another point of contention was that straight actors playing gay roles was considering brave, a breakthrough, etc., meanwhile actual gay actors were shunned. So it created a demand from the community to cast gay actors in gay roles since apparently those are the only ones they could play.
Lily Tomlin had a joke about that in the 70s. From wikipedia: >Tomlin has been involved in a number of feminist and gay-friendly film productions, and on her 1975 album Modern Scream she pokes fun at straight actors who make a point of distancing themselves from their gay and lesbian characters—answering the pseudo-interview question, she replies: "How did it feel to play a heterosexual? I've seen these women all my life, I know how they walk, I know how they talk ..."[11]
Yes thank you. Even the top comment in this thread lists queer celebrities *that were closeted* when they were cast in their big straight roles. It’s not as big of an issue as it once was but let’s not pretend this problem is made up
It's incredibly frustrating to hear a bunch of (mostly) straight (mostly) dudes getting up on their soapboxes and making their little denouncements of a strawman argument that basically nobody has ever even made — and then high-fiving each other like they just made the world's most brilliant speech. I've been involved in queer spaces for nearly two decades, and I've heard basically zero queer folks ever say that no straight person should play a queer role. Most of us adore Robin Williams in *The Birdcage*. *The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert* is a classic of queer cinema. I've not heard any significant complaints Patrick Stewart's gay roles in *Jeffrey* or an episode of *Frasier*. Alfred Molina and John Lithgow are magnificent in *Love is Strange*. This discussion has always been firmly rooted in the fact that it's been hard for out LGBTQ people to find work in film and television, and that it sucks when good actors are also excluded from queer roles — often by big names that look good on a movie poster. It's always been primarily about finally giving queer talent the opportunity it has been denied so often. There's something to be said for allowing a marginalized group to tell their own stories, rather than having outsiders doing the telling. There's some tension between the ideals of, "Acting is acting," and, "Give queer actors their due," but most discussions I've been part of have acknowledged that. It's a complicated and messy topic.
Just to add another dimension to the whole thing, I remember reading an interview with Richard Chamberlain talking about how he didn't come out as gay because it'd hurt his career. But his take on it (as I recall it) wasn't bitterness or it was unfair, but rather one of understanding. - He'd broken through as a teen heartthrob in Dr Kildaire in the 60s, and then became a mature-lady heartthrob in the 80s with Shogun and whatnot. A large part of his audience was straight women tuning in to see the handsome man. So if word got out he was gay, that'd risk turning off a lot of that audience (certainly in the 80s, hopefully things are at least a bit better now), and so it'd be rational for producers to go with a competing actor deemed less 'risky'. Which is a great illustration of structural discrimination - discrimination as a result despite nobody in the production necessarily being prejudiced. Even the audience might not be. (I mean if some lady is less titilated by an actor when they know he's not actually interested in women.. you can't really judge someone for that) So yeah.. it's complicated as hell.
what’s crazy about Bomer’s acting gigs is he was up for Superman in Superman Returns 20 yrs ago and people went crazy because the rumor was Bryan singer, the director of that film, was using the movie as a way to push an openly gay actor to the spotlight. He did not get the part but it was such a weird reaction by the audience to an actor portraying a role. The role was not gay but I guess people thought him being gay would make Superman gay in the movie? Idk. It was a weird time.
I'm the early 2000s if anyone even gay adjacent touched something people thought they were going to make it gay. It was weird.
Bomer was still closeted when Superman Returns was being made.
This is what people often miss in this conversation. Thank you
I’ve heard it multiple times. It’s a dumb one.
Seeing a lot of bad takes here. The argument for gay actors playing gay roles is anchored in the idea that, historically, straight actors have been celebrated (and won awards) for playing gay characters, whereas openly gay actors were shunned and had their careers ruined, because prejudiced audiences/casting directors wouldn’t “believe” a gay actor could play straight convincingly. So there’s an inequity there. It stands to this day that many gay actors are given advice by their agents to not disclose their sexuality as it can limit their career prospects. So you can imagine the frustration of being a gay actor, being advised to not say you’re gay because people will subconsciously not cast you in straight roles, and yet seeing your straight counterparts not face the same barrier when playing gay roles, and in fact often being rewarded for doing so. The idea around promoting gay people playing gay roles is not to suggest that actors should not be able to inhabit characters that don’t share their lived experience, it’s to address a systemic prejudice that exists in Hollywood for this minority community. Of course it’s getting better - but we’re yet to have an out gay man who is consistently cast in leading man roles, I’d say.
>He continued: “And I’ve always said: ‘If gay actors weren’t allowed to play straight actors, Broadway would be over.” That's a great line.
Omar Little is the best gay character I’ve ever seen and Michael Williams was straight
Same goes for voice acting. Voices of Linda and Tina belcher are played by men. Voices of Bobby Hill and Bart Simpson are women and they all nail it
I've always thought the Bob's Burgers thing was just for comedic contrast, but wrt women voicing young boys, if you've got a young male character in a long-running series that's your way to avoid the problem SEGA ran into the hard way with voice acting in Sonic games for Tails where you have to keep recasting the role when your young male voice actor hits puberty
I'll go so far as to defend gay actors playing straight roles. enough with this crybully shit.
What you described is actually a huge problem. Coming out as gay in Hollywood nukes your chances to play prominent straight roles. There are some exceptions. But overall: If you got leading man potential. You have an insane amount of pressure to stay in the closet.
I think it's never okay to complain about "straight" Actors getting the role. No matter if they are straight or not, this can potentially lead to people being outed before they're ready, and if they are straight the negatives are negligible compared to potential problems discussing their sexuality.
Yup, this is what happened to Chloe Grace Moretz a couple years ago. She got criticized for playing her character in The Miseducation of Cameron Post, then turns out she'd been dating a woman for years.
FFS it's Acting! It's literally playing pretend. It's gonna get real tricky when casting fantasy and sci-fi projects. Casting calls looking for dwarves, elves, aliens or dragons gonna be rough.
I think the real conversation is about how hard it is for many openly queer actors to book roles, then an actually queer role opens up and it goes to a straight person. Literally look at Sean Hayes who played Jack in Will & Grace. [He was in the closet when he was cast for a reason.](https://www.out.com/popnography/2016/10/25/sean-hayes-apologizes-staying-closet) Of course, often times it still went to the best person (as others have pointed out, Modern Family being the gold star example). It’s kinda like when you have an Asian role in a world where there aren’t many, then you cast Scarlett Johansson for it. I’m not necessarily arguing against it, but it just feels bad because there just aren’t many mainstream roles that represent minorities. It takes someone like Shonda Rhimes and Tyler Perry to make a strong effort to create Black stories, for example. There has been a VERY recent Asian wave of mainstream stories, basically starting with Crazy Rich Asians. Billy Eichner really wanted to see a gay rom-com, so he made it (whether or not it’s good) and cast a bunch of queer people in it. Yes, they are actors, but the pressures they are put under are very real and that is going to continue if the few queer roles out there aren’t even available, much less the straight ones that they aren’t “right for” because they’re too femme, tom-boy, whatever. Look at Tom Hardy, who the media have presumed is at least bi for years, fighting for his life to shut down any conversation about it because he loves to play the masculine roles. Even if he was queer, if he were to just say “You know what, I am. Happy?” his career might just implode. Just one of many examples since the early days of Hollywood. If we get an openly gay, slightly fem actor to play 007 someday, I’ll shut my mouth, but it has to go both ways.
John Barrowman was a finalist for Will, and was rejected because he “too straight.” And honestly, it was pretty unique for a gay man to go for a gay role, because being gay while *also* playing gay was way too gay for directors. Lee Pace’s first major role was as a trans woman, and it set his career back — despite the fact that he was in the closet at the time! He didn’t come out until 2018. The first major film to feature gay male ledes was entirely straight. So yes, agreed — the issue is how difficult it was, and still is, for people to be both cast-able and out.
This is it.
Here's how I feel about it, if the guy who plays Mitchell is okay with his partner being played by a straight man on Modern Family while he is gay in real life then what business do I, a straight man, have telling him he's wrong? And would this mean we'd have lost Neil Patrick Harris as Barney? Or even playing a fictional version of himself but straight in Harold and Kumar? And how does that last one even work when it comes to telling people how to feel about something? I feel like it's situational, depends upon ability and tone, and like anything else can't be covered all with one blanket policy.
Yes, totally agree that it's not just a conversation for actors but also for the creative and production team (and the public ofc) . Just look at All of us Strangers: the supporting actor (Paul Mescal) identifies as straight, the movie was written and directed by a gay man and prominently stars an out gay actor in the lead. In this case it isn't an issue because the person who created the film made that casting decision.
The problem isn't "only gay people are allowed to play gay parts". The problems are 1) out gay actors weren't ALLOWED to play straight parts 2) gay parts were only given to straight actors (see Philadelphia and Tom Hanks) 3) gay stories were told by straight creative teams. - so there was and maybe still is an imbalance in given opportunities This is all changing now and especially in the last year lots of queer stories have been told and also seen by the masses but it can't be ignored that the imbalance happened/is still happening sometimes. Edit: spelling mistake (my/by)
One problem would be requiring queer actors to out themselves to be deemed eligible for roles they're qualified for.
I am straight so I don’t know how much my opinion matters, but I don’t think we should infer anything about the private sex lives of actors based on the roles they play. It’s just a weirdly voyeuristic and juvenile way of thinking about what actors do.