Elliott Page was cast as a cis straight woman all the time before his transition, and after he came out as queer as well. Cherry Jones, perhaps because of her age, plays straight characters all the time. Tessa Thompson, Sarah Paulson, Samira Wiley, Evan Rachel Wood, Aubrey Plaza have all played variants along the femme-butch spectrum. Kristen Stewart will never really have an issue straddling the femme line the way she does. I agree with everything Luca said, though I do think it applies to femme queer men more.
Femme/butch/tomboy women can get around just about anything and so so so many female actors have come out as bisexual or pansexual that I’ve lost track. This is a conversation that almost feels so….old-fashioned? But here we are regardless. I myself do not know what the perfect solution here is. But I am willing to listen to and consider some good counterarguments. To say it should not be taken into consideration at all is IMO completely neglecting, if not legitimizing, the inequality that is in place. Ideally, we’d be in a situation where sexuality didn’t matter, but we live in a world in which it does. Many people can “digest” queer characters when they’re played by straight people, but not when they’re played by actual queer people, because it becomes too “real” for them. Tom O’Neil actually talked about this in a slugfest after The Normal Heart lost everything at the Emmys. There’s a reason queer people rarely win acting awards for playing queer characters while straight actors are praised to high heaven and acknowledged with hardware for doing the same. However, it is a fact that Hollywood is often scared to cast queer people in queer roles because of the backlash they’ll face. But also, how is anything supposed to change if no one challenges the unjust system that is in place even in the biz? As I said above, if he had equal opportunity and saw more openly queer actors in queer roles, particularly in prestigious projects, we might not be having this conversation. I don’t get why actors’ sexuality is supposed to be public knowledge, let alone a requirement for a film.Ī fair point.
Meanwhile, some straight people already riot when there’s a single queer character in a movie. And I don’t understand why people are getting so upset: the gays (including myself) are still gonna watch and prob stan this. But did all their roles have to go to (ostensibly) straight actors? All of them? If we actually had equal opportunity, it would be a different story. Jake Gyllenhaal, Heath Ledger, Kate Winslet, Saiorse Ronan, Timothée Chalamet, Jharrel Jerome, Ashton Sanders, Josh O’Connor, Paul Mescal, etc. Summed up: Hollywood doesn’t want queer people in straight roles but also doesn’t want them in queer roles because, you know, you wouldn’t want to risk pissing people off. When the queer roles, of which there are comparatively few at disposal, then go to straight people who have already endless other options simply because they’re straight, that’s where the problem starts. What this means is that (openly) queer actors already have fewer opportunities. shy away from queer people in straight roles because they don’t think we’re believable as straight people. Look here’s the deal: A lot of casting directors, studios, execs, etc.