Should Straight People Play Gay Characters?

hello and welcome back to this week's edition of guess that gay where you the viewer can take your chance to guess which one of these actors that play iconic queer characters are actually gay in real life starting off with round one Judy gatwa any guesses that's right gay let's try and amp this up a little bit round two we have Jonathan Bailey guess what also gay now brace yourself this one might be a little tricky enter Nicholas galline wait what he's not oh hey guys what's up it's emergency and welcome back to my Channel today if you did not Gather By the title or that very unserious skit we are talking about a very interesting topic and a conversation that by and large is not new has been talked about before and that is the question of whether or not it is okay that straight actors play gay roles and like I said this is not a new conversation like just by a simple search on Google you'd see that this is a conversation that's been going on for years if not decades but it's recently resurfaced and come to light again as we've been seeing more representation of queer characters in storylines in recent Works in TV and film and with this higher visibility of queer characters and storylines they've also begin to notice that there's also an increase in who is playing said characters and with the increase in represent ation there's also an increase in knowledge over the fact that often times that the actors that are playing these queer characters may or may not actually be queer themselves like most notably you've had the recent breakout actor Nicholas gallet scene who in the past couple of years has played many queer roles that have honestly come out kind of back to back like just going off this list in the past 10 years he's played the queer characters Angelo in Legends Conor Masters in handsome devil Timmy Andrews in the craft Legacy George vilers and Mary and George and most notably in the queer scene Prince Henry in red white and royal blue and now Nicholas is not the only straight actor that has played queer characters as there are also many others but because of the frequency of this happening it is really brought into question whether or not it is okay for straight people to occupy these roles and whether or not this takes away opportunities from actual queer people to tell their own stories and trust and believe we're going to be getting into all that and more in this video this is a very deep in Nuance conversation and I'm excited to jump in and have that with you but before we do that if you are new to the channel then definitely subscribe leave a like and follow me on my socials at emergency on Instagram Tik Tok and Twitter if you're interested you can also click the join button to get two exclusive Channel member videos a month along with Early Access to every single one of these videos that come out for as low as a dollar a month to support this channel but self-promo aside let's get into this conversation and start with why this happens in the first place so like why do straight people play gay roles so much well to put it simply it's a role and a role like any other we've seen actors play the role things things like fish people bank robbers zombies and yes gay people and for a lot of actors playing a queer role is nothing more than just putting on another hat to portray and tell a story so it really becomes less of a question of why straight actors take these roles but more so a question of if they should be taking these roles and of course like every situation there are Arguments for and against this with those not finding issue in it saying that it is essentially like playing any other role with the whole nature and art of acting being the act of putting your in someone else's Sho someone else's scenario to tell a story that is different from your own so in that as a publicly straight actor one would just be taking on that experience to have that story be told through them there's also another argument for it saying that you shouldn't relegate different roles for different people which I think it's just technically a weaker argument because I feel like there are already standards for that showing that like not everyone can just pull up and go for the same roles like casting directors typically have a certain image or a certain vibe in mind when they're casting someone it's not color it's culture Steven Spielberg did Shin l l Mar GOI did good fellow Steven Spielberg could direct Good Fellows Martin sces he probably could have done a good job with chinless list but their cultural differences and then the predominent argument against straight actors playing queer roles is that it can one take away opportunities for these roles to be played by actual queer people and two having a straight actor play a queer role can potentially not saying that this is 100% the case but can potentially can either dilute or misrepresent the queen weer experience since that is not necessarily A lived experience that the actor can pull upon to bring into the production which honestly brings me to the next section of this video and honestly the section that I'm most excited to talk about and delve into because I think that it is such a complex conversation and it's the fact that people say in response to that criticism that there just is not enough like good queer talent to fill these roles and the question is often ask like where is the queer talent to actually fill these roles well I will say this the queer Talent is 100% % there but whether or not said queer Talent actually wants to SL should take those roles is a completely different conversation and what I mean by this is that there is an abundance of queer Talent out there a lot of both aspiring and established queer actors in the industry but as a gay or queer person playing those roles and taking those roles can often be a double-edged sword because while yes being a queer person yourself can actually allow you to bring real and authentic experiences to your work and to the performance because it's more of a lived experience that you're portraying or bringing into the production a lot of times playing the queer character especially when it's a queer supporting character can kind of become a trap especially if the project that these queer artists are a part of is really successful it can become a trap where then people moving forward only really see them as the gay character and in that they then become typ cast as like the gay character it makes it harder for them to be taken seriously and considered for other roles outside of that and this is definitely a thing the fear of being typ cast in one role can be very limited committing both for your own artistic expression and also financially and career-wise because it then kind of keeps you in one bubble doesn't really allow you to have the range that your straight counterparts who can then sort of balance playing roles that are queer playing roles that are straight playing roles really about anything which is why sometimes we've seen actors either hide the fact that they are queer or downplay that part of their identity so it doesn't become a factor during auditions and in the casting process in a quote from an article from backstage.com titled actor sexuality a career impediment the author reads a quote I've heard that sexuality can keep you from getting represented and or cast one of the friends I was talking to told me that he was going for a theatrical representation and the lady didn't want to rep him because she heard he was gay so his team had to cast doubts on what she heard and she ended up taking him he has a boyfriend but he is now staying out of the gay scene and trying to put out the sex symbol Type image for the females this wears me out and the rest of this article kind of calls out the entertainment industry for having this be a thing or having people feel like this is a thing it just goes to show the sort of double standard that comes with playing queer roles as the actual queer person versus a straight person in the sense that when you're a straight person playing a queer role you're seen as sort of expanding your range being quote unquote revolutionary or brave but can then go back and play straight roles no problem for some queer Talent when they're actually given the opportunity to tell their own story lines they aren't always afforded that same range after the fact or at least not afforded that range with the same amount of ease like there of course are actors both straight and gay who kind of end up getting getting typ casted as being caricatures of themsel or a stereotype but getting back to the conversation about queer typecasting there's also Nu on within the community that I feel like a lot of people don't talk about when it comes to queer representation and casting because even when queer people are brought on to play queer characters or just any character depending on how you as a person present yourself regardless of acting ability you still may not be taken completely seriously and this is to say that there are different opportunities and different access to representation as a queer person depending on your passibility and by passibility In This sense I mean like how visibly queer are you and I put that in air quotes because visibly queer is very subjective but in this case I think of someone like Jonathan Bailey Jonathan Bailey is a successful actor who plays both straight and gay characters because of his passibility he presents as a masculine straight passing guy who could have the luck and the aura of being a straight guy or being a straight character or being a master masculine queer character like did y all remember when he got Ariana Grande boyfriend allegations last year when he Ariana were sitting next to each other at Wimbleton knowing full and well that that man is gay there were articles writing about it people were talking online like oh my God is this Arana this new man like no but this man is straight passing which also I want to clarify is not to his fault this is not a slight at Jonathan Bailey or a critique of him specifically but more so the industry and society that we live in because the same type of range and fluidity that Mr Bailey is is afforded isn't oftentimes afforded to more feminine presenting actors in a quote from a DA's article it states that in an old but enduring dichotomy masculine straight passing gay characters tend to be weightier more complex and substantial feminine gay characters while there are exceptions still tend to be more light-hearted and comedic which then introduces another aspect of this conversation which in my opinion furthers the point of not being taken seriously and essentially being typ cast as a queer character like if you're not able to give the range and by range I mean by being more m masculine being more straight passing than the story lines that your character is given and the characters that you are assigned tend to not be as serious which can be very limiting for queer actors that don't necessarily fit into that mold or don't necessarily have that Public Image and essentially relegate those actors in the characters that they play as the comedic relief as something or someone that's more light-hearted and don't really give them the depth that those characters need which wakes up a whole other conversation I'm sorry I'm going on so many tangents and hold on I need to stand up when I say this this goes out more for the industry as a whole but when it comes to telling queer storylines if we're going solely under the assumption of this quote talking about how masculine straight passing characters are given more serious more complex storylines under the context and Conversation Over representation what is that saying about feminine presenting queer people like if the industry does not believe that more a feminite queer actors can play and give complex and deep storylines does that also not mean that they don't believe that feminine gay and queer people have complex and interesting stories to tell everybody hates F and honestly this isn't too shocking to hear because when was the last time you saw a deep and complex storyline or show or movie or I won't even say necessarily feminine but a non-masculine queer character that wasn't just The Sassy Snappy best friend or side character right there is not great representation I feel like that could be a whole different video about how there just aren't very many complex feminine queer story lines and don't even get me started on safic media because Lord knows they don't like making safic media any longer than a single season but I'm sort of losing the plot here this whole section is just to say that there is definitely queer Talent out there to tell these stories but there are a lot of different complexities there are a lot of different nuances behind why we may not be seeing as many queer people go for these roles or sort of the quote unquote I use this word very lightly even though it's not a light word the dangers career-wise of being a queer person that only takes these queer roles but let's take a little break from the queer POV and switch over to the straight POV because we've talked a little bit about why there is some hesitancy for queer people to take these roles let's now talk about the rationale behind why straight actors are willing to take on queer roles now I found this really great article from out where they compiled a bunch of interviews from actors that have played queer characters in the past past talking about their opinions on straight actors playing queer roles and why they took theirs starting off with Paul mcal who played a queer character in all of us strangers when asked he said that it depends on who's in charge of telling the story The issue is that there have been so many queer performances in cinema that have been offensive but that's because the filmmakers and the actors have been careless and I feel like that's an interesting take because I'm going to talk about this a little bit later on in the video but when it comes to presenting and talking about queer story lines you want to handle them with care especially especially if you're not a part of the community itself and you're more of a visitor in the space rather than having that space be home to you you want to make sure that the story you're telling is one handled with care and two is actually being researched and there are people actually a part of the community a part of the production if not the actors then the directors then the writers then the showrunners like at least having someone a part of that Community a part of the production to keep it on base so you don't end up making a whole project that ends up being a caricature or a mockery of whatever Community or story you're trying to talk about next is Darren Chris who won an Emmy for playing a gay man in American Crime Story and also played a gay teen on Glee and interestingly enough he says in this that he is done playing gay characters stating that there are certain queer roles that I'll see that are just wonderful but I want to make sure that I won't be another straight boy taking a gay man's role the reason that I say this is because getting to play these characters is inherently a wonderful dramatic experience and it is made for very very comp telling and interesting people now this is interesting because again it brings up the conversation over what is faithful or authentic representation versus the very real conversation of typ casting that we just talked about I am personally not of the belief that every single queer character needs to be played by a queer actor because I could see how that can be limiting but I do believe that if they are going to make a production if they are going to make a show movie or whatever about the queer experience if the actors themselves are not going to be queer like at least one side of the production needs to be queer if they're making a queer storyline like either needs to be the people behind the camera or the people in front of the camera or both but that's real then you have someone like Kate Blanchette who is a straight woman who has previously played roles as a lesbian and a bisexual woman and she is strongly for straight people playing queer roles saying that she will fight to the death for the right to suspend disbelief and play roles beyond my experience saying that we expect and only expect people to make a profound connection to a character when it's close to their experience and I think part of that is real because like I said in the beginning of this video like the whole point of being an actor is to play roles and to play experiences that are different from yourself however when it comes to certain experiences I don't think that everyone has the range or the vibe or look to be telling those stories not saying that it's comparable at all like I've seen some people compare straight people playing queer roles as white people playing Black roles and I really don't think those two are the same thing at all they're both identities but when you do one of those you're racist and there's a lot of racial and cultural context that goes behind race versus sexual orientation however on a basic identity level yeah I don't think those two comparisons are similar at all and then finally Jake Gyllenhaal who has iconically played gay roles in movies like Brokeback Mountain and he stated that in speaking about those experiences that part of the medicine of Storytelling is that we were two straight guys playing these parts there was stigma about playing a part like that and I think that it's very important to both of us to break that stigma but then again I think that that has led the way towards people saying you know people of all different experiences should be playing more roles that it shouldn't be limited to a small group of people and I believe that and I don't know how I feel about all of that because when you talk about stigma the stigma of a straight person playing a queer role I can get that on the level of sort of normalizing homosexuality to a heterosexual audience at that time if that's what he meant by that but if the stigma is more so talking about like a straight person playing a queer role it kind of goes back to like the whole like oh my God you're so brave for playing a queer role like as a straight man you are so brave for doing that it kind of gives more onus and more respect and credit to the straight actor than the queer story if that makes sense the groundbreaking part of it all should be that it's a queer story that went mainstream and not that it was a straight actor playing a queer character if that makes sense you know because it kind of distracts him what's really important about the project and when it comes to the whole thing about being limited to a small group of people again I have like conflicting opinions of of like I don't think that it should be limited but I also think that there's such a magic in the authenticity and the presentation of a performance specifically when I'm talking about queer stories when the people that are playing queer roles are also queer and have a very similar experience like I think my mind races to pose pose was such a good work of media because the stories that were told were so closely linked to the personal stories and experiences of the cast themselves that they were able to deliver such a performance that was so gripping and so emotional but again not every production is able to do that and there also is a level of acting to where if you are a really great actor you in theory could give it your all to give a performance like that but when it comes to my other side of my opinion about limiting queer roles to a small group of people meaning just queer people I feel like in a perfect world where we're like okay it's okay for everyone to play queer roles it would also need to be true that having every other role is not excluding that same small group of people that same group of queer people it would ultimately need to go both ways because as we've talked about before being openly queer and not straight passing does not afford you the same access Privileges and opportunities as being a straight person that is open to playing queer roles or a queer person that is more masculine presenting towards straight roles or roles that are not exclusively queer oh and I'm looking at my script right here and I was just about to get into that and talking about the double standard of it all I have written here that straight actors can often times launch their careers off of these popular queer roles gools that they play only for them to not really be a part of that Community essentially profiting and monetizing themselves in their career off of a community that is not theirs which brings up the question of at what point is it playing a character and character acting it's just that again as a queer actor you're not always really able to do the same thing without push back like my mind races to chudy gatwa when he was announced to be the new Doctor Who all the push back online that he ended up getting both for the fact that he was black and the fact that he's openly CER he was getting tore up online by people being both racist and homophobic and there were some very real push back against that but whenever it's the cast of a straight actor being announced to be playing a queer role there is I'm not going to not going to deny that there is some push back because there are conversations over like whether or not straight people should play these queer roles but it's not really comparable it's not the same amount of push back in vitriol and this article from Days kind of supports that stating that actors should be able to play against type and inhabit characters outside of their own identities the problem with the industry to today is that not everyone is given that opportunity with an actual casting director that they interviewed stating that I think it's always difficult when you're an actor and you are a minority in whatever shape or form because there are always more roles for people who are not straight white Posh guys basically ling a role as a straight character is particularly difficult for gay actors who are younger or less established so this really shows the double standard that exists between who are gay actors that are looking to take roles outside of the typ casted gay roles and straight actors that are looking for a little bit of a challeng Cheng and taking on a queer role especially if we're looking at those younger and less established talents I feel like it's a lot easier and a lot more accepted for a younger less established straight actor to then want to go and play a queer role and then essentially gain success off of that versus the opposite being true which is all to say that again I feel like it's less of a conversation over whether or not straight actors should play queer roles but more so opening The Conversation Over why is so easy for them to have to take queer roles when it is so difficult to go the other way around as a queer person to play a straight role because looking at it objectively like if it is harder for queer people to land straight rolls as a whole that just means that there are less options and less opportunities for queer actors if for one it's difficult to book a straight role or the only other option that you have is to be typ cast as a queer character but then you're also then competing with other straight people for those queer roles there's just less of an option now we touched on this before but now let's talk about the conversation over gay characters versus gay creators now I talked about this before but I just wanted to reiterate that in my opinion in order to really treat a queer storyline with care if you are not going to have actors and the people in front of the camera be queer themselves then at least the writers the director the creators of the show should be queer themselves so the piece comes across less as telling a story from the outsider's point of view and more so telling an authentic storyline from people that are actually in the community and can have those nuances and those complexities that come with being in the queer Community because at the end of the day when it comes to queer representation we don't have a lot of it or I should say we don't have a lot of quality queer representation in the sense that I feel like some queer media is definitely made more for straight audiences to sort of understand and relate with the queer Community more than content that is made by the queer Community for the queer Community to joy and I feel like a lot of that is due to things like not having a lot of actual queer people in the writer's room in the Productions or having the actors be queer themselves to actually help along with that but now last point I want to talk about are some of the dark sides and the extremes of this conversation and of this argument just where I feel like we can sort of take this discourse and go too far with it and this specifically has to do with the whole witch hunting that comes with straight actors playing queer roles or people that we don't know the sexuality of playing in queer roles now while I think it's an important conversation to have about representation and stuff like that it is 100% not okay to hunt these actors down and to pester them for their sexuality if they have not already previously publicly stated it because unless the actor has explicitly stated like oh yeah I am 100% straight I am a straight actor playing this role we truly don't know where that actor stands in their own queer Journey whether they're queer or not or whether they feel like sharing that or not because again we've talked about why or why not someone may want to disclose that for the sake of their career and for the sake of their opportunities or for the sake of their own privacy and we've seen how this played out very negatively specifically with the kit Connor situation if you're not familiar with kit Connor who has iconically played the role of Nick and Heart Stopper initially when heartstopper came out he did not clarify what his sexuality was which led people to do digging and to people say that he was queer baiting which in case I haven't said it before is not a real thing for real people and it's profiting and taking advantage of the queer community and all this when he again had not specifically come out and said what his sexuality was and essentially peer pressure kit into coming out as bisexual before honestly he was ready to do that himself which if I hav it made myself clear is not okay to do like there is a very nasty side of the internet and very nasty side of this conversation where people feel like they need to force every single actor out the closet or to explicitly State their sexuality which honestly in my opinion is just like not the point and just like not okay to do like there is valid criticism in not having talent represented equally for roles but at the same time there needs to be space held for compassion empathy and just common decency so I don't know if you've noticed but like for all the examples that I've stated in this video I've only talked about people that have confirmed and come out publicly and said that they are straight or that they are gay or queer for anyone in between that hasn't explicitly confirmed we need to let them Rock because we don't know their story we don't know what their sexuality is not that it's any of our business if they choose to tell us or not but the witch hunting of it all is just UNC uncute and honestly detracts from the conversation as a whole but yeah I just wanted to say that as a last little aside before I close out this video I feel like this topic is just so Nuance in such an interesting conversation cuz I don't think that there is explicitly a right answer whether or not streight people should be playing queer roles again just to summarize I'm of the belief that yeah it's okay as long as there are some queer representatives in the production whether that be behind the scenes in the writer's room or in front of the camera but more so I feel like I would only be able to say like yes 100% yes it's okay and we shouldn't have any problem with it as soon as it is also true that it is completely fine and okay for queer people themselves to also then go on and play straight roles with the same level of ease until the two sides are really equal and opportunities are given equally to both I'd say yeah it's okay but then also at the same time like there is a lot of room for improvement in the industry in terms of representation and casting but yeah I have yapped on long enough now I'm turning the mic over to you what do you think about straight Act playing queer characters what do you think about queer actors playing straight characters let me know all of your thoughts down in the comments below again if you're new to the channel then definitely subscribe for more content leave a like on this video cuz it helps out the YouTube algorithm and follow me on my socials at emergency on Instagram Tik Tok and Twitter other than that y'all I've been emergency and I will see you in the next video peace

Channel: imuRgency

Views: 64,536

Keywords: Imurgency, rumi, gen Z, commentary, gen z memes, gen z humor, gen z cringe, gen z vs millennials, gen z representation, gen alpha, gen alpha humor, gen alpha vs gen z, media literacy, quarter life crisis, lgbt, pride month, queer representation, gay characters, nicholas galitzine, jacob elordi, ncuti gatwa, red white & royal blue, gay tv shows, gay movies, kit conner, heartstopper, barry keoghan, kit connor, taylor zahkar perez

Id: K97S1IrAriM

Length: 25min 17sec (1517 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 11 2024