WHERE'S THE KUDOS FOR GAY ACTORS PLAYING STRAIGHT ROLES?
By Jerome Cleary
As we head toward the Academy Awards ceremony in March and the momentum continues to grow for Brokeback Mountain, I keep thinking about the gay and lesbian actors who have convincingly played roles of heterosexual men and woman in TV and film.
Who cannot forget the devil-may-care cad Rock Hudson played in the film Pillow Talk, as he was actually a gay man playing a heterosexual man. His incredible performance as he set up Doris Day on their shared party telephone line in the 1950s was one of his best performances.
So where are the newspaper and magazine articles along with the major kudos to Portia de Rossi and Cynthia Nixon for playing heterosexual women with complete abandon? Where was the clamor for TV’s John Wesley Shipp playing a heterosexual dad on Dawson’s Creek or his heterosexual comic book hero in the film The Flash?
Who also cannot forget the riveting 1983 TV miniseries The Thorn Birds, in which Richard Chamberlain played a straight Roman Catholic priest, Ralph de Bricassart, who constantly struggled between his calling and his carnal desire for women? Or the famous TV lawyer Perry Mason played by Raymond Burr or even TV’s Dick Sargent playing Darren Stevens on Bewitched.
Why, when two actors who are well-touted again and again in the media that they are straight men playing two demanding gay roles in Brokeback Mountain, does there seem to be such a focus and clamor? And why is it supposedly more demanding and harder for a heterosexual man to play a gay role then a gay man to play a heterosexual role?
Why are we told again and again that Heath Ledger, whose Ennis character is married in the film to actress Michelle Williams, is also involved romantically with that actress in real life? That he got her pregnant and that she just had their baby seem to be in every press release and article. Was this to convince us all that he is still definitely straight and he is just acting gay in this film?
The main reason may be because gays and lesbians have been towing the line in straight roles for decades but the media and public does not have that keen interest to ask them: How do you do it? It must be so difficult and hard for you to hug, kiss and make love to a heterosexual on camera when you are not straight.
Well, I believe it’s because no one really cares. For some reason gays and lesbians have to be the stoic acting players who portray heterosexual characters without any real acknowledgement or excitement.
As non-heterosexuals, we are suppose to just butch it up and shut up. Magazines and newspapers do not want to put us on the cover as a featured article, as artists stretching themselves in a whole new heterosexual direction.
The rest of the world must be probably thinking it must not be any real craft for homosexuals to play demanding heterosexual roles.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the director Ang Lee of Brokeback Mountain is a brilliant director, and I do think Brokeback Mountain is a great film. But as I was watching the Golden Globes and have been reading and seeing all the press on this film, you would have thought that the Brokeback Mountain actors were re-inventing the wheel with their roles.
Jerome Cleary is an actor, writer and comic at The World Famous Comedy Store-www.freecomedytickets.com and can be reached at: jeromeclearytalk@aol.com
As we head toward the Academy Awards ceremony in March and the momentum continues to grow for Brokeback Mountain, I keep thinking about the gay and lesbian actors who have convincingly played roles of heterosexual men and woman in TV and film.
Who cannot forget the devil-may-care cad Rock Hudson played in the film Pillow Talk, as he was actually a gay man playing a heterosexual man. His incredible performance as he set up Doris Day on their shared party telephone line in the 1950s was one of his best performances.
So where are the newspaper and magazine articles along with the major kudos to Portia de Rossi and Cynthia Nixon for playing heterosexual women with complete abandon? Where was the clamor for TV’s John Wesley Shipp playing a heterosexual dad on Dawson’s Creek or his heterosexual comic book hero in the film The Flash?
Who also cannot forget the riveting 1983 TV miniseries The Thorn Birds, in which Richard Chamberlain played a straight Roman Catholic priest, Ralph de Bricassart, who constantly struggled between his calling and his carnal desire for women? Or the famous TV lawyer Perry Mason played by Raymond Burr or even TV’s Dick Sargent playing Darren Stevens on Bewitched.
Why, when two actors who are well-touted again and again in the media that they are straight men playing two demanding gay roles in Brokeback Mountain, does there seem to be such a focus and clamor? And why is it supposedly more demanding and harder for a heterosexual man to play a gay role then a gay man to play a heterosexual role?
Why are we told again and again that Heath Ledger, whose Ennis character is married in the film to actress Michelle Williams, is also involved romantically with that actress in real life? That he got her pregnant and that she just had their baby seem to be in every press release and article. Was this to convince us all that he is still definitely straight and he is just acting gay in this film?
The main reason may be because gays and lesbians have been towing the line in straight roles for decades but the media and public does not have that keen interest to ask them: How do you do it? It must be so difficult and hard for you to hug, kiss and make love to a heterosexual on camera when you are not straight.
Well, I believe it’s because no one really cares. For some reason gays and lesbians have to be the stoic acting players who portray heterosexual characters without any real acknowledgement or excitement.
As non-heterosexuals, we are suppose to just butch it up and shut up. Magazines and newspapers do not want to put us on the cover as a featured article, as artists stretching themselves in a whole new heterosexual direction.
The rest of the world must be probably thinking it must not be any real craft for homosexuals to play demanding heterosexual roles.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the director Ang Lee of Brokeback Mountain is a brilliant director, and I do think Brokeback Mountain is a great film. But as I was watching the Golden Globes and have been reading and seeing all the press on this film, you would have thought that the Brokeback Mountain actors were re-inventing the wheel with their roles.
Jerome Cleary is an actor, writer and comic at The World Famous Comedy Store-www.freecomedytickets.com and can be reached at: jeromeclearytalk@aol.com
posted by JeromeCleary @ 1:19 AM
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