Stanley Tucci says he thinks straight actors should be able to play gay characters

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 6,435]

23 minutes ago, River said:

Neil Patrick Harris, Matt Bomer, Cynthia Nixon, Wentworth Miller, Portia de Rossi, Jodie Foster, Luke Evans and the list goes on and on all played straight characters in the last 20 years, Niel role as Barney had a big impact in accepting LGBTQ+ actors in general and accepting LGBTQ+ actors in roles of straights.

Neil came out after How I Met Your Mother, Bomer came out after White Collar, Wentworth after Prison Break, etc. They had to prove that they were worth watching and casting before they came out. It's not often gay men get their break after already being out, or coming out shortly after a show airs. I feel like that's pretty important to note here. They shouldn't have had to pass a test and show a studio they're profitable before coming out and they shouldn't feel that they have to hide it in order to further their careers. But that's the case. Ideally I would love to see anyone play any role eventually, but in a time when gay men are boxed away or meant to hide who they are I'm not a fan of majority of straight men getting gay roles when gay men have to hide being gay to get any role at all. 

7 hours ago, Future Lovers said:

It's not even that, really. 

It's who is the best fit for the role. Studios, or rather more specifically directors, want to cast the actor that's going to do the best job in the role. It would be silly to exclude a heterosexual actor from a homosexual role if they're the best fit. Imagine a world where Heath Ledger didn't give one of the best performances in film history for Brokeback Mountain. 

Why anyone would knowingly pass over the best audition simply to cast within a specific sexuality is beyond me. 

And like I said above, it's damaging to homosexual actors' careers to insist that they must play gay roles. This demand is gonna keep on until the only roles gay actors get are gay characters. Actors don't want to be pigeon holed like that. 

We all know that jobs are never about who's best fit. There's always a lot more to it than that, in every industry. It just so happens that openly gay men aren't cast in roles as often because they appeal to a minority, and women will say "it's a shame he's gay" and it plays a factor in if they go to see the movie. Marketability is a huge portion of why actors get cast. Why else would studios pay tens of millions of dollars for a certain celebrity rather than $500,000 for a nobody that could act just as well?

[Ziggy 11,960]

I’m so tired of people using this line lmao

it’s not bc you’re bad at acting it’s bc marginalized people aren’t getting opportunities in Hollywood the same as straight white men are. It quite literally has nothing to do with talent and ability 

7 hours ago, Hold My Ham said:

a big issue here is most of the time, he's just playing Fruity AF Stanley Tucci in his most famous movies (besides like the lovely bones) and everyone loves that so of course he's going to continue to be cast for these "gay" roles when they were probably never even considering other actors for the part, much less actual homosexuals.

Exactly. He literally made a brand off being gay cast. I like his acting and movies but he’s actually a textbook example of the situation being talked about. He is absolutely cast over other gay men specifically bc of how he’s leveraged his particular acting brand as fruity Stanley Tucci.

[Ziggy 11,960]

2 hours ago, MOT said:

People are commenting here about 'gay characters' as if being gay is always the entirety of the character, but the truth is that in all cases there will be more to the character than being gay (just like real people). Yes, in many cases being gay is likely to be a crucial feature of the character, but in other cases it might be less important.

You ever heard a Hollywood exec talk about a movie?  They absolutely reduce it down to that still bc they’re the business guys looking at the facts on the page and saying ok this is how this will sell. Casting is a business decision first and foremost for these guys. That’s why someone like Stanley Tucci has gotten the roles he has. It’s why Daniel Radcliffe went totally left after Harry Potter. Both were facing type casting (a business decision) because at the end of the day, Hollywood is a pretty conservative industry so in sooo many cases, it really does get boiled down to “gay movie” (brokeback mountain, call me by your name, moonlight, etc.) even if the movie is about many other things. These suits want and need to distill things down to the simplest, buzziest terms in order to grab people’s very fleeting (and simple) interest.

ideally I agree with you, but the reality is that Hollywood doesn’t work that way and it’s why MANY straight male actors haven’t come out even though they’re gay or bi or whatever. It would absolutely alter what roles they can or can’t get.

[River 117,735]

22 minutes ago, TortureMeOnReplay said:

Neil came out after How I Met Your Mother, Bomer came out after White Collar, Wentworth after Prison Break, etc. They had to prove that they were worth watching and casting before they came out. It's not often gay men get their break after already being out, or coming out shortly after a show airs. I feel like that's pretty important to note here. They shouldn't have had to pass a test and show a studio they're profitable before coming out and they shouldn't feel that they have to hide it in order to further their careers. But that's the case. Ideally I would love to see anyone play any role eventually, but in a time when gay men are boxed away or meant to hide who they are I'm not a fan of majority of straight men getting gay roles when gay men have to hide being gay to get any role at all. 

Neil and Matt came out while both shows were on, Neil came out during the promo for the 2nd season, he's husband (bf back then) even had some roles in the show and he fought to bring the gay brother storyline to the show which included gay marriage, gay couple with kids and at the end a divorce.

When Matt came out he was filming Magic Mike.

Only Wentworth came out late after the show success but he's career never really flew after prison break, so there was no real impact of his coming out to his own career, for the bad or the good.

[AsleepOnTheCeiling 6,435]

Just now, River said:

Neil and Matt came out while both shows were on, Neil came out during the promo for the 2nd season, he's husband (bf back then) even had some roles in the show and he fought to bring the gay brother storyline to the show which included gay marriage, gay couple with kids and at the end a divorce.

When Matt came out he was filming Magic Mike.

Only Wentworth came out late after the show success but he's career never really flew after prison break, so there was no real impact of his coming out to his own career, for the bad or the good.

Right but the thing is that they never got the roles as gay men. They had to hide until their shows were shown to be successful. I don't think it really matters when they came out after their shows started because they were all after the show originally aired. 

[MelbHawker 6,583]

I agree with his points, even though I’d love to see Hollywood cast more openly gay actors in gay roles. It’s a business though ultimately, and studios are always going to try and make the most profitable decision for their business. Sucks, but it is what it is.

[Night Vision 3,068]

He's not wrong. Create more gay roles so that opens the door for more opportunities. Specifically stopping straight actors from playing gay roles is not the answer. It's like suggesting that gay actors shouldn't play straight roles, this whole idea is pretty problematic.

[vanna shintuyu 10,833]

1 hour ago, Night Vision said:

He's not wrong. Create more gay roles so that opens the door for more opportunities. Specifically stopping straight actors from playing gay roles is not the answer. It's like suggesting that gay actors shouldn't play straight roles, this whole idea is pretty problematic.

no it isn't. at all. there's absolutely no shortage of straight roles. be smart, you guys.

[Natalia Kills 378]

Yeah, he's right, can't see why he'd be wrong since it's just acting and we're already becoming increasingly well represented for being a small portion of the GP. 

 

[Night Vision 3,068]

4 hours ago, Hold My Ham said:

no it isn't. at all. there's absolutely no shortage of straight roles. be smart, you guys.

It's a complex issue but I'm not sure I would say there is a lack of queer roles in film and television per se, at least in the last few years there have been big advancements. A lot of the issue comes down to the fact that most of the queer actors in Hollywood...aren't out. We've seen it happen recently with Heartstopper, an actor was cast in a gay role, assumed to be straight, and then literally bullied relentlessly into coming out publicly before he was ready. The roles exist, and while there are many openly gay actors, there aren't that many openly gay bankable movie stars, which is ultimately what studios are concerned about. It would be great to create more roles so that the actors who are openly gay also have a fair shot, but to say that straight actors should not be able to play those parts is a) impractical and b) kinda problematic as we've already established that it's hard to know who is closeted and who is just being assumed as straight

[Gaga2645 2,248]

19 hours ago, Monstermilo said:

str8 actors playing gay roles when theres literally hundreds or thousands of capable gay actors out there is the same as a white person being cast to play a black or mexican character. the str8s already have everything, why should gay actors (who have been historically alienated in hollywood) continue to lose out of roles theyre perfect for. 

Not necessarily as sexuality is fluid and race/ethnicity not so much lol