Over the past few years, there’s been an increase in the discussion of whether or not only LGBTQ+ actors should play LGBTQ+ characters and if straight actors should accept these parts. There are way fewer opportunities for LGBTQ+ performers who want LGBTQ+ roles. There’s also the issue of how many straight actors who’ve won awards for playing queer characters, which has happened as recently as the 2023 Oscars.
Here are 21 actors who’ve weighed in on the “straight actors playing LGBTQ+ characters” discussion:
1. Stanley Tucci, who’s played gay characters on several occasions, told BBC Radio 4’s “Desert Island Discs,” “Obviously, I believe that’s fine. I am always very flattered when gay men come up to me and talk to me about ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ or they talk about ‘Supernova,’ and they say that ‘It was just so beautiful,’ you know, ‘You did it the right way.'”
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He continued, “I really do believe an actor is an actor is an actor. You’re supposed to play different people. You just are. That’s the whole point of it.”
2. Tom Hanks, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of a gay character in “Philadelphia,” told The New York Times Magazine, “Could a straight man do what I did in ‘Philadelphia’ now? No, and rightly so.”
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He continued, “The whole point of Philadelphia was don’t be afraid. One of the reasons people weren’t afraid of that movie is that I was playing a gay man. We’re beyond that now, and I don’t think people would accept the inauthenticity of a straight guy playing a gay guy. It’s not a crime, it’s not boohoo, that someone would say we are going to demand more of a movie in the modern realm of authenticity. Do I sound like I’m preaching? I don’t mean to.”
3. Kit Connor, who currently plays Nick Nelson, a bisexual teen, on “Heartstopper,” reminded people that actors who play LGBTQ+ characters may not yet be out themselves, but fans shouldn’t assume anyone’s sexuality. He was bullied into coming out as bi himself after fans accused him of queerbaiting for playing Nick. He tweeted, “Congrats for forcing an 18-year-old to out himself. I think some of you missed the point of the show.”
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On the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, he said, “In regards to my tweets, I just think that there’s a danger with things on social media. In the cast, I’m 18, and we have a few people in their early 20s and even with those older members of the cast, we’re all so young, and to start speculating about our sexualities and maybe pressuring us to come out when maybe we’re not ready. I mean, for me, I just feel like I’m perfectly confident and comfortable in my sexuality, but I’m not too big on labels and things like that. I’m not massive about that. And I don’t feel like I need to label myself, especially not publicly. That tweet was slightly calling them out but [I] also find it funny…It’s 2022, it feels a bit strange to make assumptions about a person’s sexuality just based on hearing their voice or seeing their appearance. I feel like that’s a very interesting, slightly problematic, sort of assumption to make.”
4. At the 2018 Rome Film Festival, Cate Blanchett — who played lesbian leads in “Tár” and “Carol” — said, “I will fight to the death for the right to suspend disbelief and play roles beyond my experience.”
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She continued, “I think reality television and all that that entails had an extraordinary impact, a profound impact on the way we view the creation of character. I think it provides a lot of opportunity, but the downside of it is that we now, particularly in America, I think, we expect and only expect people to make a profound connection to a character when it’s close to their experience.”
5. “Orange is the New Black” actor Ruby Rose told NME, “Cate Blanchett said it really beautifully and I’ll probably butcher it, but she said she would die fighting to be able to play whatever character she related to and the material spoke to her, because that’s what an actor is… I do think gay people should be able to play straight [parts] and straight people, when it calls for it, [should be able to play gay roles].”
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She continued, “I think we’d be in a weird place if only gay people could play gay people, and straight people could only straight people. personally love Grey’s Anatomy, so if they had to fire everyone and hire real doctors — oy vey!”
6. “The L Word: Generation Q” actor Jacqueline Toboni told Refinery29, “I’m sometimes frustrated when I see straight actresses specifically playing lesbian roles that I don’t necessarily believe them. Sometimes, I feel like, oh, this is supposed to be our story, and it’s not. It’s getting lost in translation…”
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She continued, “It can be as big as the writing or as simple as these two girls do not look like they like kissing each other. It just makes you feel horrible.”
7. Ben Whishaw played Q, the first non-straight James Bond character, in “No Time To Die,” which also made him the first openly gay actor to play a gay role in the franchise. He told the Independent, “I don’t think that [only queer actors playing queer characters] should happen because I really believe that actors can embody and portray anything, and we shouldn’t be defined only by what we are. I think there was a time when we didn’t know anything about actors, they were very mysterious. But now we know everything.”
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However, he added, “On the other hand, I think there needs to be greater equality. I would like to see more gay actors playing straight roles. It needs to be an even playing field for everybody that would be my ideal. I don’t know how far we’re away from that. That’s where we should be aiming.”
8. On Clorox’s Young Changemaker Live Panel, Darren Criss — who rose to fame as Blaine Anderson, who’s gay, on “Glee,” then later won a Golden Globe, SAG Award, Critics Choice Award, and Emmy for playing Andrew Cunanan, a gay man, in “The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story” — said, “There are certain [queer] roles that I’ll see that are just wonderful, but I want to make sure I won’t be another straight boy taking a gay man’s role.”
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Continuing, he said that playing queer characters had “been a real joy,” but he no longer felt comfortable taking those parts.
He said, “The reason I say that is because getting to play those characters is inherently a wonderful dramatic experience. It has made for very, very compelling and interesting people.”
9. Benedict Cumberbatch received an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Alan Turing, a gay man, in “The Imitation Game,” and he more recently received another nom for playing Phil Burbank, whose sexuality is purposefully ambiguous, in “The Power of the Dog.” He told IndieWire, “I feel very sensitive about representation, diversity, and inclusion. One of the appeals of the job [‘TPOTD’] was the idea that in this world, with this specific character, there was a lot that was private, hidden from view. It wasn’t done without thought.”
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He continued, “I also feel slightly like, is this a thing where our dance card has to be public? Do we have to explain all our private moments in our sexual history? I don’t think so. Jane [Campion, the director] chose us as actors to play those roles. That’s her question to answer.”
10. Rachel Weisz, who played Ronit Krushka, a lesbian in “Disobedience,” told freelance journalist Jamie Tabberer, “I wanted to tell this story and represent it; I see my task as not to tell the story I’ve lived. When I played Blanche Dubois on the stage, I’m not an alcoholic. And I’m not interested in sleeping with teenage boys! But that’s the character. So I see storytelling as me becoming people that I’m not.”
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She continued, “Sebastian [Leliothe director/co-writer] isn’t a gay woman. He has a trans woman play a trans woman in A Fantastic Woman, but he said he’s allowed to be disobedient and cast who he wants, I guess. I don’t know what to say beyond that. It’s about becoming and representing someone else. I’m not anyone that I play, otherwise, I’d just be in a documentary.”
11. “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” actor Richard E. Grant told the Sunday Times, “The transgender movement and the #MeToo movement means, how can you justify heterosexual actors playing gay characters?”
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He added, “If you want someone to play a disabled role, that should be a disabled actor.”
12. Julianne Moore, who played Jules Allgood, a lesbian in “The Kids Are All Right,” told Variety, “I’ve thought about that [criticism] a lot. Here we were, in this movie about a queer family, and all of the principal actors were straight. I look back and go, ‘Ouch. Wow.’ I don’t know that we would do that today, I don’t know that we would be comfortable.”
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She continued, “We need to give real representation to people, but I’m grateful for all of the experiences that I’ve had as an actor because my job is to communicate a universality of experience to the world. The idea that, rather than othering people, we’re saying we’re all the same. Our humanity is shared.”
13. Wilson Cruz, whose role as Ricky in “My So Called Life” made him the first openly gay actor to play a leading gay role on TV, told NBC News that LGBTQ+ actors “should be prioritized when it comes to telling our own stories.”
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He also played Stephanie, a trans woman, on an episode of Ally McBeal that won an Emmy.
He said, “I also know that had a trans person played that role, they would have brought their own innate authenticity to it and infused it with more truth than I could have better understood at that time, or now. But I feel very strongly that none of us should be playing trans roles except for trans people.”
14. Guy Pearce, who played Adam Whitely/Felicia Jollygoodfellow, a gay man and drag queen in “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” told The Guardian, “I do think it’s dangerous, personally [to say only LGBTQ+ actors should play LGBTQ+ roles]…I feel, like, in any of this sort of stuff, you have to take each situation…”
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He continued, “I think resilience is going out the window, which is a shame. People love to be offended, which is a really offensive thing to say. Somebody is going to be offended by me saying that.”
15. Hugo Weaving, who played Anthony “Tick” Belrose/Mitzi Del Bra, a gay man and drag queen in “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert,” told Stellar, “The nonsense surrounding [the casting of three straight men as two gay men and a trans woman] was extraordinary. Also, the logical extension of the argument is that if you have to be gay to play a gay person, then do you have to be a murderer to play a murderer?”
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He also said, “There’s an insanity about the casting — the whole idea of acting is to understand the ‘other.’ Actors perform a role, which is to illuminate the other — not to illuminate themselves.”
16. James Corden was criticized for his portrayal of Barry Glickman, who’s gay, in “The Prom.” Defending his role, he said that he was “proud” of the “important” scenes with Barry’s family, which also made him “get emotional.” He told Metro, “Ryan [Murphy], I will be indebted to forever for his guidance, the way that he led me through it. The way he led me through it as a director, the way he led me through it as a friend, the way he led me through it as a gay man. And I’ll treasure those days.”
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He later added, “The whole time, I was thinking about the friends of mine, young friends of mine whose families don’t know that they’re out, friends of mine who have distant relationships with their families, because of their sexuality and really hope that many people would realize that however hard it is to address or confront those things, their acceptance is everything.”
17. Sean Hayes — who was not publicly out as gay when he played Jack McFarland, a gay man on “Will and Grace” — told Playbill, “I didn’t feel pressure to hide [my sexuality] as much as I thought it was the thing I was supposed to do…[Straight actors] could play gay and be adored and worshipped for it, and I thought, ‘Oh. I’ll just do that. If I just do a good job, I’ll be accepted as an actor, and then I’ll just keep playing any role. But Hollywood doesn’t work that way, and audiences don’t work that way because there’s a stipulation that goes with audiences where if they see a gay person playing straight, they go, ‘Yeah right.'”
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He continued, “We shouldn’t be fascinated that a straight man can play gay anymore. There’s nothing mind blowing about that anymore. It’s been done. I’d like everyone to just be treated equally, to see people look at you and accept you for who you are as a human being and your spirit.”
18. Kristen Stewart told Variety, “Being somebody who has had so much access to work, I’ve just lived with such a creative abundance. You know, a young white girl who was straight and only really was gay later and is, like, skinny — do you know what I’m saying? I so acknowledge that I’ve just gotten to work. I would never want to tell a story that really should be told by somebody who’s lived that experience. Having said that, it’s a slippery slope conversation because that means I could never play another straight character if I’m going to hold everyone to the letter of this particular law. I think it’s such a gray area.”
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She continued, “There are ways for men to tell women’s stories, or ways for women to tell men’s stories. But we need to have our finger on the pulse and actually have to care. You kind of know where you’re allowed. I mean, if you’re telling a story about a community and they’re not welcoming to you, then fuck off. But if they are, and you’re becoming an ally and a part of it and there’s something that drove you there in the first place that makes you uniquely endowed with a perspective that might be worthwhile, there’s nothing wrong with learning about each other. And therefore helping each other tell stories…So my answer is fucking think about what you’re doing! And don’t be an asshole.”
19. Jake Gyllenhaal, who played Jack Twist, a queer man, in “Brokeback Mountain,” told the Sunday Times, “There was a stigma about playing a part like that, you know, why would you do that? And I think it was very important to both of us to break that stigma…But then again I think 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.”
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He continued, “But at the same time, I was very proud to be in that space, and to be given that opportunity. And the reaction from the majority of the gay community when the movie came out, I got this sort of — we both did, everyone in the movie — we got this overwhelming sense of open-heartedness and gratitude.”
20. “Weekend” actor Chris New told The Guardian, “Being out has done nothing but restrict my career. In the current cultural climate I am invited to participate only on the basis of my supposed oppression…[But] I really don’t mind [straight actors playing gay characters] at all. I just hope they are the best actor. And I quietly wish that the role could be defined as something a little more than just gay.”
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He also said, “Any role where the character’s sexuality is their defining characteristic I turn down. Which means I don’t work very much. Or, at least, nowhere near as much as I’d like to.”
21. And finally, Michael Urie, who was one of three openly queer actors to play gay leads in “Single All the Way,” told Pink News, “I don’t have any real power, but I was very clear that we need to make sure the other guys are really gay. I was like, it’s gonna be a lot easier in a year when I’m on Zoom doing junkets if we can speak authentically about our gay experience. It’s going to be a lot easier than tiptoeing around the fact that my co-star, who I spend the entire movie falling in love with, doesn’t know what it’s like to be in love with a man.”
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He continued, “Those are conversations we had early when looking for the roles – and everybody was on the same page, by the way. But I was very clear – I wanted to make sure everyone knew how much harder my job would be if I was doing interviews with a straight person talking about gay love. If I’m talking about that with some straight guy, and then the narrative is all like, ‘You were so convincing!’ — like, come on, give me a break. We’ve done that, we’re tired of that, we don’t need that anymore.”