Out actor Bryan Batt, who plays a closeted homosexual on AMC's Mad Men, recently sat down with CNN to discuss the state of being gay in Hollywood.
While some label Hollywood's gay hesitancy as "homophobic," Batt takes a more nuanced approach:
It's just like any prejudice, once you let go of any prejudice they all have to go. They're not based on facts, just on stereotypes. I really think yes, there might be some homophobia in Hollywood, but it's based on what will sell. Hollywood is a huge industry, a multibillion-dollar business. If actors who are gay will get ratings and will sell, they will get cast.There are always going to be people who look at people who are different and who disapprove [of them] either through fear or through ignorance. We have to work toward acceptance on all levels. How long ago were the civil rights movement and the women's movement? And, still today, women don't make the same amount of money as men do for doing the same job.
Batt, you're our new favorite Hollywood homo.
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He is great on Mad Men and the show is pure genius.
Ok..
Hollywood is homophobic. Look, after "Scream" came out and did well we were flodded with horror movies for the next few seasons, after American Pie came out and did well we were flooded with Teenage T & A movies. Brokeback Mountain came out, made a ton of money, got an Oscar nomination and ……nothing. So please don't try to tell me that Hollywood is being nuanced. I understand you don't want to bite the hand that feeds you but the fact that everyday people working in normal jobs will come out but actors in the suposedly liberal hollywood will NOT tells me everything I need to know.
Cam…We appreciate the fervor, but really…what is easier to replicate: cheap shock bloodbaths and sophomoric sexcapades (the formula for which having been in existence since at least the early 80s), or a subtle and emotional (and occasionally overwrought) gay romance? How could one make another "gay" movie like Brokeback without seeming to belabor the point? Meanwhile, how many revisits can one make to mindless slasher flicks and college humor as long as one throws in enough attractive young bodies to skewer (literally or figuratively)?
Hard to comopare the two, don't you think?
Trenton- let's just say you don't know what you are talk ing about and leave it at that.
Amazing rebuttal. 5 Stars.
He's handsome. I haven't watched the show yet, but I might start.
As for his point, I think that ending anti-gay prejudice will be a long process (+ we'll likely never fully end it) but it still surprises me how homophobic Hollywood is.