Another actor is weighing in on the conversation over casting only casting gay actors in gay roles. This time it’s Andrew Scott.
The out gay actor, known for his roles on Sherlock and on Season 2 of the hit BCC sitcom Fleabag, stresses chemistry between actors over real-life predilections.
“The most important thing is that you have a real chemistry with the person you’re playing opposite,” Scott tells Huffington Post, adding that gay actors should “absolutely” be allowed to play straight roles as well.
Scott also cautions against “identity casting”; that is, casting actors based on their real-life orientation.
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“I think it’s dangerous territory to go down,” he says. “Sometimes to think that we’re only allowed to play our own–not just our own sexuality, but our own nationality or identity–that we’re only allowed to… represent things that are within our experience. That’s not what audiences go to see.”
He also stresses that acting is just that–an actor pretends to be something they are not.
“When you go to see a play you’re thrilled that somebody is pretending to be somebody else, that’s the magic of it,” Scott explains. “Otherwise it’s just a form of well-shot reality television.”
“I think it’s very important we don’t talk in absolutes when it comes to casting. I think we have to look at every individual situation and make sure everyone gets the chance to play all the different parts.”
Scott also states that the bigger issue is that gay actors should be considered for all roles, including straight parts, and that historically, casting directors have refused to cast out-gay actors as heterosexual characters.
“There hasn’t been a particularly level playing field with regards to who gets to play what.”
Rock-N-RollHS
Duh, this is obvious.
DCguy
Once again, this is a moot point because LGBT actors aren’t considered for straight rolls and are barely considered for LGBT ones.
Juanjo
Like when NPH was turned down for a role in “How I Met Your Mother” or Jane Lynch, Jim Parsons, etc. Oh wait.
DCguy
@Juanjo
I’m not sure if you are purposely lying or if you are unaware…
Neil Patric Harris was outted AFTER he already had the role on “How I Met Your Mother”.
Jim Parsons was not out when he was cast in “Big Bang Theory”.
So not only were you wrong, but you literally gave examples of people who had to stay in the closet because they were afraid it would keep them from getting work.
Catholicslutbox
at let’s not forget Matt Bomer! He was the main character in White Collar.
Wait- he was also in the closet back then. In fact, he was told multiple times to stay IN the closet if he wanted to continue playing that character.
Mother and bang are also sitcoms with a large ensemble. It’s different when there is ONE male LEAD.
PinkoOfTheGange
It isn’t “moot” unless you are willing to accept that as status quo and not try to change the perception.
GayEGO
Why not! This would show people that we are capable of being part of the norm!
Brian
Because most minority groups don’t want to be assimilated into the norm. Our perpetual victim culture requires that we can always blame something that’s not fair in life on our race or sexuality.
Juanjo
Brian dear, you are making even less sense than usual today. Check your meds. Did you double your dose of vodka this morning?
Brian
How sweet that you think our country really wants to get rid of racism and homophobia. You must also be looking forward to the Easter Bunny in a few weeks.
DCguy
Brian, sweetie, could you please lean over the cubicle and ask Boris or Natasha if they could take over your account, you’re getting REALLY bad at this.
Brian
Ah, DC Guy, where have you been? How I’ve missed your pathological obsession with believing every comment you disagree with is a Russian bot.
And you are the perfect example of why I’m right. Paranoia is very profitable to a lot of politicians and community leaders. It sure wasn’t intelligence that got AOC voted into office. Complacent comrades are non voting comrades
DCguy
Shhhh, Brian, if you talk too much your troll keyboard will get all sticky.
Brian
I love that you obviously think you are being clever when all you do is call people a troll or a Russian. You might want to expand your repotoire a teensy little bit dear, you really don’t want to become Mrs Kasha Davis.
jjose712
Well, it’s nice to hear someone with common sense
Mack
I think that actors should play the part which they’re the most convincing at. I don’t think a gay person should play just a gay person because he or she is gay. They should be hired based on their ability, not their sexual orientation. And yes there have been some gay actors who have played leading men very successfully.
OzJosh
LOL. This pronouncement is flat-out hilarious. A huge proportion of actors are gay and they all spend 95 to 100 % of their careers playing straight roles. Quite a few refuse to play gay roles for fear of being outed or subsequently typecast in gay roles. As a TV producer I have found on several occasions that it was impossible to get any gay actors to play a gay role for that reason. So it was only possible to have a straight actor in the role. There are maybe a handful of gay actors who have predominantly played gay roles, most probably because they’re too effeminate to pass as straight. But they’re a tiny minority. This is a discussion about conditions that just don’t exist.
Brian
Wait, are you saying that a lot of the drama club boys are gay? I’m shook.
Donston
I mean, this is a somewhat “complex” conversation. And as always conversations with any type of dimension become basic one-note debates. Casting based on identity will never work. It’s not logical, and it isn’t fair to anyone. I can understand specifically wanting an openly gay actor for a particular role. However, people can (and often do) lie about their orientations. And there’s a ton of people with dimensions in the romantic, sexual, emotional, relationship aspects of themselves who may identify as straight, gay, bi, pan, fluid, queer, etc. So, it’s not entirely practical.
My issues is that Hollywood continues to mime “queer culture”. Yet, gay identifying actors almost never get offered high-profile gay roles or high-profiles straight roles. Many industry people continue to advise actors to stay closeted. And male actor who come out of closet almost always have quickly stunted career. So, things definitely aren’t fair and square.
ptb2016
Thank you Andrew Scott, really hot man, and terrific actor, for bringing sense to the debate. Actors pretend to be other people for a living. What they do in their private lives has to be irrelevant, otherwise only a serial killer could play Hannibal Lecter, only a drug addict can play a drug addict, or a drunk a drunk!
JasonL8
I agree with everything he said. However, still LGBTQ actors are overlooked for roles even queer ones. You can point out to Jane Lynch, NPH, Jim Parsons, and Matt Bomer who had played mostly straight and very convincingly and that’s fine. You have to realize that just only five years ago there are not that many queer roles. The majority of roles are straight and continues to be so even though there are more queer/ trans roles now.
In both tv and movies the majority of queer and trans roles are played by straight/ cis gender actors and continues to do so. “Now Appcalypse” has no queer actors and is very heavy on gay culture. Disney’s “Jungle Cruise” first openly gay character is played by a straight actor. Both claim to break queer cinema and queer representation barrier but are they really. What it comes down to is do the LGBTQ audience want straight actors to play the majority of LGBTQ roles? Knowing our community are minorities and we could and should represent our community in the entertainment world. Or is this all just gay baiting to make us support more straight/ cis actors who play gay/ trans when we should support our own? Like the show “Pose” and “The Other Two.”
In my opinion, the studio and producers should look more into casting LGBTQ actors in queer/ trans roles. As they should do with people of different ethnicity in their perspective roles. Doing more of this shows that there’s progress to cast a variety of people and hopefully will leave to blind casting regardless of background. We’re not there yet so let the gays play gay roles and let Asians play Asian roles. Let them represent their community.