Penn Badgley, best known for playing Dan Humphrey on the hit show Gossip Girl, is weighing in on the debate over whether straight actors should play gay roles and sharing why he’s so over “privileged ass white people.”
In a new interview with PinkNews, the 32-year-old actor/singer says, “If anybody exists at any kind of intersection of oppression beyond the box of white male, I’d say let’s make damn sure that they’re being represented by the people who have lived this experience [and] not have people who haven’t lived the experience portraying them.”
The reason, Badgley says, is pretty simple.
“Because then at the end of the day you’re getting a real portrayal.”
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Earlier this year, Disney was criticized for casting Jack Whitehall, a straight man, in its first openly gay role, and Scarlett Johansson backed out of playing a trans man after receiving backlash.
Asked whether only LGBTQ actors should be cast in LGBTQ roles, Badgley responds, “Yeah, I actually really like that idea, I do.”
“In theory, in a totally just society, yeah, anybody can play anybody and that would be great,” he adds, “But that’s not the world we live in.”
The remarks come on the heels of actor Darren Criss announcing this week that he will no longer play any LGBTQ roles, saying “I won’t be another straight boy taking a gay man’s role.”
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“We live in a world that does not recognize virtually anyone outside of the white male or the beautiful white woman who has to be an object of desire and affection,” Badgley tells Pink News.
“In reality, we have basically, like, privileged ass white people playing everybody, and so we need to stop that.”
Up next, Badgley will appear in the Netflix thriller drama You, which premieres December 21.
Related: Darren Criss says he’s done going gay for pay
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iamru2
Not sure why he turned this issue into a bigoted statement against white males unless maybe he’s just virtue signaling for attention.
DarkZephyr
I have to say that I kind of agree with you here. “White male”. It would have at least made a little more sense if he had said “straight white males”. But then what about straight men of color playing gay roles? Is that somehow more acceptable? And is he at least OK with white males BEING gay? Do we have his permission?
Its getting a little goofy how the issue of sexual orientation and the issue of race are getting overly conflated. Of course there’s intersectionality. But not every white male in existence is the enemy. Some of us are on the damn home team! Jesus. And don’t assume that if someone is a homophobic bigot, they’re *always* gonna be white. Being white is starting to be treated as absolutely synonymous with homophobia, and that’s beyond dumb and it lets a heck of a lot of other homophobic people off the hook that shouldn’t be let off the hook.
The white Trumpanzees are certainly not helping matters though. They’re giving the rest of us a bad name.
jpcolter
Seems like you didn’t even try to understand what he is saying while you look for any excuse to be offended.
PinkoOfTheGange
So did a gay guy get a part he wanted?
Juanjo
I do not have an issue with a heterosexual actor convincingly portraying a character who is gay on the stage, television, or on film. Just as I have no issue with seeing a gay actor play a character who is heterosexual. It’s a role in a work, not real life.
iamru2
Yup it is called acting after all.
Bromancer7
Exactly. The part should go to the best actor for the role. The problem with this issue is that it then becomes legit to say “oh, you’re a gay actor trying out for the role of a straight man? Sorry, no…”
All these people are doing is cutting off their noses to spite their face. Because, according to Badgley, how can a gay actor portray a straight man, since he hasn’t lived the life and knows nothing about being one?
This is not going to have the end result these people think it will.
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barkomatic
Ironic because in the very early days gay men were mostly the only ones willing to play gay roles because straight actors were terrified of being perceived of as gay. Then, suddenly it’s cool and straight guys in the entertainment industry were tripping over themselves to play gay roles and started obscuring their own sexuality in public at times.
I take his point and ff there’s a talented gay actor that can fit a role then why not cast him? However, Cheyenne Jackson and Matt Bomer can’t play all the gay parts, so I don’t have a problem with straight men being cast if there’s a gap.
Of course, all us gays would be terribly depressed if suddenly all of the straight men playing gay in porn suddenly quit. That would eliminate the majority of adult gay content.
jpcolter
Cheyenne Jackson and Matt Bomer? LOL. You don’t seem to know anything about how many out gay actors there are who could play these roles. Grow up.
geb1966
What gap? Matt Bomer and Cheyenne Jackson aren’t the only talented gay actors. There are plenty of others out there. Are you living under a rock?
Paco
So no straight roles for gay actors?
JACVing
Right. If only gay actors were ACTUALLY getting straight roles, but that’s not the case, right? And don’t tell me about Neil Patrick Harris because he’s not the only gay actor who deserves a chance for a big role. It’s all about representation. And you can’t really show your talent if you’re not given the chance they’re giving only to straight white people, as he says.
PinkoOfTheGange
Bomer lead two series playing str8.
Herman75
If you’re wiling to shave off some of your peen, you can play Hedwig.
rray63
Fair is fair Paco! Of course we will be called all sorts of names for daring to suggests that only straight people can portray straight people. I mean what’s good for the goose, is good for the gander. This is going to result in less LGBTQ roles in general. Has anyone heard anything about the project that Scarlett was going to do? No, no one wants to touch it now. So, while we wait for a trans actor, that has the talent of Scarlett to take up the role, the project is on hold, probably forever. Way to go folks, we lost what would have been another great project, all for, high but incorrect ideals.
JACVing
There ARE transwomen with talent. They’re just not given the chance to show it because people are too busy casting big names like Scarlett.
Scout
What’s the percentage of gay actors who are out? Are there enough of them to fill what the role demands?
jpcolter
Have no idea about percentages but there are dozens of out gay actors these days so I would say that it wouldn’t be that hard to cast gay actors in gay roles. It would help more closeted actors come out if they didn’t have to fear losing their career.
rray63
Is Penn privileged? I’m just wondering. I think he probably makes a great deal more than the average person that makes comments on here, what do you folks think? I always love it when you have a pot calling a kettle names.
Ashke113
Meanwhile as an actor himself he has completely lost the concept of acting, as have everyone else saying certain roles should be played only by certain groups of people. It’s asinine and completely goes against meaning of what an actor is. The part of a character should be played by the person who can best bring that character to life not just the person who has the same sexual orientation of that character. There are excellent gay actors who could play straight parts but if they don’t get those parts we bitch about it because it’s not inclusive, yet here we are saying straight actors shouldn’t be allowed to play gay parts because they aren’t gay but gods forbid the gay community say anything bad about that because then we cry wolf and turn into the stereotypical backstabbing do as I say not as I do katty bitches we really are. So much for us wanting to have inclusion into society and be looked at as equals and have equal rights when we don’t want to do the same with the rest of society right……we’re fighting all the wrong battles and slowly destroying our own community and only ourselves to blame. And I for one am wishing for the days when battles were fought for the right things and not just because we want a battle or because a certain aspect within our group is too thin skinned.
Paco
Exactly. I have seen enough gay movies to prove that there are a lot of gay actors playing gay characters, that can’t act at all.
thisismylife247
Penn Badgley looks more and more like a woman every time I see him……
JamJewel
At best, Netflix will be reprising the thriller drama “You” that premiered on Lifetime during the 2018-19 season.
mcflyer54
Is it fair to assume that gay actors would be satisfied playing only gay roles? I know quite a few actors who honestly believe that the best actor should get the role and it should have nothing to do with their sexuality. I also know several gay actors who would be highly offended if they were refused a straight role, for which they were qualified, because they are gay. I personally am only offended when I see any actor, gay or straight, play to the most negative and demeaning of stereotypes.
rray63
@JACVing, I’m sure there are plenty of talented trans woman actors. The point is that a movie about a trans person was going to get made and now it isn’t, so what was accomplished? We denied a a movie that would most likely have been good about a member of the LGBTQ community because? Okay, let me know when the film gets made and who stars in it, and just throw it in let me know if the actor can bring as many butts to the theater as Scarlett can, that’s what matters in the end, right?
Me2
Some gay men are in such a rush to protect and defend their own white male privilege that they’re missing his point. In our current world of gay “acceptance”, straight white men are still benefitting from gay acting roles while qualified gay actors are being overlooked. Fact is, gays of all races are just being tolerated and not equally respected in show business, no matter how much social progress we seem to have made.
Topman60640
So get a real job.
Donston
I understand every side of the argument. It is indeed “acting”. And in a perfectly fair world hiring the actor that best suits the role would always be the way to go. However, in general, being a non trans, conventionally good-looking, conventionally masculine white male who makes it clear that they do not have same-sex romantic/sexual/relationship preferences and ambitions does make it easier to establish yourself in the industry. And those are the types of people who get offered the majority of high-profile “queer roles”.
The real problem is that Hollywood still very much supports the closet and quickly turns down the career of any dude with unabashed preferences that aren’t towards their opposite cis gender. Hell, an A list or even B list actor who is dependent on his hunk status saying he’s “gay” would probably be more of a big deal and more of a career breaker than one saying he’s trans or of course saying that they’re genderfluid. That’s just how homophobic and hetero-worshiping the industry is and how much it promotes shame and the closet, and how scared many people are of any top tier actor or an actor with A list potential attaching themselves to the word “gay”.
On the other hand, I’m not sure Penn is in any position to turn down any sort of role.
Topman60640
So what this jag is insisting that you can only play gay if your are gay. Let’s apply that to the REAL world, princess…
That premises essentially wipes out 90% of all sports commentators, just for example. No more women on the field at football games…
Then there’s the services. You do realize that in the us, with rare exception, the sec of defense is not and has not been in the service.
Shit, we’re lucky if we can get restaurant managers who have ever waited tables, flipped a burger or cleared a bar. And yet…the industry has never been stronger.
These, doll, are called *business* decisions. They aren’t about your “art” or your “orientation” or your race, the choices are based on what the OWNERS of the medium thinks are going to put asses in theaters, and glue eyes to screens.
You want the part? So does everyone else in the room, and try to leverage your sexuality is just another form of “privilege.”
So what am I tired of? Privileged-ass hot house flowers throwing a toddler tantrum whenever they don’t get their way.
Life is full of disappointment, get used to it, you ain’t gonna be young and beautiful forever Mary.
Rex Huskey
huh?.
dean089
I’ve been struggling with this issue for twenty years, since ‘Will and Grace’ came on the air. On one hand, yes, it is acting and it seems counter-productive to limit actors to playing roles within their specific demographics. But then, at the same time, we have all the furor over anyone performing in ‘blackface.’ So an actor’s demographic background matters sometimes but not all the time. After all, in the 1980s we had Alec Guinness painted brown in ‘A Passage To India’ and Fisher Stevens painted brown in the ‘Short Circuit’ movies. I don’t recall crowds of people gathered to burn copies of either of those movies. Of course, there seems to be a different standard when it comes to ‘brownface’ or ‘yellowface.’ Just a few years ago we had Emma Stone cast as a native Hawaiian and no one batted an eye — no one except native Hawaiians, of course. And so we have the famous Hollywood double-standard, which isn’t going away any time soon.
As for Darren Criss, now that he’s famous as a result of playing gay roles he’s decided he’s no longer going to do that because he has standards. How quaint.
Mpo2411
Getting real tired of this debate. Acting is acting. I don’t care if they are gay, straight, bi, trans, etc. Make me believe the character. That’s what’s important. But remember, the actors are only playing the parts they are written, as they are directed. So putting the whole onus of bringing a believable character to life solely on the actor playing the part is unfair.
Also, correct me if I’m mistaken, but isn’t Penn a “privileged white ass” himself?