Gay stage darlings Cheyenne Jackson and Michael Urie are joining Kristin Chenoweth in the witch hunt for for Ramin Setoodeh, the Newsweek associate editor making the oh-so-au-courant claim that gays can’t play straight on stage. It’s delicious.
Speaking at a Q&A following last night’s The Temperamentals show, AfterElton relays that Jackson was all: “Not only does [Setoodeh] say that a gay man can’t play straight, he got personal, picking on Sean Hayes in Promises, Promises, [pointing out] certain scenes where he thinks [Sean] is stiff and uncomfortable. And then he picks on Jonathan Groff, who just came out. He’s a young teen heartthrob [in Glee]. He’s so talented and so delicious and needs our love and support. Instead, [Setoodeh] says he’s not believable at all. It was very veiled self-loathing. Really upsetting. Everytime we go forward, some asshole like this takes us back a bit.”
And Urie went and did: “No straight critics accuse Sean Penn of not being able to play Harvey Milk or [criticize] Tom Hanks in Philadelphia.”
More of this, please. We’ve already argued Newsweek should just do Setoodeh a favor and put him out to pasture for his inane claims. But if a larger portion of the Broadway community comes out against him, at the very least his assignment editors won’t be having him write about the theater again.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Meanwhile, it’s notable that it’s guys like Jackson and Urie speaking publicly about Setoodeh. While we all know Broadway is home to some nasty, bitter queens, Jackson and Urie are two of the nicest and most level-headed guys in theater and television. So to piss them off? That’s quite a feat.
Somebody buy Setoodeh a(nother) shot, and send him on his way.
Jack Smythe
never mind pissing off jackson and urie, although that is accomplishment enough; setoodeh wen and pissed off kristen chenowith, who is anything but a raving civil rights advocate. and when i say pissed off, i mean she ripped him a new one in a lengthy public epistle. look it up, she kills.
i wonder who will be hiring the jerk now that newsweek has folded?
Andy
What if I think gay men generally can’t play straights very well *and* vice versa?
Cam
@No. 2 · Andy
What if I think gay men generally can’t play straights very well *and* vice versa?
__________________
Go rent Beautiful Thing, Longtime Companion, The Wedding Banquet, Trick etc… to see straights playing gay.
Oh, and also, go rent almost any hollywood movie made in the last 100 years if you want to see gays playing straight.
Troy M
I think it would be really hard to make a claim, such as that made by Setoodeh, considering so few actors are actually out.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Of course Ramin Setoodeh is a vile, bitter, hatefilled nasty ass queen……….. Based on his picture *barf*, he was perched way on tippy top of the ugly tree and hit every single branch face first on the way down……*Uggh*
Felix
Are you all playing Ramin Setoodeh’s game and giving him attention when he was a nobody in the first place…just like we did with Eminem years ago? Just wondering…
The Artist
It sounds like this guy has join the League of Stupid Individuals and should be treated as such. Stupid. PEACELUVNBWILD! Live outside the box!
t money
thats stupid. with this numb nuts logic you would have to be a rapist to play a rapist. you would have to be a jazz musician to play a jazz musician.
its called acting for a reason.
if he meant to say that sean hayes acting wasnt good, then he should have said that and gave us a real reason why… not some hateful projection.
AlwaysGay
Jack Smythe, let’s ignore and downplay what actual gay actors have to say in favor of what a heterosexual has to say because you know heterosexuals are better than gay people which means their word is more valuable. *roll eyes* Those attitudes are why gay actors struggle to find work and why heterosexuals don’t want gay people to be on a level playing field with them and look for any way to stack the odds against gay people.
The fact is heterosexuals have been able to say whatever they wanted about gay people for thousands of years. Cheyenne walks the walk. He’s an openly gay man, he understands the difficulties of finding acting jobs as an openly gay man which a heterosexual can never understand.
Heterosexual critics won’t say a performance by a heterosexual actor playing gay is bad no matter how inadequate the performance really is because they believe heterosexuals are capable and superior to gay people.
bobito
Although I haven’t seen Glee, I did see Jonathan Groff in ‘Spring Awakening’ and his sex scene looked pretty convincing to me (Even my boyfriend who has much better gaydar didn’t object) This was the show that got his career started, and I never read a word about anybody thinking he was unconvincing. Now that he’s openly gay, this Newsweek asshole finds him unconvincing in a hetero part.
Because of sexual stereotyping, a sensitive performance by a presumedly hetero actor is deemed unbelievable if the actor is known to be gay. This is probably why most gay actors try to keep their sexuality a secret. That said, major kudos to Groff for being so open this early in his career (and life) – he is indeed ‘talented and delicious’ and we in the GLBTQ community should cherish him.
D'oh, The Magnificent
@Andy: See Cams description and see a therapist about your issues over sexuality. Like the Newsweek writer, you project y our issues in a way that is logically impossible to be true. Since there are a large number of closeted gay men on screen in Hollywood, your statement is virtually impossible as a matter of simple logic.
D'oh, The Magnificent
@Felix:I am playing the game of if we push the issue enough in pop culture that helps get more gay actors gigs by making such a thought taboo.
David Ehrenstein
@AlwaysGay: Well that’s going WAY too far.
Tom Hansk in “Philadelphia,” Sean Penn in “Milk” and Colin Firth in “A Single Man” all give great performances. And what makes them great is that they’re no playing Teh Ghey but rather fully realized characters in interesting dramatic stories.
Gay actors play straight perfectly well. Is Setoodeh going to diss Monty Clift in “A Place in the Sun” becuase Monty was going home to Jack Larson at the end of the day rather than Elizabeth Taylor?
Probably.
But that’s because he’s a stupid pig.
Jean Marais was one of the greatest matinee idols in the history of French cinema, and everyone knew he was Jean Cocteau’s boyfriend. Likewise the late, great Jean-Claude Brialy who was out of the closet his entire career wasn’t “hampered” by his gayness. Did anyone say “Oh couldn’t possibly have wante to stroke Clair’es Knee” (in “Claire’s Knee”)? Of course not.
But then the French are so much more mature about these things (which is why we hate them.)
Cassandra
Rock Hudson didn’t seem to have any trouble convincing America that he was straight onscreen.
Tylertime
I don’t think the writer can make a blanket statement about gays being capable of playing straight characters believably. Rock Hudson, John Barrowman, Rupert Everett have proven they can play straight. I think it is a case by case basis and speaks to the actor’s acting ability more than their innate sexual orientation. I personally don’t buy Sean Hayes or Michael Urie playing straight but it’s not that they aren’t capable of it but more so that they haven’t really stretched their acting muscles. Whether it is Billy’s Hollywood Screen Kiss, Will & Grace or the TV movie where Sean played Jerry Lewis he always plays the same role. If these guys would step up and “act” I think they would be able to do it.
hephaestion
Cheyenne Jackson is my hero. God bless you, Cheyenne.
Kieran
Wow, what a shock. Setoodah is a gay man who’s being bitchy and critical towards other gays. This is so unusual within our “community”.
Henry Holland
In Cheyenne Jackson’s otherwise excellent rant was this: “It was very veiled self-loathing”.
I, for one, am sick of anyone who strays off the gay reservation with his/her ideas being labeled “self-loathing”. Maybe they’re just dumbasses, you know?
The Guys
I think all of this is perfect timing with the upcoming Tony awards. This is just good ole publicity, so more people are aware of broadway shows, which they should, there is a lot of talent on those stages, and the Tony awards ratings aren’t that great so this story is to remind everyone that Hey! theatre exists and its good and please watch the Tonys. But yes, Gays should be allowed to perform as straight characters just as straight actors are able to portray Gay characters.
Andy
@D’oh, The Magnificent: Thanks for the ad hominem, it really adds to your argument.
As far as it being logically impossible, I don’t know. There apparently were lots of people (girls, women) shocked when Ricky Martin came out and refused to believe for years before that even though it was so obvious. It seems women like gay men precisely because they can relate to them. Why don’t they date, well that’s another topic for another day.
I’m pretty sure I also said generally. There might be a few performances here and there but overall it’s meh. Take Rock Hudson, as Cassandra did. Are any of those performances very deep to begin with? Staring into someone’s face, saying ilubyou, and kissing aren’t that great either way. Too formulaic.
Oscar
I do not like “Glee”.
Sam B.
Cheyenne (even his name screams FAG!) and Urine. Uh, Urie. Whatever. BOTH are twinkies and their purses fall out of their mouths the second they open them, so they don’t really have all that much room to talk, do they? I always find it hysterically funny when Twinkies get the idea in their head that they’re actually masculine, or “straight-acting” or butch. To borrow their often-used, effeminate epithet, “GHURL! GET A GRIP!” You couldn’t even convince the women that thought Liberace was straight that you’re not gay!
Sam B.
@Cassandra:
Liberace had tons of women who thought he was straight. All you’ve done is convince us that people (gay OR straight) have a huge capacity for deluding themselves.
Bruthe S.
Bruthe here. I’d like to weigh in on the matter. I’m jutht the thtraitetht acting guy around and no one knowth that I’m queer. Even when I’m driving around in my pretty pink Mathda Miatta convertible, waving at all my friendth, people just know for a fact that I’m a thtraight! All my girlfriendth think I’m thtraight. Honetht, they do. They only think we go to the gay barth for the muthic. (Well, it ITH much better than thtraight clubth!) All my clothe friendth are altho very thtraight acting, ath well. (You thould thee uth when we all dreth up in matching little outfitth!) I’m thure that I could play a thtraight man on film. I’ve been told I have a very mathculine voithe.
Cassandra
“All you’ve done is convince us that people (gay OR straight) have a huge capacity for deluding themselves.”
Sam B., please do not project the inner workings of your mind onto the rest of society. And don’t attribute your straw-man fancies to my posts.
Of course, the irony of your complaint is that theatre, of any kind, is all about suspension of disbelief. Good actors provide their audience with everything the audience needs to ‘delude themselves’ for the moment and experience the bedroom conversations of Lord and Lady Macbeth, watch teen age kids learn to turn pets into coffee cups, hear a personal message of love and affection in a voice that was singing to a microphone.
That Liberace convinced millions of women that he was heterosexual (debatable anyways) is a testament to his skill as a performer. Rock Hudson played archetypal male roles, in war movies, romantic comedies, and mysteries. This is about skill, and skill is not limited by sexual orientation. Hudson’s sexuality didn’t hinder his ability to play het roles. But Ramin blames the sexuality of gay actors itself for the lack of skill he claims exists. Clearly, many gay actors have, have had the skill necessary to convince audiences that they were heterosexual.
Frankly, your post 22 paints a picture of you as a insecure, immature, aging fast-food employee more than it offers any substantive criticism of anyone else.
Andy
@Cassandra: “That Liberace convinced millions of women that he was heterosexual (debatable anyways) is a testament to his skill as a performer.”
How so? What exactly did he do to conceal the many jewels and glittery rings and nasal voice? Women were comfortable with him, precisely because he was like them in many ways. And that’s also why women end up marrying gays, that and the closet cases.
“Hudson’s sexuality didn’t hinder his ability to play het roles.”
I disagree it’s about heterosexuality. There used to be armies in the ancient world composed entirely of men who slept with other men. But you know what? I’m pretty sure they weren’t made up Sean Hayes and Cheyenne Jackson. That’s not to be offensive, but that’s just how it is.
And one more thing: how can anyone be masculine in a musical? Now that would have been a much more interesting article.
alan brickman
Personally I think the article was badly written but he has some points….Michael Urie and Sean hayes playing masc straight would never happen not because they’re gay..but because they arn’t masculine period…Once again the certain individuals who talk about equal rights are always the least tolerant of free speech…..the suppression of free speech and the abilty to debate are whats at stake…not just some actor’s careers…
alan brickman
by the way Rock and Monty and Jean Marais got cast beacuse they were masculine.. .a quality I notice a lot of gays on here have a problem with….
alan brickman
Cheyanne could play straight…he already tried with his life…remember??…
Josh
@alan brickman: Nobody is suppressing free speech. Ramin had the right to voice his opinion and we have the right to voice our dissenting opinion against his opinion.
Josh
Ramin has a long history of homophobia….
Not only did he write this piece disparaging gay actors who play straight roles…
Not only did he blame effeminate gays and actors for hurting gay marriage….
Not only did he go on O’Reilly to do a hit piece on Adam Lambert last season on American Idol (where he depicted Kris as a good straight Christian and Adam as a godless heathen gay even though it was known that Adam was Jewish)…..
But he also blamed that 8th grade kid (Lawrence King) that was murdered by his classmate (who shot him in the head in class) for his own murder because he dressed effeminately at school and therefore was flaunting his sexuality.
I don’t care what Ramin or his friends say, he is a DISGUSTING SELF HATER who has an obvious problem with effeminate gays.
It is important for us to defend the most effeminate gays because they are the ones who face the most ire from the haters.
Ramin wants us to pile on them too and throw them under the bus.
Ramin’s self hating homophobia NEEDS to be condemned by the gay community.
Cassandra
“Once again the certain individuals who talk about equal rights are always the least tolerant of free speech…..the suppression of free speech and the abilty to debate are whats at stake…not just some actor’s careers…”
This is such a blatantly dishonest and self-seeking debate tactic.
In a debate, where no one has said ‘so and so should be silenced’, someone with an indefensible load of gibberish will fling the accusation ‘suppressing free speech’. Here it is offered to rebuke people who are exercising their right to free speech by criticizing something.
That’s where the dishonesty comes into play. Free speech is something of a sacred cow, and that makes the accusation of suppression a loaded one, one that pressures people to change what they are saying. That charge of wrongdoing is supposed to make people stop doing something – in this case, stop criticizing what Ramin said.
So, the whole point of the false accusation that Alan Brickman makes is to suppress other people’s free speech by accusing them of wrongdoing when they speak their mind and disagree with him in the process.
Cassandra
Andy
“How so? What exactly did he do to conceal the many jewels and glittery rings and nasal voice? Women were comfortable with him, precisely because he was like them in many ways. And that’s also why women end up marrying gays, that and the closet cases.”
Hey, it was Sam B’s unsubstantiated premise, the burden of proving that Liberace convinced women he was straight is Sam B’s. If you paid attention, you’d have noticed that I wrote: (debatable anyways), because the het women I know all knew or suspected, they just didn’t care.
Which goes to my point – Liberace was a skilled, in his genre, entertainer, and his sexuality did not take anything away from that, nor did it prevent heterosexual women from responding to the emotion in love songs he sang.
“I disagree it’s about heterosexuality. There used to be armies in the ancient world composed entirely of men who slept with other men. But you know what? I’m pretty sure they weren’t made up Sean Hayes and Cheyenne Jackson. That’s not to be offensive, but that’s just how it is.”
It would help if you quote me fully, and not just part of the thought: “Rock Hudson played archetypal male roles, in war movies, romantic comedies, and mysteries. This is about skill, and skill is not limited by sexual orientation. Hudson’s sexuality didn’t hinder his ability to play het roles.”
The whole question here is whether gay men can convincingly play the role of a heterosexual male. Mr. Hudson did that very well, in a wide variety of roles.
Your trying to make this about effeminacy, a trait that Ramin demonstrates to a higher degree than average. Perhaps, if your goal is to defend him, you should avoid the issue of feminine vs. masculine. Besides, considering George Sands and Robin Williams, Jack Lemon and Tilda Swanson, even that issue is no where near as clear-cut as Ramin pretends.
“And one more thing: how can anyone be masculine in a musical? Now that would have been a much more interesting article.”
Someone clearly has never seen the locker room sequence of the stage production of “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”. Or Richard Gere in “Chicago”. In practice, masculinity is anything men do that turns on het women and gay men.
If you find it difficult to be masculine while singing and dancing, that’s your issue.
Andy
@Cassandra: Well, with Rock Hudson you use sexuality and sexual orientation interchangeably. I guess we can be PC and say that gay is merely about sex and has nothing to do with gender. But I’ve never seen or met a straight man like Sean Hayes. That’s not a put down, just the way I see it. How odd: I have more straight friends than gay, and yet not one of the straights is effeminate in the way Sean Hayes is. What are the odds?
Liberace, it could go either way. Maybe they knew, maybe they didn’t. But I do know firsthand how shocked, utterly shocked I tell you, some women were about Ricky Martin.
And yes, I clearly haven’t seen any of these musicals. I don’t watch them because I’m not interested in people prancing about. That must make me self-hating. Or possibly, I’m just not interested.
Zach
@Andy:
“Or possibly, I’m just not interested.”
Always amusing to see people extol their ignorance as a virtue. And if you haven’t seen a musical, then how can you possibly make broad claims about how masculine they are?
Andy
@Zach: I haven’t seen the ones Cassandra mentioned. I have seen enough to know I don’t like them and that they really aren’t all that masculine. I have also seen clips of the one all the ruckus is about.
ossurworld
Rock and James Dean played straight in Giant. Heath and Jake played gay in Brokeback. Which was which?
Andy
@ossurworld: Yeah, Brokeback Mountain was so realistic. I have *never* seen two masculine guys together. I wish, but no.
Cassandra
“Well, with Rock Hudson you use sexuality and sexual orientation interchangeably.”
You’re missing the point. Acting is about skill – the ability to ‘put on’ another persona or character, to bring that persona to live on stage or film or tv, or in song or dance, convincingly. That skill is not limited by sexual orientation.
“But I’ve never seen or met a straight man like Sean Hayes.”
I have.
“How odd: I have more straight friends than gay, and yet not one of the straights is effeminate in the way Sean Hayes is. What are the odds?”
Perhaps the critical factor is you, maybe something about you makes effeminate men, gay or straight, cross the street, head for the hills, duck and cover.
“But I do know firsthand how shocked, utterly shocked I tell you, some women were about Ricky Martin.”
Which validates the idea that gay men can convince women that they are communicating romantically as if they were heterosexual.
“And yes, I clearly haven’t seen any of these musicals. I don’t watch them because I’m not interested in people prancing about. That must make me self-hating. Or possibly, I’m just not interested.”
It just means you jumped to conclusions, and made a statement as fact, about something you don’t know enough about. Your characterization of musical theatre as ‘prancing about’ is ignorant and childish. There is more to life than ICP, Andy.
“Yeah, Brokeback Mountain was so realistic. I have *never* seen two masculine guys together. I wish, but no.”
I have. Perhaps you should consider the possibility that there exists an entire universe of things, people, places, arts, varieties of experience and existence, independent of your own existence.
Andy
@Cassandra: I guess it’s he said, she said. That people believe may be that the actor is good or some of the audience wants to believe.
“Your characterization of musical theatre as ‘prancing about’ is ignorant and childish.”
How so? I don’t like it. I don’t find entertaining and to me it is just prancing about. That’s my personal opinion, so I’m not sure how it can be ignorant. I don’t like the same things you do, get over it.
“Perhaps you should consider the possibility that there exists an entire universe of things, people, places, arts, varieties of experience and existence, independent of your own existence.”
How many straight people do I have to meet to see one that is like Sean Hayes or other effeminate gay men? What am I doing wrong?
Cassandra
“I guess it’s he said, she said. ”
Nope. See, Andy, there is a real world, full of people and things that do not fit your very limited vision.
How is your characterization ignorant and foolish? Well, first you are defining an immense body of work, in a negative and dismissive way, based only on your own opinion, having admitted that there is much of it that you haven’t seen.
Second, it is clear that your standard of masculinity is unusually subjective and hetero-centric. Actually, hetero male centric, because heterosexual women go nuts over men who can sing well, or dance well, or act well, or all of the above. Women line up in huge screaming crowds for Baryshnikov and Pavarotti; not to see Joe Plumber.
What you dismiss as prancing is incredibly difficult and demanding exercise – at a level of exertion and control few other professional athletes can meet. And the men of Broadway Bares demonstrate just what all that hard exercise does to a man’s body.
“What am I doing wrong?” I’d suggest that you stop trying to define the world by your clearly limited experience and taste. Not only will you be wrong less often, you might even notice and meet some interesting and worthwhile people.
Andy
@Cassandra: “Second, it is clear that your standard of masculinity is unusually subjective and hetero-centric. Actually, hetero male centric, because heterosexual women go nuts over men who can sing well, or dance well, or act well, or all of the above. Women line up in huge screaming crowds for Baryshnikov and Pavarotti; not to see Joe Plumber.”
Right. Feminine women go nuts over it. Women who also like their hair, shopping, and all that stuff. I’m not going to let effeminate men or women define what masculinity is. If anything, that’s hetero-centric!
I have no doubts about the physical requirements. Ballet dancers too have horse legs. Great, but the final product to me is still prancing about, regardless of how much effort it takes.
So again, why don’t I see effeminate straight men? I live in one of the biggest cities in the US, and sorry still haven’t seen men like that. All the effeminate guys my age either became priests (no joke) or came out.
Cassandra
“So again, why don’t I see effeminate straight men?”
I knew a man, some time ago, who insisted that there were no racists in modern society anymore. “If racism is such a problem, how come I never see any racists?” he often said, before launching into a defense of Rush Limbaugh or some Fox spawn.
That he told racist jokes on a daily basis seemed to go over his head, and the way he singled out African American coworkers by jumping to the worst conclusion about them time after time was something he apparently wasn’t conscious of. But he had a reputation for being the very thing he could not see.
There’s many reasons why people do not perceive certain kinds of people or what is going on around them.